LOS ANGELES: Renowned Barbadian singer and actress Robyn Rihanna Fenty has declined an offer to perform at a Super Bowl halftime show as she supported former National Football League quarterback Colin Kaepernick.
However, she declined in support of Kaepernick, the first player to kneel as the national anthem played at a game in protest over racial inequality and police brutality against black people and minorities in the United States.
“They offered it to her, but she said no because of the kneeling controversy. She doesn’t agree with the NFL’s stance,” said sources.
Rihanna’s decision to reject the offer over a political issue follows her Instagram message earlier this month urging fans to vote in the November U.S. congressional elections. She is one of several celebrities who have taken political stances ahead of the voting.
The Super Bowl is the year’s most-watched U.S. television broadcast of the year, regularly drawing more than 100 million viewers. The game will be played on Feb. 3, 2019, in Atlanta, Georgia.
Representatives for the NFL and Rihanna did not immediately respond to requests for comment. An unnamed source told that the NFL approached both Rihanna and singer Pink early in its halftime show discussions, but that both women moved on when the negotiations took a long time. That source said Kaepernick did not come up in those early conversations.
Kaepernick’s decision to begin kneeling during the anthem in 2016 sparked a heated national debate, with critics including U.S. President Donald Trump calling the players unpatriotic. The NFL gave in to pressure from Trump and ordered players not to kneel on the field during the anthem.
