Is it really a Super Bowl halftime show without some FCC complaints?
TMZ reports that some viewers thought Rihanna’s Super Bowl LVII performance was graphic enough to warrant 103 complaints to the Federal Communications Commission. People complained about everything from the lyrics to choreography and said the singer’s set was pornographic in nature.
In a complaint, obtained by the outlet, one viewer said, “This year the halftime show was so indecent I had to turn off the TV because of the pornographic content.” Another took aim at RiRi’s dancers, writing that they were “patently offensive and completely inappropriate for children.” And when Rihanna did dance—which she didn’t do much of, given her pregnancy—a complaint commented on her dancing, saying, “She spread her ass cheeks at the crack. She rubbed her pants where her labia were three times.”
The 103 complaints were far less than Jennifer Lopez and Shakira’s halftime show back in 2020, which garnered over 1,300 grievances—and back in 2004, Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson’s infamous performance led to 540,000 complaints.
This isn’t the last we’ll be seeing of Rihanna. The 35-year-old is set to perform her Black Panther: Wakanda Forever song “Lift Me Up” at the Oscars on March 12. She’s been nominated for the track under Best Song, alongside “Hold My Hand” from Top Gun: Maverick, “Naatu Naatu” from RRR, and “This Is A Life” from Everything Everywhere All At Once.
