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Topics: News, Music, Rihanna, Super Bowl, Celebrity
Charisa Bossinakis
Topics: News, Music, Rihanna, Super Bowl, Celebrity
The producer behind the Super Bowl Halftime Show has revealed why Rihanna had no surprise guests.
While many headline acts in the past have invited other artists to grace the stage alongside them - e.g. Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams joining Queen Bey or Lenny Kravitz shredding Katy Perry’s ‘I Kissed A Girl' - Rihanna didn’t follow in their footsteps.
However, Super Bowl Halftime Show producer Jesse Collins told ET's Kevin Frazier that she did it for a particular reason.
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"I think it was just her wanting to make the statement that she could carry this thing and she did,” he said.
"People just want to see her and so she had to give em a show and she did.
"We haven't seen her dance like that in a long time and I thought it was just spectacular.”
Remarkably, the singer’s performance also included a floating stage - an idea that came when the team was worried about how much weight the State Farm Stadium field could hold.
Collins described the field as a ‘sponge’ and explained that it would’ve been challenging to hold up the weight of the stages and dancers.
He said Rihanna’s creative director, Willo Perron, suggested she perform suspended in the air.
"She's scared of heights but she got it together for this and I have to give the credit to her creative director, Willo Perron," Collins shared.
"He came up with that idea along with our choreographer Parris (Goebel) and it was just unbelievable."
According to Nielsen Media data provided by Fox to Forbes, around 107 million Americans watched the network's television broadcast of the 57th Super Bowl.
A further six million viewers tuned into streaming platforms.
The global audience sat at 113 million, beating last year's audience by one million viewers.
However, the ‘Umbrella’ singer’s performance attracted five million more viewers than the game itself.
Her performance averaged 118.7 million viewers - a 15 per cent jump from the 2022 Halftime show featuring Dr Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Mary J. Blige, Kendrick Lamar and 50 Cent.
And if that wasn't enough, Rihanna debuted her baby bump during her set.
According to BBC News, in an interview last week, when asked if she was bringing someone onstage, she said: "I'm thinking about bringing someone. I'm not sure, we'll see."
Turns out the special guest was bubba.