When and how to watch Rihanna’s Super Bowl halftime show

Rihanna is busy these days. She’s got her various Fenty brands — Savage, Beauty, Skin — to manage. A$AP Rocky gave her a baby. Two new songs were released by her. Wakanda Forever: Black Panther. She’s Not been putting out the new album she’s been promising for a few years, but ours is not to question the will of Rihanna. We are content to listen and thank Rihanna for all the wonderful songs she’s given us.

Luckily, the NFL will be producing a 15-minute (or so) Rihanna concert to draw attention to Sunday’s comparatively less important football game, the Super Bowl square-off between Kansas City and Philadelphia. And while she doesn’t have a new album to support — Yet — it’s bound to be an incredible show, complete with all of her hits, when it begins about 90 minutes after the start of the game.

When does the Super Bowl begin?

Fox will air the Super Bowl live at 6:30 pm EST. This means that fans need to tune in at 8:20 p.m. EST for Rihanna (allowing for commercials, the main event of Super Bowl).

It’s possible the halftime show will be a launchpad for a long-rumored return to touring, and maybe even the release of “R9” (the name fans have given her long-awaited ninth studio album). After Coldplay gave Beyoncé their halftime show and she parlayed that straight into her Formation Tour announcement, nothing seems beyond the bounds of possibility.

Rihanna promised her ninth album in some form since 2018 and has kept it coming. Over the years she has confirmed it’s a reggae album (2018), that it’s reggae-inspired and -infused (2019), that she was in the studio with The Neptunes (2020), that she just wants to have fun with her music (later in 2020), that she was taking her music and the rest of her brands to a “new level” in 2021 (end of 2020), that the new music was coming “soon soon soon” (2021), that it was going to be her “best album to this day” (2022).

Again, Rihanna gets to do what she wants, and we’ll be lucky and grateful to receive it whenever she does. Rihanna, however, will run the show.