She's weeks away from gracing the Academy Awards stage, but fans are still reeling from Rihanna's Super Bowl performance. During her halftime show, she revealed her second pregnancy, just one year after welcoming her first child with A$AP Rocky. The doing dad was also in the audience, filming his leading lady as she floated tens of feet above the air. The Super Bowl marked Rihanna's return to the stage after a seven-year drought and was celebrated among her admirers.
Meanwhile, social media reactions were mixed. Fans applauded the singer's feat and enjoyed revisiting her classics. However, TMZ reports the Federal Communications Commission, or the FCC, received several complaints about the display. Additionally, the outlet reportedly obtained 103 of those complaints and shared a few. One person directly correlated Sam Smith and Kim Petra's highly controversial Grammy performance to Rihanna's set.
The FCC Complaints Are Unhinged
"I don't care what someone worships but children shouldn't be exposed to pornography and as an adult I don't wish to see it," one person reportedly said. "Where has decency gone? How about respect for others and self?" Many critics were off-out by the "overtly sexual dancing." Considering Rihanna barely moved, and her dancers were trying to keep from falling off platforms, things could have been more explicit.
"This year the halftime show was so indecent I had to turn off the TV because of the pornographic content," another person stated. These sorts of complaints aren't anything new; each year, thousands of people fire off messages to the FCC about the Super Bowl halftime show. Beyoncé, Jennifer Lopez, and others have been the subject of similar takes after their presentations.
Just ahead of her halftime performance, Rihanna discussed how she was hyper-focused on Super Bowl. "I totally forgot that my birthday is coming up, I totally forgot about Valentine's Day," she admitted. "I am just like Super Bowl, Super Bowl, Super Bowl. It's a lot of preparation, a lot of moving parts. This is the week that it really is being tested. Everyone, we're just tightening up everything.
She also said, "Everybody is dialing in, everybody is tuning up, and a lot of moving parts. I mean, it's literally like three to four hundred people breaking the stage down and building it back up and getting it out in eight minutes. It's incredible."