Rihanna to Perform Super Bowl After Rejecting 2019 Offer Over Kaepernick

Pop megastar Rihanna will headline the 2023 Super Bowl Halftime Show, nearly three years after turning down the opportunity.

Rihanna confirmed the news via Twitter on Sunday in a simple post, featuring a photo of the singer's hand holding an NFL-branded football. The news was also confirmed by the official Twitter account of Apple Music, which will be taking over as the sponsor of the massively popular annual concert from Pepsi.

"IT'S ON," Apple Music's account tweeted. "[Rihanna] will take the stage for the first ever Apple Music Super Bowl Halftime Show on 2.12.23."

Roc Nation, the music label founded by Jay-Z in 2008 to which Rihanna is currently signed, also released a statement confirming the news and commended the singer's continued success.

"Rihanna is a generational talent, a woman of humble beginnings who has surpassed expectations at every turn," Jay-Z wrote in the statement, according to Variety. "A person born on the small island of Barbados who became one of the most prominent artists ever. Self-made in business and entertainment."

Super Bowl LVII will take place at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, on February 12.

Rihanna has released eight albums since 2005, notched 14 number-one singles in the U.S. and 31 in the top 10 overall, and won nine Grammys. Outside of music, she has seen major success as an entrepreneur, with her Fenty fashion company releasing successful lines of cosmetic, lingerie, and skin care products. As of this year, she boasts an estimated net worth of $1.4 billion, making her the wealthiest female musician in the world.

The Super Bowl Halftime Show, according to Variety, is regularly among the most watched television broadcasts of the year. The 2022 show—headlined by hip-hop legends Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige, Kendrick Lamar, and Eminem—averaged 103.4 million viewers across its duration, up 7 percent from the 2021 show, which was headlined by The Weeknd.

This year's show was also among the most critically-lauded Halftime show in recent years, celebrated for its production quality and tributes to Black music and culture. It became the first Super Bowl Halftime Show to win a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Live Variety Special.

Though Rihanna will make her Halftime show debut at Super Bowl LVII, it will not be the first time she was sought for the gig. In 2019, the singer turned down the opportunity to lead the 2020 show, which was ultimately headlined by Shakira and Jennifer Lopez. In explaining her decision to turn down the show, Rihanna cited the NFL's treatment of former San Francisco 49ers player and civil rights activist, Colin Kaepernick, who in 2016 began kneeling during the national anthem in protest against police brutality and racial injustice. The controversy generated by this decision is believed to have contributed to his departure from San Francisco and his subsequent inability to sign with another NFL team.

"I couldn't dare do that. For what?" Rihanna said to Vogue in 2019. "Who gains from that? Not my people. I just couldn't be a sellout. I couldn't be an enabler. There's things within that organization that I do not agree with at all, and I was not about to go and be of service to them in any way."

Newsweek reached out to Roc Nation for comment.