On the eve of headlining this year's Super Bowl Halftime Show, Rihanna is counting her lucky stars.
"Motherhood, Oscars, Super Bowl; I'm still pinching myself, really," she told Entertainment Tonight. "I'm grateful. I'm grateful."
As the 34-year-old Grammy winner and new mom — who is up for an Oscar next month for the song "Lift Me Up" on the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever soundtrack — prepares to return to the stage for her first live performance since 2017, she told the outlet "it really feels like a lot's happening all at once."
But Rihanna has been laser-focused on tackling the Super Bowl. At a press conference on Thursday held by Apple Music, the official sponsor for the Super Bowl LVII Halftime Show, the Barbados-born superstar open up about preparing for this weekend's career-defining performance.
"Sunday, now that's the one. I've been so focused on the Super Bowl I totally forgot that my birthday's coming up. I totally forgot about Valentine's Day," the Love on the Brain singer told Apple Music host Nadeska Alexis.
Among the challenges for the second best-selling female artist of all time? Choosing which songs to perform, she said on Thursday.
"That was the hardest, hardest part: deciding how to maximize 13 minutes but also celebrate. That's what this show is gonna be. It's gonna be a celebration of my catalog in the best way that we could've put it together," teased Rihanna. "You're trying to cram 17 years of work into 13 minutes, so it's difficult. Some songs we have to lose because of that, and that's gonna be okay, but I think we did a pretty good job of narrowing it down."
The curated showcase comes at a time when the superstar's life is seemingly more than full.
After welcoming her 8-month-old son with A$AP Rocky in May, and releasing her first song in nearly seven years in October, she soon recognized that motherhood and career aspirations don't always go hand-in-hand.
"But when you become a mom, there's something that just 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," the Diamonds singer said.. "So, as scary as that was... 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."
Super Bowl LVII will be broadcast live from the State Farm Stadium in Arizona on Feb. 12 at 6:30 p.m. ET on FOX.
