Rihanna was ‘60 feet in air’ despite fear of heights, reveals Super Bowl show producer

Super Bowl Halftime Show producer, Jesse Collins dished details to Entertainment Tonight regarding what went down behind the scenes of Rihanna’s performance on Sunday, February 13th, 2023.

The Only Girl in the World crooner took the stage at the annual event and produced a spectacle of her live performance as she was suspended 60 feet mid-air on a platform.

While the singer, 34, seemed unfazed during the show, Collins revealed that the Grammy-winning artist is actually afraid of heights.

“She’s scared of heights but she got it together for this and I have to give the credit to her creative director, Willo Perron,” Collins shared. “He came up with that idea along with our choreographer Parris (Goebel) and it was just unbelievable.”

The producer joked that when he had been lifted 10 feet into the air, he was terrified.

However, when RiRi went up in the air, she had felt more comfortable “all the way up at the top. She loved it at the top.”

Collins explained that the floating stages came into play because there were concerns about how much weight could be put on the State Farm Stadium field – which reportedly caused grief for the players during Sunday night's game. Players from both teams had difficulty keeping their footing, leading several to change their cleats. Collins described the field as a "sponge" that would have made bearing the weight of the stages and dancers impossible.

“We were like, ‘You can only do this much on the field,’ and they were like, ‘Well, we’ll just put it all in the air’,” Collins recalled.

On the matter of why the Rude Boy singer decided on making this a solo show, Collins opined, “I think it was just her wanting to make the statement that she could carry this thing and she did.”

He added, “People just want to see her and so she had to give ‘em a show and she did. We haven’t seen her dance like that in a long time and I thought it was just spectacular.”