Howard Stern has spoken out about Rihanna’s Sunday Super Bowl performance, which he claims was almost entirely lip-synced.
This comes after the star shockingly announced she was pregnant to the crowd while levitating on a platform hovering over the playing field… now that’s iconic.
Rihanna performed on the Super Bowl stage as the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs were playing at the State Farm Arena in Glendale, Arizona.
In response to rumours that surfaced following Rihanna’s electrifying performance at this year’s halftime show, her managers have verified that she is, in fact, expecting her second child.
The Hollywood Reporter has since shared that Rihanna and rapper A$AP Rocky are expecting another baby. The pair already gave birth to a baby boy in May of last year.
And if social media is anything to go off, fans were more interested in learning whether Rihanna was expecting a child than the halftime show itself, which included a mashup of her greatest songs.
Having given the birth of her son the previous year, Rihanna acknowledged that she had to give her decision to perform at the big game some thought, but that motherhood eventually drove her to take the stage for the much-anticipated halftime performance.
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.
“And the Super Bowl is one of the biggest stages in the world, so as scary as that was … there’s something exhilarating about the challenge of it all.
“It’s important for my son to see that.”
She added that it would be challenging to fit all of her hits into such a short performance and that she had to carefully consider which anthems would make the cut.
“The setlist was the biggest challenge. That was the hardest part — deciding how to maximize thirteen minutes, but also celebrate. That’s what the show’s going to be — it’s going to be a celebration of my catalog in the best way,”
“I think we did a pretty good job at narrowing it down.” she added.
Despite delivering the performance of a lifetime, the singer won’t get paid a penny. Although the Super Bowl brings in millions every year, performers are never paid for their time on the pitch.
Disclosing why she chose to perform at the Super Bowl, Rihanna said: “I felt like it was now or never for me. The Super Bowl is one of the biggest stages in the world, it’s an entertainer’s dream to be on a stage like that.”
“The NFL covers all costs associated with the show and does pay the performers’ union scale. There is not an appearance fee, but the artists are indeed paid union scale,” Brian McCarthy, the NFL’s vice president of communications told Newsweek.
But that isn’t the only thing people are talking about when it comes to her recent performance, some have claimed the star lip-synced her entire set…
One Twitter user wrote: “Lol Rihanna didn’t even attempt to properly lip sync. Oh well, at least football fans got to see someone they’ve never heard of.”
While another chimed: “Quite like Rihanna’s music but that was poor. Obviously, she is pregnant but most the vocals were lip sync. Amazing artist, great catalogue of songs, but that half time show one of the worst I’ve seen in years.”
And now, Howard Stern has spoken out about the claims during The Howard Stern Show on Sirius XM on Monday.
He said: “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.”
He added: “I had a theory, Rihanna was not lip-syncing, but she put the microphone near her v****a so the new baby could sing. The baby was singing backup.”
