Pop icon Rihanna set to make return in Super Bowl Halftime Show. ‘It could have only been now.’

To Rihanna, the timing of her long-awaited return to the stage is perfect.

It’ has been seven years since Rihanna, a nine-time Grammy-winning recording artist, gave a live performance. But the pop icon is back, headlining the halftime show of Super Bowl 57 on Sunday night.

“It feels like it could have only been now,” she said Thursday during a news conference ahead of the championship game between the Eagles and Chiefs. “When I first got the call again to do it this year, I was like, ‘You sure?’ I’m three months postpartum, should I be making major decisions like this right now? I might regret this. But when you become a mom, there’s just something that happens where you feel like you can take on the world, you can do anything, and the Super Bowl is one of the biggest stages in the world.”

That Rihanna is even the next artist to grace the stage at halftime of the Super Bowl might have been a surprise. She last released an album in 2016 with platinum-selling “Anti.” In May, she and rapper A$AP Rocky welcomed their first child. And it was believed that she was at odds with the NFL after declining to perform in 2019 in a show of support for Colin Kaepernick, who kneeled during the national anthem to protest police brutality and racial injustice. Kaepernick later sued the league for collusion before reaching settlement.

But Rihanna is signed to Jay Z’s label Roc Nation, which has partnered with the league to help choose performers for league events. In September, the NFL revealed Rihanna, born Robyn Rihanna Fenty, would headline the halftime show.

The Barbados-born Rihanna, who last performed publicly at the Grammy Awards in 2018, said representation for immigrants and Black women is important to her and that she embraces the challenge of putting together a “jam-packed” show, likening it to how she manages her Fenty empire, which includes cosmetics and lingerie.

“At the end of the day, if it flops or it flies, my name has to stand by that. And so I really get involved with every aspect of anything I do,” she said.

Cutting a discography that includes 14 No. 1 Billboard Hot 100 hits for a 13-minute set was the biggest challenge, she said. But she added the performance will be a “celebration of my catalog,” one that has jumped between genres in her decade-plus-long career.

“You’re going to see on Sunday,” she said. “From the time it starts, it just never ends until the very last second.”

Before kickoff, country music star Chris Stapleton will sing the national anthem, while R&B legend Babyface will perform “America the Beautiful.” Actor-singer Sheryl Lee Ralph will also perform “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”