PHOENIX — Rihanna has been placing within the work, work, work, work, work, work to arrange for a return to the stage on the halftime present for Tremendous Bowl LVII between the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas Metropolis Chiefs on Sunday.
The 34-year-old star was open and revealing in regards to the strategy of placing on the 13-minute efficiency, her first of any variety in seven years, throughout a press convention Thursday on the Phoenix Conference Heart. Rihanna stated she did not sleep on Wednesday evening after spending lengthy hours at State Farm Stadium throughout a rehearsal.
“I type of simply stayed there, ended up in a prep, and in some way I am right here at a press convention proper now,” Rihanna stated whereas sitting on a sofa on stage.
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She was scheduled to have a “actually essential” rehearsal on Thursday, which she added will probably be essential for Sunday’s present.
Rihanna has been dialed in for her long-awaited return to the stage.
“I have been so targeted on the Tremendous Bowl, I completely forgot that my birthday is arising,” she stated of her Feb. twentieth birthday. “I completely forgot about Valentine’s Day. I’m similar to Tremendous Bowl, Tremendous Bowl, Tremendous Bowl.
“So it is lots of preparation, lots of transferring elements and that is the week that it, it truly is being examined.”
One of many hardest elements of planning the present, Rihanna stated, was figuring out the set checklist. She has 13 minutes to encapsulate 17 years price of songs.
“There are in all probability about 39 variations of the set checklist proper now,” she stated. “Oh yeah, I believe we’re on our thirty ninth. I imply, each little change counts, whether or not I would like, like, a guitar cutout, one thing muted, one thing added, or simply put in a complete new music or take out a complete music. Like each time I make a change, one thing must be up to date, and that is a brand new model.”
When Rihanna was requested to do the halftime present three months after having her son with ASAP Rocky in Might 2022, she wasn’t positive if she must be making such an essential determination so near giving beginning, to the purpose that she thought she may remorse it.
“Whenever you change into a mother, there’s one thing that simply occurs the place you are feeling like you can tackle the world, you are able to do something,” Rihanna stated. “And the Tremendous Bowl is without doubt one of the largest phases on this planet. So, as scary as that was, as a result of I have not been on stage in seven years, there’s one thing exhilarating in regards to the problem of all of it, and it is essential for me to do that this 12 months.
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“It is essential for illustration, it is essential for my son to see that.”
Rihanna additionally needed to do the halftime present as a approach to signify her Caribbean roots on a global stage.
“That is an enormous a part of why that is essential for me to do that present: illustration, representing for immigrants, representing for my nation, Barbados, representing for black ladies in every single place,” she stated. “I believe that is actually essential. That is key for folks to see the probabilities and I am honored to be right here. I am honored to be doing this this 12 months.”
One other problem Rihanna has confronted as she ready for the halftime present was the physicality of a 13-minute efficiency.
“The bodily problem has positively been immense for a lot of causes, in fact,” she stated. “I have not finished this in a minute. That was first. First issues first. So, you are simply operating round for 13 minutes attempting to place like a two-hour set in 13 minutes and, you are gonna see on Sunday, from the time it begins, it simply by no means ends till it is just like the final second.
“I do know I am saying an excessive amount of nevertheless it’s a jam-packed [show]. It takes a toll in your physique. It does.”
Nonetheless, Rihanna confused that when she agreed to do the present, she was going to go all in.
“Whenever you make choices on what you are going to say sure to, it must be price it,” she stated.
