A backup dancer said she spent a week in rehearsals with Rihanna, and even she didn’t know the business mogul was pregnant ahead of the Super Bowl performance.
“She came into rehearsals with big fur coats, or Fenty sets all the time — like the big sweatshirt ones,” Luhnyae Campbell, a barista and student at Arizona State University who said she danced during the halftime show, explained in a February 13 TikTok. “I was surprised, too,” she said.
“I was low-key mad at everybody because I was like, ‘this is just her postpartum body, why are you judging her?'” she continued. “But no, she’s actually pregnant. I forgot that women can just do that back-to-back — we’re so amazing, that’s crazy.” Campbell’s video has since been viewed more than 5 million times.
@luhnyae Replying to @jo.omeally to all the dancers out there wondering about audition process for the Super Bowl half time show!
#rihannahalftimeshow #dance♬ original sound – Luhnyae
Campbell said Rihanna’s principal dancers who show up for “every tour, every event,” probably had an idea the business mogul was pregnant. But the halftime show was Campbell’s “first big gig” ever, and there were too many dancers to meet the star one-on-one.
Plus, Rihanna’s respective choreography was so mild in comparison to the “collective of marshmallows,” as Campbell described the group of white-puffy-coat-clad backup dancers, that the New Yorker’s Carrie Battan described the halftime show overall as a “casual anti-spectacle.”
“Nah, my stepdad was working the event, and even he was like “that bump was not there the other day”💀💀💀,” a user commented, and Campbell responded in agreement: “Fr!!!”
Campbell is among a slew of other halftime show backup dancers who’ve taken to TikTok to share their excitement on “marshmallow TikTok.” The influx of TikTokers wearing the distinctive jackets has led to inquiries like: “HOW MANY OF YOU ARE THERE,” and replies like: “We’ll never stop growing.”
Campbell, who said booking the halftime show as her first major gig led to not knowing what to do next “in a panicky-midlife-crisis way,” said she was still wearing the white puffer coat because no one would recognize her on their FYP without it. She’s not the only one who’s finding it difficult to take it off.
