NEW YORK (AP) — Rihanna will take center stage at the Super Bowl halftime show in February.
The NFL announced Sunday along with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation and Apple Music that the singer, who turned down the 2019 Super Bowl halftime show because of his solidarity with Colin Kaepernick, will be the 2023 Super Bowl fighter main character. Rihanna posted a photo on Instagram of an NFL football with her arms outstretched.
“Rihanna was a generational genius, a woman of humble origins who exceeded expectations at every turn,” Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter, the show’s executive producer, said in a statement. “A man born on the small island of Barbados who became one of the greatest artists of all time. Self-made in business and entertainment.”
The Super Bowl will be held on February 12 at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. After years of sponsorship by Pepsi, the upcoming halftime show will be sponsored by Apple Music.
Rihanna said earlier that she turned down a similar chance at the 2019 Super Bowl, which ended up with Maroon 5 as the title. At the time, many artists expressed support for former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Kaepernick, whose 2016 national anthem protests sparked debate throughout the football world.
“I wouldn’t dare to do that. For what?” Rihanna told Vogue in 2019. “Who benefits from it? Not mine. I can’t be a sellout. I can’t be a facilitator. There are things within that organization that I simply disagree with and I’m not going to serve them in any way,” she said of the league. Say.
With more than 250 million records sold worldwide, Rihanna is one of the best-selling female artists of all time. Her last album was “Anti” in 2016.