Rihanna made Super Bowl history by unveiling her baby bump during her highly-anticipated halftime show performance on Sunday.
And the 34-year-old hitmaker went to extreme measures to keep her second pregnancy a secret, which included hiding it from her 280 backup dancers.
‘I don’t think anybody really knew she was pregnant,’ dancer Laila Hayes told ET. ‘She hid it very well.’
Rihanna only started rehearsing with the dancers the week of the show and she was purposely kept at a distance from them.
The Grammy Award-winner welcomed her first child, a son, with rapper A$AP Rocky in May, just nine months before she’d perform on the world’s biggest stage. The baby’s name has yet to be revealed.
Historic: Rihanna made Super Bowl history by unveiling her baby bump during her highly-anticipated halftime show performance last Sunday
‘[Rihanna] was rehearsing onstage, they made sure that they had her safe in the middle of the stage and then the group that I was in would stay on the sidelines,’ Hayes recalled.
The dancers had already endured weeks of rehearsal after being selected for the once in a lifetime gig in early January.
Choreographer Parris Goebel often stood in for Rihanna as they worked through the routines as a group. Rihanna spent a lot of time practicing independently.
During her Super Bowl performance, Rihanna paraded around in an oversized red jacket over a baggy jumpsuit that she later unzipped to reveal her growing bump.
A representative for the singer confirmed the news shortly after the show.
Hayes admitted that she was totally taken by surprise because Rihanna had kept the jacket zipped up in rehearsal.
‘We were all confused watching it during the real thing when she went up there and was showing her stomach,’ she explained. ‘She wore the same outfit for one of the dress rehearsals but it was zippered up.’
But Hayes’ co-interviewee Luhnyae Campbell insists that she ‘never saw a bump’ while on stage and actually had to ‘rewatch the performance on YouTube to realize.’
Though there was a big secret to protect, that didn’t stop Rihanna from showing her gratitude to all those involved in bringing her vision to life.
Just before they headed out onto the field, Hayes said that Rihanna ‘thanked all the dancers, the production company, the directors.’
Campbell added: ‘She was such a light. You could see it in her face, how much she was genuinely enjoying the production and the performance of all the dancers.’
TMZ originally reported that no-one involved with the production had any idea she was pregnant and that she’d purposely worn baggy clothing during rehearsals.
The Umbrella hitmaker also wore loose-fitting outfits during final rehearsals on Saturday and Sunday, keeping her final costume under wraps until the show began.
Although the star kept her pregnancy news a secret until her reveal on stage, she did drop some hints before the show.
Speaking to CBS Sports about whether she would have any special guests performing with her, the singer said she was: ‘thinking about bringing someone’ – but added: ‘I’m not sure, we’ll see.’
Secret: And the 34-year-old hitmaker went to extreme measures to keep her second pregnancy a secret , which included keeping it from her troupe of 280 backup dancers
Reveal: During her Super Bowl performance, Rihanna now famously donned an oversized red jacket over a baggy jumpsuit that she unzipped to reveal her growing bump
Strategy: Rihanna did not begin rehearsing with the dancers until the week of the show and she was purposely kept at a distance from them
In a chat with Apple Music, she said: ‘When you become a mom there’s something that just happens where you feel like you could take on the world. You can do anything.’
‘The Super Bowl is one of the biggest stages in the world, so as scary as [it is] because I haven’t been on stage in seven years, there’s something exhilarating about the challenge of it all.
‘And it’s important for me to do this this year. It’s important for representation. It’s important for my son to see that.’
The Diamonds hitmaker apparently previously turned down opportunities to perform at the Super Bowl on several occasions before finally taking to the stage this year.
In 2018, it was reported that she had turned down the show in solidarity with Colin Kaepernick and because she disagreed with the handling of national anthem kneeling.
Rihanna graces the latest issue of British Vogue with her baby son and partner A$AP Rocky.
And while sharing images from the stunning spread, Rihanna revealed that she had no idea she was pregnant while posing for the images in mid-December.
‘How crazy both of my babies were in these photos and mommy had no clue,’ the star wrote.
Speaking with the outlet, Rihanna opened up about the responsibility of raising a Black son in today’s world, calling it, one of the scariest responsibilities in life.’
‘You’re like, ‘What am I leaving my kids to? This is the planet they’re gonna be living on?’ All of those things really start to hit differently,’ she said.
The singer added that motherhood also emboldened her, leading to her accepting the Super Bowl gig just months after having her first child… and seven years after she last performed on stage.
Family affair: Rihanna graces the latest issue of British Vogue with her baby son and partner A$AP Rocky. They welcomed their son in May and his name has yet to be revealed
No clue: And while sharing images from the stunning spread, Rihanna revealed that she had no idea she was pregnant while posing for the images in mid-December
‘It’s this knowing that you can do anything, even things that seem the craziest, like, “I’m going to say yes to the Super Bowl in the middle of postpartum?”‘ she said
‘What the heck am I thinking? But you’re geeked on a challenge like that because you know what your body just did. You feel this sense of “Nothing is impossible,”‘ she said.
She added that she was not expecting to be pregnant with her second child when she accepted the gig, adding, ‘It was almost like an out-of-body experience.’
‘I have not been on stage in seven years. Seven years! From zero to Super Bowl? That’s mental,’ Rihanna joked.
