Featured Image Credit: ESPN. UPI/Alamy.
Topics: Rihanna, Super Bowl, Celebrity, Music
Rachel Lang
Rihanna brought in a massive 118.7 million viewers for her Super Bowl Halftime Show, according to preliminary numbers.
That's a massive number in its own right, but it turns out that was five million more people than the actual game itself.
Mdoel Cara Delevingne was spotted at the NFL final, wearing a t-shirt by none other than Rihanna's own Fenty brand that perfectly summed up the vibe of the day.
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The model, 30, shared a photo on social media of her standing by the field wearing the tee that read: "Rihanna concert interrupted by a football game, weird but whatever."
Little did we all know how true those words would turn out to be.
As per preliminary Nielsen Media data provided by Fox to Forbes, roughly 107 million Americans watched the network's linear television broadcast of the American football final.
A further six million viewers tuned into streaming platforms.
The total global audience sat at 113 million, beating last year's audience by a massive one million viewers.
However, it did fall short of the ultimate Super Bowl record of 114.4 million in 2015.
Rihanna’s epic Halftime show averaged 118.7 million viewers.
That's a 15 per cent jump from the 103.4 million average audience for the 2022 Halftime show featuring Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Mary J. Blige, Kendrick Lamar and 50 Cent.
That's the sort of star power Bad Gal RiRi brings all on her own.
The show marked Rihanna's first performance in five years, which likely had a lot to do with the mass percentage of peepers fixed on Sunday's Super Bowl LVII Halftime Show.
In the 34-year-old's incredible performance, the Barbadian singer descended from the rafters, dressed in a striking red outfit and flanked by a group of dancers.
She then treated the thousands in the stadium and millions watching at home to a medley of her hits, including 'We Found Love', 'Diamonds', 'Rude Boy', 'Umbrella', and 'Work', to name just a few.
But not all were left impressed.
Some fans on social media have accused the pop Queen of lip-syncing her way through the show.
Others went on to label it as the 'worst ever' Super Bowl performance in the history of the game.
One person commented: "Amazing how Rihanna is able to keep singing even when she puts the mic aside and doesn’t move her lips at all."
But, as per NFL policy, stars pre-record their sets before the big show in order to give them a fall back option in case they need to focus their breath for complex choreography, moving sets, and (sometimes) surprise cameos, Fox40 reports.
So it isn't the cardinal sin it is being made out to be.
Oh, and if anyone cares, the Kansas City Chiefs claimed victory against the Philadelphia Eagles with a final score of 38 to 35.