SUPER BOWL LVII
Did Taylor Swift turn down performing in the Super Bowl 2023 Halftime Show?
Rihanna performed a U-turn on performing at the Super Bowl 2023 but Taylor Swift allegedly turned down the NFL.
Prince has done it. Michael Jackson has done. Beyoncé has done it. Diana Ross, Shakira, Katy Perry, Jennifer López, Black Eyed Peas and Justin Timeblake too. Rihanna is going to do it. And, supposedly, Taylor Swift could have done it. The American singer-songwriter was allegedly, according to TMZ, offered the chance to feature at the Super Bowl 2023 halftime show but turned the offer down…because she’s too busy to perform.
Why did Taylor Swift reportedly turn down the Super Bowl 2023 halftime show?
Back in 2019, talent manager Scooter Braun bought the master copies of Swift’s first six albums, which the singer said was her “worst-case scenario”. Braun sold them and make an estimated $300 million, a move which has prompted her to re-record each of those six albums to ensure that she owns the complete rights to her earliest music and devalue the recordings sold by a man she calls an “incessant, manipulative bully.”
Those of you who are fans of her work will be well aware that we’ve already been treated to “Taylor’s Versions” of two of those albums – Fearless and Red – which were released in 2021 but it seems that the re-recording the remaining four is keeping her out of the reckoning for the Super Bowl…at least for now. Rumour has it that it is something that Swift would be interested in doing…when the time is right.
Rihanna to make her on-stage comeback at the Super Bowl 2023
It was announced in September that Rihanna would be making her long-awaited return to the stage at Sunday’s Super Bowl, which comes as a bit of a surprise considering her previous stance on the event. “There’s things within that organization (the NFL) that I do not agree with at all, and I was not about to go and be of service to them in any way”, she said in 2019. Now, however, the Barbadian artist, who teased her Super Bowl look in a short 30-second video clip earlier this week, has had a change of heart: “If I’m going to leave my baby, I’m going to leave my baby for something special”.
Rihanna has been out of the musical limelight since a Grammy Awards appearance in 2018, since when she has had her aforementioned son, launched a beauty and fashion empire and become a philanthropist. But now it seems as if a ‘Rihturn’ could be on, with speculation running wild that the singer is gearing up to announce her first tour since 2016. Before Sunday’s halftime performance at the Super Bowl, she’ll take part in an interview with Apple Music Radio’s Nadeska Alexis; maybe we’ll find out more then.