Rihanna Navy rejoice: the Super Bowl halftime show will not be the last that we see of the Barbadian singer.
The music superstar is scheduled to perform Lift Me Up during the biggest night in Hollywood – the Oscars.
The song, created with Tems, Ryan Coogler and Ludwig Göransson, was featured on the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever soundtrack.
It has been nominated for best original song, marking Rihanna’s first Oscar nod.
The 95th Academy Awards ceremony will be broadcast on 12 March and hosted by Jimmy Kimmel.
Earlier this month, Rihanna dazzled Super Bowl viewers with a soaring, solo half-time show, in which she publicly revealed her second pregnancy with her partner, rapper A$AP Rocky.
The 13-minute performance was highly anticipated by Rihanna’s fans, many of whom had not seen her perform since she graced the Grammys stage in 2018 to perform ‘Wild Thoughts’ with DJ Khaled.
In the last few years, Rihanna has taken a break from music to focus on her business ventures, like her Fenty Beauty make-up brand and her Savage X Fenty lingerie line.
Lift Me Up marks the first solo song Rihanna has recorded since her last album, ANTI, which was released in 2016.
Speaking about her return to music after a seven-year hiatus, Rihanna said she is at a point where she wants to explore creatively.
“I’m feeling open to exploring, discovering, creating things that are new, things that are different, things that are off, weird. Might not ever make sense to my fans … I want to have fun with music,” Rihanna said ahead of her Super Bowl performance.
With a performance at the Oscars, Rihanna joins the likes of Beyonce and Lady Gaga, who both dazzled as musical guests on the Academy Award stage in recent years.
Her song, Lift Me Up, will compete for the best original song title against Lady Gaga, who is up for her fourth-ever nomination for Hold My Hand from Top Gun: Maverick.
Other nominees for best original song include Diane Warren for Applause from the film Tell It Like a Woman; This Is A Life from Ryan Lott, Mitski and David Byrne from the film Everything Everywhere All At Once; and Naatu Naatu by M M Keeravaani and Chandrabose from the Indian action film RRR.
Rihanna is a nine-time Grammy Award winner. She has eight multi-platinum albums and 14 singles that have reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
