Rihanna’s Super Bowl Backup Dancers Didn’t Know She Was Pregnant

Rihanna made Super Bowl history by revealing her bump during her much-anticipated performance at the halftime show on Sunday.

And the 34-year-old hitmaker went to extreme measures to keep her second pregnancy a secret, including hiding it from her 280 backup dancers.

“I don’t think anyone really knew she was pregnant,” said dancer Laila Hayes. Eastern Time. She hid it very well.

Rihanna only began rehearsing with the dancers the week of the show and purposefully kept her distance from them.

The Grammy Award winner welcomed her first child, a son, with rapper A$AP Rocky in May, just nine months before she was set to perform on the world’s biggest stage. The baby’s name has yet to be revealed.

‘[Rihanna] she was rehearsing on stage, they made sure she was safely in the middle of the stage and then the group I was in would stand on the sidelines,” Hayes recalled.

The dancers had already endured weeks of rehearsal after being selected for the once-in-a-lifetime concert in early January.

Choreographer Parris Goebel often filled in for Rihanna while they worked on routines as a group. Rihanna spent a lot of time practicing independently.

During her Super Bowl performance, Rihanna paraded in an oversized red jacket over a baggy jumpsuit that she then unbuttoned to reveal her growing belly.

A representative for the singer confirmed the news shortly after the show.

Hayes admitted that she was totally shocked that Rihanna had kept her jacket closed during rehearsal.

“We were all confused watching it during the reality when she got up there and she was showing her stomach,” he explained. “He was wearing the same outfit for one of the dress rehearsals, but it was zipped up.”

But Hayes’s co-interviewee, Luhnyae Campbell, insists that she “never saw a hit” while on stage and actually had to “rewatch the performance on YouTube to realize it.”

Although there was a big secret to protect, that didn’t stop Rihanna from showing her gratitude to everyone involved in bringing her vision to life.

Just before taking the field, Hayes said Rihanna “thanked all the dancers, the producer, the directors.”

Campbell added: ‘She was a light. You could see it in her face, how much she was genuinely enjoying the production and the performance of all the dancers.’

TMZ originally reported that no one involved in the production had any idea that she was pregnant and that she had purposely worn baggy clothes during rehearsals.

The Umbrella hitmaker also wore baggy outfits during final rehearsals on Saturday and Sunday, keeping her final costume under wraps until the show began.

Although the star kept the news of her pregnancy a secret until her onstage reveal, she dropped a few hints ahead of the show.

Speaking to CBS Sports about whether she would have special guests perform with her, the singer said she was “thinking about bringing someone,” but added: “I’m not sure, we’ll see.”

In a conversation with Apple Music, she said: “When you become a mom, something happens where you feel like you can take on the world.” You can do everything.’

“The Super Bowl is one of the biggest arenas in the world, so as terrifying as [it is] Because I haven’t been on stage in seven years, there’s something exciting about the challenge of it all.

And it’s important for me to do this this year. It is important for representation. It’s important that my son sees that.

The Diamonds hitmaker has apparently previously turned down opportunities to perform at the Super Bowl on several occasions before finally taking the stage this year.

In 2018, it was reported that he had turned down the show in solidarity with Colin Kaepernick and because he disagreed with the kneeling handling of the national anthem.

Rihanna graces the latest issue of british fashion with her young son and partner A$AP Rocky.

And while sharing images of the stunning post, Rihanna revealed that she had no idea she was pregnant while posing for the pictures in mid-December.

“How crazy my two babies were in these photos and mom had no idea,” the star wrote.

Speaking to the outlet, Rihanna opened up about the responsibility of raising a black child in today’s world, calling it one of life’s scariest responsibilities.

‘You’re like, ‘What am I leaving my kids for? Is this the planet they will live on? All of those things really start to hit differently,” she said.

The singer added that motherhood also lifted her spirits, leading her to accept the Super Bowl concert just months after having her first child…and seven years after her last stage performance.

“It’s knowing that you can do anything, even the craziest things, like, ‘Am I going to say yes to the Super Bowl in the middle of postpartum?'” she said.

‘What the hell am I thinking? But you’re crazy for a challenge like that because you know what your body just did. You get this feeling of “Nothing is impossible,” she said.

She added that she did not expect to be pregnant with her second child when she took the job, adding: “It was almost like an out-of-body experience.”

‘I haven’t been on stage in seven years. Seven years! From zero to the Super Bowl? That’s mental,” Rihanna joked.