Authors: Sarah Oliver
The cover art for ‘S & M’ was very different from the single’s video: it was a blurry shot of Rihanna leaning forward, her red hair unkempt, and with large wooden beaded necklaces around her neck. She looks downwards and the image has a blue hue to it. Her make-up is very natural, and at the bottom left-hand side is the softer ‘R’ logo and her name. On the bottom right-hand side, ‘S & M’ is in a handwritten-style script.
For ‘Man Down’, Rihanna chose a black and white shot of her face. She has two fingers to her lips, with an oversized flower ring on her left hand, and large sunglasses hiding her eyes. The single’s title is in a tattoo-like script on the right hand side of the image, alongside her name.
The cover art for ‘California King Bed’ shows RiRi sitting down, wearing a cream dress and biting on an oversized necklace. She is looking at someone or something off-camera. It is a soft and romantic shot, with the single’s title in the bottom left-hand corner. Her R logo is at the top left.
A few days after
Loud
was released, RiRi had gone out for a meal with people from her label in New York, and Justin Bieber had been there. RiRi tweeted: ‘Justin Bieber just flashed me his abs in the middle of a restaurant! Wow! He actually had a lil 6 pack! Sexy, lol! #Beliebersplzdontkillme’
She had been chatting to Justin when she asked him if he had abs, and when he told her that he did, she made him show her. After Rihanna tweeted her message, Justin tweeted: ‘Great night out to dinner with the beautiful @rihanna… I’m not complaining… RiRi….check for the new album.’
In the past he has said that he’s asked RiRi out on a date, but she turned him down because he’s too young for her. She still likes him, though, and when asked in an interview who she liked best, Justin Bieber or the Jonas Brothers, she replied: ‘Justin!’
After enjoying her meal with Justin and the others, RiRi had to work really hard for a few days before her big performance at the American Music Awards on 21 November 2010. She was given the task of opening the show and did so in style, belting out an a capella version of ‘Love The Way You Lie Part II’ from a tree and then ‘falling’ off, before reappearing to sing ‘What’s My Name?’ and ‘Only Girl (In the World)’. Rihanna started off by performing on her own, and commanded the audience’s full attention as she danced and sang, before being joined by her own dancers and drummers. It was a slick performance, showing everyone watching that she was without doubt one of the best performers in the world. Quite rightly, the audience, which included Beyoncé, Justin Bieber, Usher, Katy Perry, Pink and many more top artists and people associated with the record business, all gave her a standing ovation.
Later on that night she was named Favourite Soul/R&B Female Artist, beating Alicia Keys and Sade. She was presented with the trophy on stage by Nicki Minaj, Taio
Cruz and Trey Songz. She thanked her fans, L.A. Reid, Def Jam, Roc Nation and her crew for their support, before slapping Nicki’s backside as they exited the stage!
R
ihanna returned to
The X Factor
in December 2010, this time to duet with Matt Cardle in the final. Each of the finalists had to do a duet, and Matt was thrilled to get the chance to perform ‘Unfaithful’ with Rihanna. After they sang, she told the audience: ‘He’s amazing, he’s adorable and I’m honoured to share the stage with him. I really love your work – I wish you all the best. He is going to go very far!’
Rihanna and Matt’s duet was by far the best of the night, with their chemistry clear to see. Rebecca Ferguson sang ‘Beautiful’ with Christina Aguilera, One Direction sang ‘She’s The One’with Robbie Williams, while Cher Lloyd did a mash-up of ‘Where Is The Love’ and ‘I Gotta Feeling’ with Will.i.am.
After the duets, Rihanna took to the stage later on to perform her track ‘What’s My Name?’ and Christina Aguilera
performed ‘Express’ from her latest movie,
Burlesque.
Over 2,000 people ended up complaining about the performances, though, because they didn’t think they were suitable for children watching at home.
Later that night, Matt was crowned winner of
The X Factor
2010, but he had one regret: he wishes he had kissed RiRi during their duet. That night he released his winner’s song, ‘When We Collide’, and it sold 439,000 copies in the first week alone, making it the UK’s Christmas No. 1.
In April 2011, the media regulator Ofcom ruled that Rihanna’s and Christina Aguilera’s performances did not breach broadcasting rules and were ‘at the limit’ of acceptability for a pre-9 o’clock broadcast.
