8 Can’t-Miss Moments From Rihanna’s ‘Savage x Fenty Show Vol. 4’

If Rihanna‘s Super Bowl halftime show is going to be anything like her Savage x Fenty Show Vol. 4, then viewers are bound to break a sweat.

Rihanna, who’s also the fashion show’s executive producer and creative director, assembled an all-star team of models, actors and musicians on the 87-acre South Coast Botanic Garden in Palos Verdes Estates, California, for the event. But this isn’t some typical runway walk in the park. The latest installment of Savage x Fenty plays out like a wildly entertaining fever dream that’ll keep us wanting to relive it night after night.

Savage x Fenty Show Vol. 4 will premiere Wednesday on Prime Video, where Navy stationed in more than 240 countries and territories can tune in from around the world. And the latest Savage x Fenty collection — with all-inclusive sizing that ranges from 30A to 42H/46DDD for bras and XS-4X/XS-XXXXL for underwear, sleepwear and loungewear — will be available for purchase at the Amazon Fashion store and at Savage X Fenty on Wednesday, the same date the show airs.

Here are the eight can’t-miss moments from the Savage x Fenty Show Vol. 4.

• Animated Transitions Create a Surreal Experience

  RiRi’s seductive fantasy straddles an animated world and the real one, thanks to content agency Oddfellows. She opens the show with a larger-than-life cartoon version of herself that’s reminiscent of Eris, the Greek goddess of chaos, as featured in 2003’s Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, but her ability to grow two more heads more accurately reflects Hecate, the goddess of magic and witchcraft. With Tame Impala’s “New Person, Same Old Mistakes” (which Rihanna covered on her critically acclaimed 2016 album Anti) playing in the background, she magically leads us to her trippy, mushroom-infused neck of the woods. It’s where an animated Cara Delevingne embarks on an adventure when she enters a tree trunk. And where another model uses her frozen powers to fashion a crystal obelisk structure that eventually crashes down to the real-life forest, where Marsai Martin, Bella Poarch, Aida Osman and more models strut in front of it. It’s crystal-clear that it’s Rihanna’s world(s) and we’re all just living in them.

• Rihanna Makes an Ethereal Entrance & Gives a Special Shout-Out to A$AP Rocky

  It’s all-too-fitting that RiRi arrives onscreen to the sound of her partner A$AP Rocky’s ode to his lady “D.M.B.” Looking like Muva Earth in her ocean-blue corset, golden eyeshadow and vines in either hand, Rihanna stands out in the shadowy forest. A legion of dancers eventually paves the runway for her as she descends from a fallen tree trunk and dances to the lyric (and life motto) “Bad girls wanna have fun.”

• Anitta Gives the Sexiest, Most Earth-Quaking Performance

  The Brazilian singer has the perfect attire for singing about the “Practice” of baby-making, as her first performance (sans A$AP Ferg and HARV) indicates. Her signature twerking could’ve caused the ground to tremble beneath her, but instead there’s a male dancer grinding in between her legs as she performs her global smash “Envolver.” Is the smoke getting thicker and fogging up the screen, or is it just Anitta?

• Sheryl Lee Ralph & Taraji P. Henson Prove Sexy Has No Age Limit

  Rihanna gives flowers to some of the most beloved and renowned Black women in Hollywood. To the tune of the Ying Yang Twins’ “Wait (The Whisper Song),” Golden Globe-winning Empire actress Taraji P. Henson leads a single-file line of women, who are beautifully interconnected with their braids, in the purple-hued forest, which causes Henson’s metallic slip dress to glisten. And Emmy-winning Abbott Elementary actress Ralph leaves her usual cardigan and collared shirt in the classroom to strut her stuff in a shimmering gunmetal bodysuit. It’s not every day you get to see older women, especially older Black women, be sexy without being stereotyped as hypersexual. The way these women dress, dance and simply exist is a striking resistance to a world that has historically upheld younger white women as the pinnacle of beauty — a world Rihanna and her devotees clearly doesn’t subscribe to.

• Don Toliver Previews New Track That Puts a Spin On an Old Classic

  The Cactus Jack artist illuminates the enchanted forest with his golden ensemble and diamond chains, but the real highlight of his performance is when he teased a new song. “Baby you can do it, take your time, do it right/ You can do it baby, do it tonight/ You can take me to your crib, you can ride it all night/ You can do it baby/ do it tonight,” Toliver sings in his distinct, crystalline tone, interpolating The S.O.S. Band’s 1980 debut single “Take Your Time (Do It Right).” He has some company while transitioning into “Way Bigger” from his 2021 sophomore album Life of a DON, as the song’s atmospheric outro blends splendidly into the nighttime sounds of chirping birds and insects.

• Taylour Paige Delivers the Most Savage Monologue

  Following Paige’s performance in Kendrick Lamar’s “We Cry Together” from his latest album Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers, the Zola actress reprises her role sans Lamar and gives the camera a piece of her mind as if she’s addressing someone who had done her dirty. The camera’s shakiness feels as though it’s cowardly dodging Paige, whose ferocity is inescapable. Read Paige’s entire speech below:

  You really had me out here thinking I was mid. Like I wasn’t that gas, like I wasn’t that fire, like I wasn’t that za. Are you crazy? Well, lemme reintroduce myself. ‘Cause that bi— you used to f— with, she don’t live here no more. A– fat, t—ies right, p—y tight, pockets heavy. My face card don’t f—ing decline. But somehow, somehow I let you take me out of my bag. But guess what? It’s back. She’s f—ing back. This what the f— you wanted! Dun-dun-dun-dun! Bad bi— activated. I’m a mothaf—ing savage. Stupid a–.

• Maxwell Tugs on Heartstrings During Spellbinding Performance

  Before the neo-soul legend immerses viewers in his tender vocals, Maxwell (or rather, the animated version of him) is immersed in water, tinkering with a golden orb that leads him to the surface and beyond. Finally, the real-life version of the singer suddenly appears with his full band before diving into his 1996 Grammy-nominated hit “Whenever Wherever Whatever.” His warm sugar vocals echo throughout the deserted, cacti-filled area, the sweet-sounding stringed instruments kissing the night air and softening his prickly surroundings.

• Burna Boy Takes a Bow for ‘Last Last’ Performance

  The African Giant closes out the evening’s musical performances with his summer smash “Last Last,” as the notorious chorus “I need Igbo and shayo” reverberates throughout the woods. With a single spotlight cast on Burna, wearing a velvet purple ensemble atop an isolated boulder, the Afro-fusion superstar reigns supreme. He later performs “It’s Plenty” from his sixth studio album Love, Damini and sends off viewers with a sizzling adieu.