Rihanna speaks onstage during the Super Bowl. (Photo by Mike Coppola/Getty Images)
Rihanna’s performance at the 2023 Super Bowl, her first live performance in four years, sparked a range of reactions across the internet, as viewers took delight in the singer revealing her pregnancy bump.
Fans and critics praised the cool, calm performance as a reminder of how many hit songs Rihanna has created over the years.
Some, however, expressed disappointment that their favorite songs had been left out.
Journalist Josina Anderson noted that Rihanna had paid a “beautiful tribute” to fashion journalist and Vogue editor-at-large André Leon Talley with her oversized red outfit. Even Sesame Street’s Elmo was impressed, with the puppet’s official Twitter account posting that the singer looked “great in red.”
Footage of Rihanna confidently striding and breaking into a smile proved a popular meme template, as Twitter users posted the clip with relatable captions.
Others jokingly compared the floating stage to a Super Mario platform.
Even right-wing culture warrior Candace Owens seemed to enjoy the show, chastising her fellow conservatives for making baseless complaints.
The most high-profile conservative detractor was undoubtedly former President Donald Trump, who ranted against Rihanna on his platform, Truth Social, writing: “EPIC FAIL: Rihanna gave, without question, the single worst Halftime Show in Super Bowl history — This after insulting far more than half of our Nation, which is already in serious DECLINE, with her foul and insulting language. Also, so much for her ‘Stylist!’”
Trump’s characteristically catty, dramatic insult isn’t the first time he has ranted against the singer; in fact, he seems to be nurturing a strange grudge against Rihanna. Right before the Super Bowl, Trump took the time to criticize the singer, writing: “Without her ‘Stylist’ she’d be NOTHING. Bad everything, and NO TALENT!”
Trump appears to have been “triggered” by a photograph from 2020, in which Rihanna can be seen posing in front of an art installation, featuring a car that had the words “F**k Trump” spray painted on it. Recently, the photo was referenced on Truth Social by Texas congressman Ronny Jackson, Trump’s former White House doctor, who famously gave Trump a glowing bill of health, declaring him to have “incredible genes.”
Rihanna has previously spoken out against Trump; in 2018, she requested that Trump stop playing her music at his “tragic” rallies, and a year later called him “the most mentally ill man in America” in an interview with Vogue.
Despite Trump’s bizarre critique (and fixation with her stylist), Rihanna seems to have walked away from the Super Bowl with her star shining brighter than ever, having gained 1.5 million Instagram followers, with searches for her beauty company, Fenty, soared by 833% in the wake of her performance.