Rihanna spent Christmas 2010 in Barbados with her family and friends. She was heading home, when she got a big surprise at the airport: her family had travelled all the way to Miami so that she wouldn’t have to travel back to Barbados on her own! She was totally shocked when she arrived at the departure gate, and later tweeted: ‘I’m in Miami Airport…Guess who just popped up and surprised me at my Gate??? My mooooommmyyyyy…and my AUNTY!!! We all going home together… #BarbadosIloveyou’
Once they all landed, RiRi headed off for a party her brother Rorrey was hosting, and enjoyed being Robyn Fenty again, just a Bajan girl. She had a really relaxing holiday, catching up with people she hadn’t seen in a long time. Two days before Christmas, she decided to visit her mum’s fashion store in the Decosta Mall. As soon as people spotted her, the
news spread that Rihanna was heading for the ‘Fabulous Boutique’. One fan rushed there and spotted RiRi standing with her mom, her friends and the people working at the store. She bought a T-shirt, and then asked Monica if she could meet Rihanna. RiRi was happy to pose for a photo, and the fan left feeling as if she was on Cloud Nine.
Rihanna enjoyed a private Christmas Day with her family, but was spotted on Sandy Lane beach the next day with her friends: she wanted to make the most of being near the sea, and Sandy Lane beach is one of the finest on the West Coast of Barbados. It is one of the best places to go swimming because the water is so calm, and lots of people enjoy using jet skis there. She spent the next few days on the beach, catching up with friends and having fun. Her bodyguard, Sonya and Ja’Maal Buster joined her on the beach along with her brother Rajad. Ja’Maal is the man behind RiRi’s gorgeous eyelashes and goes by the nickname ‘The Eyelash Guru’.
In the evenings they would go somewhere for drinks, and one night they headed to the Pre-Old Year’s Models & Bottles party at the Ship Inn Club. The Models & Bottles party is held every Tuesday night, and is the biggest party night in Barbados, with 1,000 people turning up each week. On an average night they serve 400 bottles to partygoers, and the Pre-Old Year’s party was the final Models & Bottles party of the year.
RiRi hadn’t been particularly close to her father for two years when the media reported that she had decided to forgive him for the things he had done in the past that
upset her. She has always maintained a relationship with him, even when he was on drugs and had split up with her mum, but when he got drunk on her tour bus during a visit, she decided enough was enough. She was even more hurt when he spoke to the media about her attack without first discussing this with her.
In one interview she talked frankly to
Vogue
about her relationship with her father, and how she’s been left feeling stunned each time he has sold stories to the press or given them photos of herself as a child. She never expected him to do something like that, because she thought he would be loyal to her, and wasn’t the kind of man to want to profit from her fame by selling stories about her. Furthermore, she was deeply hurt when he spoke to the press shortly after her attack.
Rihanna explained to the fashion magazine interviewer: ‘My dad went to the press and just told them a bunch of lies because he hadn’t talked to me after that whole thing. He never called to find out how I was doing, if I was alive, nothing. He just never called. He went straight to the press and got a cheque.’
In the last few months of 2010, RiRi seemed to have decided to let Ronald back into her life. She went to see him more and even visited him on Christmas Day; she treated him to some new clothes and aftershave, and they seem to be mending their relationship. The
Mirror
interviewed him a few weeks later, and he confessed: ‘Maybe we’re not as close as we were when she was growing up here and was at school. But we are blood, we do not stay angry and we are friends again.’
He also talked about the incident that caused their rift two years earlier: ‘We did have a disagreement about the drinking on the tour. I got plastered on the tour bus. I can drink rum or beer, but vodka does not like me – or gin. She blasted me for that – she was always lippy, from her small days. I was picked up from the hotel in the morning and I was just shuttled to the airport.’
Rihanna will never decide not to love her father. After all, she wouldn’t have been able to handle some of the things that have come her way if she hadn’t been made a stronger person by what she went through as a child. She thinks her childhood gave her a thick skin, and helped her deal with the sometimes brutal recording industry. Her life might be like a huge rollercoaster at times, but she always has more ups than downs.
Interviewers like to talk about her parents splitting up or her dad’s drug problems, and paint the picture that RiRi’s childhood was horrible, but things weren’t so black and white. Yes, she witnessed some terrible scenes, but at the same time she had fantastic days on the beach with her family and friends; she also learned how to swim with the help of her father. She can remember practising how to write with him as well. He wasn’t the hopeless father that the media like to portray: when he wasn’t on drugs, he was great.
Now, as an adult, RiRi tries just to focus on the positive experiences she had with her father while growing up, and tries to forget all the bad times. Thinking of them won’t change anything and her whole family have learned to move on.
