When the Philadelphia Eagles made their first Super Bowl appearance in 1981 in New Orleans, the halftime show was a Mardi Gras celebration featuring the Southern University Marching Band.
1940s big band singer Helen O’Connell sang the National Anthem. Up With People, the singing troupe known for their cloying positivity — Super Bowl staples of the era — blessedly took that year off.
On Sunday, when the Birds face off against the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LVII in Glendale, Ariz., the entertainment will be a little more ambitious, writes Dan DeLuca at The Philly Inquirer.
Chris Stapleton, the bearded baritone who’s the go-to country act on prestige TV events, will sing the National Anthem. Babyface will tackle “America the Beautiful.” Philly’s Abbott Elementary star Sheryl Lee Ralph will perform “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” And Jason Derulo and the Black Keys will play the NFL’s TikTok Tailgate pregame show.
And of course, the halftime show headliner is Rihanna. According to DeLuca, even in the context of mega acts like The Weeknd, who performed in 2021, or last year’s hip-hop all-star cast, Rihanna qualifies as an extremely good get for “by far the biggest cultural event in America.”
The 34-year-old singer who topped the charts with “SOS” in 2006 and followed it up the next year with “Umbrella,” then produced hit after hit on eight albums released in 11 years.
But though she has a decade’s worth of hits to cram into a 12- to 15-minute performance, few will be of recent vintage. Ever since 2016′s creative left turn (though still hugely popular) album Anti, Rihanna has pretty much ceased making music.
Her only new music this decade has been “Believe It,” a 2020 guest vocal on a PartyNextDoor hit, and the calming Chadwick Boseman tribute “Lift Me Up” from last year’s soundtrack to Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
There’s additional thrill in Rihanna being Super Bowl halftime headliner. That’s because, in the past, she’s been critical of the NFL. In a 2019 expression of solidarity with former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, she told Vogue that she had no interest in the Super Bowl gig.
“I couldn’t dare do that,” she said. “For what? Who gains from that? Not my people. I just couldn’t be a sell out. … 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.”
So what changed? Is she getting a giant check? Nope. Believe it or not, Super Bowl performers don’t get paid. (Though production costs which can run over $10 million are covered by the NFL.)
Ever since Michael Jackson in 1993, megastars have played the halftime show. Big names have included Paul McCartney (in 2005, when the Eagles lost to the Patriots) and Prince, as well as Madonna, Beyoncé́, Bruce Springsteen, Lady Gaga, and Justin Timberlake (when the Eagles beat the Patriots in 2018).
They have played for free to receive something more valuable than cash: exposure. For last year’s game, 99 million Americans watched, along with another 109 million around the world. It’s estimated that in various media, 120 million watched the halftime show with Dr. Dre, Eminem, Mary J. Blige, Snoop Dogg, and Kendrick Lamar.
The Grammys isn’t music’s biggest night. The Super Bowl is.
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