Rihanna is about to join an exclusive club: women who have headlined the Super Bowl halftime show. By that we mean, they were the sole headliner (or they co-headlined with another female solo star – gotta get J.Lo and Shakira in there). We’re not counting women who were part of a halftime ensemble – which would have brought in many more women, from Broadway legend Carol Channing and soprano Marguerite Piazza in 1970 (the fourth Super Bowl) to Mary J. Blige at the all-star hip-hop celebration earlier this year.
Being asked to headline the Super Bowl halftime show is one of the primary signifiers of stardom in contemporary pop culture. So much is riding on the selection – not least, millions of advertising dollars – that is made very carefully. If they put an artist on that stage even a year or two too early – or just as bad, too late – the show won’t hit the numbers it needs to hit.
Rihanna, of course, has been one of the top hitmakers in pop music since she landed her first hit, “Pon De Replay,” in 2005. She was just 17 when the song became her first top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100. She has amassed 14 No. 1 hits on that chart, two No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200 and has won nine Grammy Awards, among many other honors. Even so, she’s still young enough (34) that you have the sense that some of her biggest triumphs may still lie ahead of her.
Here are the superstar women who have headlined the Super Bowl halftime show.
