Jay-Z was pictured attending Super Bowl LVII where his protégée Rihanna put on a spectacular performance, and announced she was pregnant with her second child, during the halftime show on Sunday.
The rap superstar, 53 – who brought his 11-year-old daughter Blue Ivy Carter along – and the Umbrella hitmaker, 34, have a relationship that spans back to 2005, when she signed to Def Jam while Jay-Z was the president of the company.
Rihanna’s halftime performance saw her take the stage after a nearly seven-year music hiatus and comes 18 years after she released her first single, Pon de Replay. And though she’s known as an international superstar now, the Barbados-born star previously recalled ‘shaking’ as she waited to audition for Beyonce’s husband 18-years-ago, and being ‘locked’ in the office until 3am.
The pair also weathered accusations that Jay-Z was cheating on Beyonce with the then 17-year-old Rihanna, though her former publicist later apologized and debunked the claim, saying he made up the rumor in hopes of giving Rihanna’s debut single a boost. In 2020 she recalled the meeting on her Instagram stories, writing: ‘Feels like just yesterday I was shaking in the hallways of Def Jam waiting to audition for Jay.’
She previously discussed the audition, describing how she sang for Jay-Z and recalled being ‘very shy’ and ‘cold the entire time’ in an interview with The Guardian. ‘I was like: “Oh God, he’s right there, I can’t look, I can’t look, I can’t look!”…I had butterflies. I’m sitting across from Jay-Z. Like, Jay-Zee. I was star-struck,’ she revealed.
Rihanna performed Pon de Replay for the hiphop mogul during the audition, and a number of other songs. She said the audition ‘went well’ and the recalled how the label ‘locked me into the office – till 3am.’
She then remembered what the Big Pimpin’ rapper said to her: ‘And Jay-Z said, “There’s only two ways out. Out the door after you sign this deal. Or through this window …” And we were on the 29th floor. Very flattering.’ Rihanna signed with Def Jam in 2005 when she was 17 years old, however she left the label 5 years later. She then proceeded to sign with Jay-Z yet again, after he left Def Jam and created his own label Roc Nation.
