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QUEEN: Rihanna rejected Super Bowl halftime performance because of Colin Kaepernick: ‘I couldn’t be a sellout'

Rihanna is one of the biggest pop stars in the world, so when rumors swirled that she had been asked to perform at the Super Bowl halftime show last year, many believed it was true. When she didn't, it fueled new rumors that she got the offer and turned it down.

In a new interview with Vogue on Wednesday, Rihanna confirmed she turned down what would have been an iconic performance to show solidarity with Colin Kaepernick. 

"Absolutely," Rihanna said when asked if she rejected the Super Bowl gig. "I couldn't dare do that. For what? Who gains from that? Not my people. I just couldn't be a sellout. I couldn't be an enabler. There's things within that organization that I do not agree with at all, and I was not about to go and be of service to them in any way."

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Maroon 5 was the headlining act of the Super Bowl LIII halftime show, and Travis Scott and Big Boi joined them on stage.

Former NFL player Kaepernick kneeled during the national anthem as a silent sideline protest against police brutality and racial injustice. Among his critics is President Trump. 

Like Kaepernick, Rihanna is no stranger to standing up for what she believes in – and taking a stand against the president. 

When Mr. Trump called the mass shooting in El Paso "an act of cowardice" and blamed a "mental illness problem" for both that mass shooting and one in Dayton, Ohio, Rihanna responded on Twitter: "Um . . . Donald, you spelled terrorism wrong!" 

Rihanna told Vogue the days after those shootings were "devastating."

"People are being murdered by war weapons that they legally purchase. This is just not normal," she told the magazine. "That should never, ever be normal. And the fact that it's classified as something different because of the color of their skin? It's a slap in the face. It's completely racist." 

"Put an Arab man with that same weapon in that same Walmart and there is no way that Trump would sit there and address it publicly as a 'mental health problem.' The most mentally ill human being in America right now seems to be the president."