Jay-Z spent three nights at Yankee Stadium and saved the least predictable guest for last. Having already brought out Beyonce and Blue Ivy Carter earlier in the run, he closed on Sunday by bringing Rihanna back to a stage.
The pair performed Run This Town, their 2009 collaboration, and she stayed on for one of her own, the 2015 single that has never needed an introduction.
How rare this is
Rare enough that the videos travelled faster than the reviews. Rihanna last toured in 2016, a full decade ago, and her live appearances since have been counted on one hand. For most of her current audience, a Rihanna performance is something they have watched rather than attended.
The album that keeps not arriving
Her ninth record has been teased for years. She posted footage of herself in the studio in February, which briefly restarted the speculation, and then let it go quiet again.
The most substantial thing she has said about it came in an interview with Harper's Bazaar last year, where she described music as her freedom and said she had finally worked out what she wanted the next body of work to be.
She also shut down the recurring rumour of a reggae album, and the reasoning was telling. There is no genre now, she said, which is why she waited. Each earlier attempt did not match her growth, and she could not stand behind something she would then have to perform on tour for a year.
On Sunday's evidence, the performing part is not the problem.