Zendaya on Rihanna Not Bringing Her and Tom Holland on Stage

(Image credit: Getty)

published 14 February 2023

Rihanna put on a jaw-dropping show during the Super Bowl Halftime on Sunday, even casually announcing her second pregnancy, but she didn't bring out any guest stars like some previous performers did.

There were a couple of famous people that fans particularly wanted to see on the stage that day: Tom Holland and Zendaya.

Here's the thing: Holland performed an absolutely mesmerizing Lip Sync Battle to Rihanna's "Umbrella" back in 2017, competing against his then-costar, now-also-his-girlfriend Zendaya, who performed Bruno Mars' "24K Magic."

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Holland won the competition by a landslide by just taking the whole thing incredibly seriously. His performance was nothing short of an athletic achievement, which involved all sorts of squats while wearing PVC shorts and also somehow looking truly graceful as well.

While he was performing, Zendaya couldn't contain her amazement, her jaw dropping and her hands coming to either side of her face in what has since become an iconic reaction face.

Anyway, following the Super Bowl, Zendaya posted a still from Rihanna's show on her Instagram Stories, then added a still of her Lip Sync Battle reaction face (above), clearly making a statement about how amazing RiRi's performance was.

At the same time, though, Z was likely referencing her fans' many requests for her and Holland to make a guest appearance on stage.

I think @Zendaya said it best #SuperBowl #Rihanna pic.twitter.com/JRGuflwc4bFebruary 13, 2023

Ahead of the show, fans took to Twitter to attempt to manifest a Tomdaya cameo, which was sadly in vain.

"We could have it all #FentyBowl #Rihanna," wrote one person alongside a clip from the Lip Sync Battle.

"Rihanna bring out Tom Holland and zendaya during umbrella challenge," said another fan.

Another let their imagination run wild, tweeting, "Rihanna is going to open the Super Bowl halftime with Umbrella and Tom Holland does his dance number which leads to Zendaya appearance and then Zendaya starts playing Replay which then leads to Iyaz coming on stage and playing his version of Replay."

Well. That certainly would have been quite something.

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Iris Goldsztajn is a London-based journalist, editor and author. She is the morning editor at Marie Claire, and her work has appeared in the likes of British Vogue, InStyle, Cosmopolitan, Refinery29 and SELF. Iris writes about everything from celebrity news and relationship advice to the pitfalls of diet culture and the joys of exercise. She has many opinions on Harry Styles, and can typically be found eating her body weight in cheap chocolate.