Super Bowl 2023: A Rihanna Concert and an “Underdog” Win

On Sunday, February 12, the 57th annual Super Bowl was held. The football game was played between the Chiefs and the Eagles at the State Farm Stadium. Many families gathered on Super Bowl Sunday to see who would win the big game. 

The Super Bowl was a close game between the Chiefs and the Eagles. The Eagles started out strong in the first two quarters. However, the Chiefs made a comeback in the last half and managed to win 38 to 35. Chiefs’ quarterback Patrick Mahomes was named the MVP. 

After the game was won, Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce got on the mic to announce how everyone said that they were underdogs and nobody had believed that they would win. He passionately told interviewers that “Not one of y’all said the Chiefs were gonna take it home this year. Not a single one!” His repeat of the team’s “underdog” status came off as laughable, especially since the Chiefs had been in the 2020 and 2021 Super Bowls. 

Chiefs have been in the top 4 of favorites to win all season… why do we build a fake underdog story

— Josh (@Josh1Marks) February 13, 2023

Some may argue that the halftime show is the best part of the Super Bowl. This year, pop and R&b icon Rihanna performed a 13-minute medley of her songs during halftime. Many social media users shared that they were only tuned in to the Superbowl for the “Rihanna concert.” Since Rihanna has not had a new album since 2016, many fans were excited to see her again. However, it would not be Rihanna without her beauty brand, Fenty Beauty. The singer took a break between her songs to “apply” some Fenty Beauty makeup. 

Many fans were also surprised to see that Rihanna had a baby bump during her performance. Many viewers thought that the baby bump was from her last child. However, in what viewers were calling “a new Mandela effect,” people discovered that the singer had given birth in May of 2022, not last month. Many fans were pleasantly surprised and happy about Rihanna’s pregnancy. While it did limit some of her movement, the singer was still able to dance, and some of the dance even went viral on Tiktok.

Junior Kamila Muraharisetti said, “I thought the halftime show was okay. I felt like it was good, but I expected a little bit more from Rihanna. But we saw that she was pregnant, so I see why she couldn’t dance around as much.”

The ASL interpreter from Rihanna’s performance, Justina Miles, received some praise for her expressive and cool signing. Miles was the first Deaf woman to perform ASL at the Super Bowl pregame and halftime shows.The video of her signing to the performance quickly became viral. Rihanna herself even reached out to the interpreter to share her praise. 

Another important facet of the Super Bowl is the commercials. Super Bowl commercials are known for having a large budget, great creativity, and lots of celebrity cameos. It’s one of the highest selling ad spots with some 3o second ads going for six to seven million dollars. Each year big companies compete to have the most creative and memorable commercial. This year it seems that Tubi, a streaming service, was the one who earned that title. Many fights were started as Tubi’s commercial made it seem like the channel was changed from the football game to Tubi. Many spectators began to fight over who was sitting on the remote or changing the channel, not realizing that it was only a commercial. 

@robertdowneyweeniehutjr I saw my life flash before my eyes tubi count your days #superbowl #superbowlcommercial #tubi #commercial ♬ Drake Over Strings Version – STRINGS FROM PARIS

Most of the commercials were better crowd-pleasers. Dunkin’s commercial starred Ben Affleck working a drive-thru and some versions had a short cameo from Jennifer Lopez. T-Mobile’s ad was a fun sing-along starring John Travolta. He Gets Us, a movement trying to reintroduce people to Jesus, had multiple eye-catching commercials throughout the night. Other commercials featured high-profile cameos such as Ben Stiller, Steve Martin, Jack Harlow, and Snoop Dog.