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“Why She Bothered Showing Up”: Rihanna Torched for Super Bowl Halftime Show by Controversial TV Personality

Published 02/15/2023, 1:30 PM EST

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via Reuters

Last Sunday saw a thrilling end to the 2022 NFL season when the Kansas City Chiefs clinched Super Bowl LVII over the Philadelphia Eagles. And Rihanna gracing the Halftime Show was supposed to be the cherry on top. However, some media personalities aren’t happy with what they saw. And one of them voiced his opinion openly.

American radio and television host Howard Stern tore into the Barbadian music sensation’s halftime display at the State Farm Arena in Phoenix. And in agreement with most fans, Howard also had a problem with Rihanna’s lip-syncing.

Howard Stern took some low blows

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RiRi took a seven-year hiatus from live shows and any new album releases to focus on her entrepreneurial ventures. She released her first single track, since 2016, in October last year. Also, she is pregnant as she makes her return to live performances. This meant fewer complications in the choreography and a lot of lip-syncing as a safety net.

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Howard Stern didn’t think much of the performance. “You know, I don’t even know why she bothered showing up. I could be wrong, but in my opinion, 85 percent of that performance was lip sync. Well, the big giveaway might be when she puts the microphone down by her knees and her lips aren’t moving and the other voices are going,” the radio host said on The Howard Stern Show on SiriusXM.

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Rihanna performed some of her top numbers like ‘Better Have My Money’, ‘Where Have You Been?’, ‘We Found Love’, ‘Rude Boy’, ‘Wild Thoughts’, and ‘Work’ in the 13-minute show.

Stern wasn’t the only one unhappy with Rihanna

Rihanna didn’t impress a lot of fans who saw the glaring errors in her lip-syncing. This form of backup is prevalent in high-profile live performances, but RiRi made it extremely obvious.

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Some fans wanted lip-syncing to be banned for future Super Bowls. However, that might put considerable pressure on the artists who also have to keep in mind a myriad of complicated dance steps.

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WATCH THIS STORY: Garcia sends his best wishes to Gervonta Davis, Jake Paul praises Rihanna while calling out the worst commercial at the Super Bowl, Anthony Joshua hints at retirement and more

Howard Stern also made some crude remarks where he thought Rihanna’s unborn baby was the “backup singer”. The Barbadian pop icon recently announced a second child with rapper A$AP Rocky. Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs won 38-35 over the Eagles in Sunday’s historic Kelce Bowl to wrap things up for the 2022 NFL season.

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Written by:

Soumyapriyo Ganguly

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Soumyapriyo Ganguly is an NFL writer at Essentially Sports. He holds a degree in Economics and Statistics from the Indian School of Business and Finance. Rivu is a sports nerd with his favorites being Soccer, American Football, Basketball, UFC, and Formula 1.
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Edited by:

Hitesh Nigam