Rihanna‘s long-awaited return to the musical stage at Sunday’s Super Bowl LVII (February 12) is still the talk of the Web.
Cranking out her greatest hits like ‘Work,’ ‘We Found Love,’ ‘Diamonds,’ and more, the GRAMMY-winning diva dominated newsfeeds for the high-octane showing that was only outshone by the unveiling of her baby bump – confirming rumors she was pregnant with her second child.
And while fans and her celebrity peers took to social media in droves to sing her praises, names like Donald Trump and Howard Stern made headlines for doing the exact opposite.
After the former branded the 13-minute set the “worst halftime show in Super Bowl history,” the latter wondered why she even bothered to perform in the first place.
More inside.
Taking to the air on his SiriusXM show Monday morning (February 13), Stern blasted the Pop star by claiming she had lip-synched “85 percent” of her performance.
“You know, I don’t even know why she bothered showing up. I gotta tell you. I love Rihanna’s voice. I think it’s a wonderful voice,” he said in response to a caller who asked if he thought she’d lip-synced her halftime show.
Continuing, Howard lauded the ‘Loud‘ songstress for her musical interpretation but was still skeptical about her live singing.
“I love how she interprets a song and every song they played there behind her was terrific. There was one point where she was singing toward the end of the performance when she actually was on the stage with the band — she was singing whatever song that was. But I would say now, again, I could be wrong, but I — in my opinion, 85 percent of that was lip-sync,” he shared.
Concluding his halftime show assessment, Stern – in typical fashion – ended with a crass joke.
“Well, the big giveaway — the big giveaway might be when she puts the microphone down by her knees and her lips aren’t moving. And the other voices are going,” he said before continuing, “I had a theory Rihanna was not lip syncing, but she put the microphone near her vagina so the new baby could sing. The baby was singing backup.”
At writing, Rih hasn’t responded to the shock jock’s criticism.