Before Rihanna even entered the stage for her first of two stadium shows, the crowd were already on their feet in anticipation of her arrival. And while the age of her audience varied wildly, the excitement levels were no different; a testament to her relentless work ethic that has turned out seven albums in almost as many years and over 100 million record sales.
After an admirable effort from DJ and producer David Guetta, Rihanna picked up where he left off, entering to his co-produced 'Phresh Out The Runway' from her latest album Unapologetic. The opening section of album-only cuts left most of the crowd feeling underwhelmed, but her relentless crotch thrusting, rubbing and popping was enough to command their attention.
From there, she mostly turned out the crowd-pleasers, at which point Rihanna unfortunately went into auto-pilot. As she performed 'Rude Boy', 'Umbrella' and her feature on Kanye West's 'All of the Lights', the audience willed her on as she moved seductively around the stage, leaving the backing track to do the rest of the work.
After a whistle-stop journey through a selection of her ballads 'Take A Bow', 'Cold Case Love' and 'Hate That I Love You' (she sang about a minute and a half of each), she returned for a final section of encore-worthy songs, including 'Don't Stop The Music' and 'Where Have You Been', the crowd singing along even if she didn't.
The result was nonetheless a well-honed show that had its moments, including a 70,000-person raveathon to 'We Found Love' and 'Only Girl (In The World)', but it was - surprisingly - a lack of shocking moments or spontaneity that let her down. "London, you always bring it - every single time," she told the crowd at one point. It's a shame the same couldn't be said for her.
I think people know now what Rihanna's performance capabilities are. People go to her shows to have fun and enjoy her music tbh. Most wouldn't have had high hopes in terms of performing and therefore wouldn't have been disappointed, whereas an official review will more than often be negative.
It looked really fun, London/England are always great crowds with incredible atmospheres.
From that two minute & twenty six second video, my ears certainly didn't.
Besides, that is taken from when she entered. Ofc they would be excited. They weren't to know what would occur during the performance
Once again, these people then posted on Facebook on what a great time they had. I wouldn't say "man, I had a great time!" when I only was excited for the first three minutes and the rest sucked.
they dragged her tour performance...again
I wouldn't say "man, I had a great time!" when I only was excited for the first three minutes and the rest sucked.