Justina Miles Rihanna ASL interpreter: One of the surprise attractions at Super Bowl LVII was Justina Miles, whose wonderful interpretation of Rihanna’s halftime show went viral.
During Super Bowl LVII, the world was actually treated to two halftime shows. Obviously Rihanna was incredible and everything she does is amazing in a soul-crushing way, including but not limited to an unbeatable pregnancy announcement.
However, there was also another jaw-dropping performance going on simultaneously by way of the ASL interpreter for both Rihanna’s show and Sheryl Lee Ralph’s song.
Justina Miles Super Bowl Video
Enjoying watching the woman doing the sign language for Rihanna at the #SuperBowl half time show having the time of her life. Her name is Justina Miles 🙌🏻pic.twitter.com/pO32nMECFv
— Dan Walker (@mrdanwalker) February 13, 2023
Let’s meet Justina Miles, one of the few women of the world who can borrow the spotlight from Rihanna. Keep reading for all the details.
So who is Justina Miles?
Justina Miles, a 20-year-old from Philadelphia, is not the only member of her family that suffers from hearing loss – she is hard of hearing while her mother is deaf so they have always communicated through sign language. She is currently an undergraduate studying on the nursing program at Bowie State University.
She first rose to notoriety in 2020 after a video of her signing a verse of rapper Lil’ Kim’s 1997 hit “Crush on You” went viral on Twitter.
The video, which was shared by Twitter user ToyaRochelle, has been watched over 1.1 million times.
“I really was trying to go viral on TikTok but somebody retweeted it,” Miles told Billy Penn at the time. “All my friends were like, ‘You’re on my timeline. I was like, what’s a timeline?”
The tik tok girls are really killing it wow 😍😍😍 pic.twitter.com/welUGDK3ba
— LawToya 💗 (@ToyaRochelle) May 3, 2020
She was also part of the USA team that went to the 2021-22 Deaflympics in Brazil, where she won a silver medal as part of the 4×100 women’s track relay team, according to CNBC.
This was a historical performance for a few reasons. Miles was the first female deaf ASL interpreter to grace the Super Bowl’s halftime show. “I value the opportunity to make it possible for all deaf people to enjoy these songs, and not have them miss out on the full Super Bowl experience,” she told CNBC.
Before hitting the stage/field, Justina Miles — who was valedictorian of the Model Secondary School for the Deaf in Washington, D.C. — was given some excellent advice from her mother. Justina said that her mom “told me that she already loves me, and if I am my Philly Black deaf self, everything would be amazing.” Well, she certainly was. As she so wonderfully put it, you can’t “let any obstacles prevent you from achieving your dreams.”
ALSO READ:Who is Gerald Johnson, priest who claimed demons sang Rihanna’s ‘Umbrella’ in hell?