On 28 December 2010, the news broke that Rihanna had split with Matt Kemp. The media reported that the split was down to the singer’s schedule being so busy, and that the couple had struggled to see each other. Matt’s schedule was pretty packed, too, as he had to travel whenever the Dodgers had away games.
RiRi has always been honest with her fans, and in an interview with BBC 1Xtra back in October 2010, she admitted that things were tough, saying: ‘It’s really difficult because we are so far from each other most of the year, and we both have very demanding schedules. It gets difficult at times, but it is what it is.’
Rihanna saw in the New Year in Las Vegas, hosting a party at the Pure Nightclub inside Caesar’s Palace. She wore a gorgeous red maxidress with sheer stripes by designer Louise Goldin and seemed happy as she chatted to guests. After doing her duty at that party, she moved on to The Cosmopolitan party, hosted by Jay-Z. The Cosmopolitan is a $3.9 billion hotel (approximately £2.3 billion). RiRi changed out of the red dress and put on a brown wraparound dress, before dancing the night away with Beyoncé, Kanye West, Jennifer Lopez, Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin in the hotel’s Marquee Nightclub.
It was a night of singing and laughter: Beyoncé performing ‘Forever Young’ with Chris Martin, John Mayer performing ‘99 Problems’ with Jay-Z, Kanye performing ‘Runaway’, ‘Homecoming’ and ‘Monster’ with Jay-Z (as well as being DJ ) and RiRi performing ‘What’s My Name?’.
There was so much champagne on offer that people were dancing with a bottle each, and at $300 (£180) a time, the Armand de Brignac champagne bill must have run into thousands. Rihanna might have had a nice time the year before – ringing in the New Year with Matt in Abu Dhabi – but to be surrounded by Jay-Z and her celebrity friends, who have become like family to her, must have been truly amazing! It’s just a shame that Katy Perry and Russell Brand weren’t there to celebrate with her, too.
A
few days after her New Year celebration, RiRi won three awards at the People’s Choice Awards: Favourite Pop Artist, Favourite Music Video and Favourite Song (both for ‘Love The Way You Lie’). Eminem picked up another two in addition to the two he shared with RiRi: Favourite Hip-Hop Artist and Favourite Male Artist. Sadly RiRi and Eminem were both too busy to make it to the awards ceremony in person.
2011 was turning out to be a great year for Rihanna, as
Loud
became the world’s top-selling album for two consecutive weeks, and she was named the first female solo artist to achieve five No. 1 singles in five consecutive years in the UK. The only male artist to achieve the same feat was Elvis Presley, back in the 1950s.
RiRi was actually No. 1 in both the single and album
charts in the UK on Sunday, 9 January 2011, as ‘What’s My Name?’ moved up a place and knocked Matt Cardle off the top spot. ‘Only Girl (In the World)’ was at No. 9, and her collaboration with David Guetta, ‘Who’s That Chick?’, was at No. 10. She had previously reached No. 1 simultaneously in the single and album charts back in 2007, when ‘Good Girl Gone Bad’ topped the album chart and ‘Umbrella’ topped the singles chart.
RiRi was so happy that she tweeted this message to her UK fans: ‘Another week! LOUD and What’s My Name are the #1 ALBUM and SINGLE respectively!!! UK you are on FYAH!!!Rah Rah! THANK U! Where my #UKNavy’
N
icki Minaj is a rapper and singer-songwriter originally from Trinidad, who was brought up in New York. She collaborated with Rihanna on the track ‘Raining Men’ for RiRi’s album
Loud
, and then Rihanna returned the favour by collaborating on ‘Fly’ for Nicki’s first studio album,
Pink Friday.
Nicki has become a good friend of Rihanna’s, and for a while the media speculated that the two women were dating after Nicki told E! News in early January: ‘We’re shooting the video with Rihanna for “Fly” this weekend. We’re going to save the world in more ways than one with the video and that’s all I can say about that. I love RiRi! I mean, when she’s not grabbing my ass, she’s a sweet girl.’
The girls enjoyed messing around and when they filmed the video for ‘Fly’ they just had fun with their tweets. Rihanna tweeted a photo of them together, with Nicki
sticking out her tongue and RiRi pouting, and the message: ‘Me and Nikki in our new crib, lol! Gettin busy on set of FLY!!! It’s so hard to keep my hands off!’
Nicki joined in and replied: ‘Lol. If we’re gonna liv 2gthr and hook up u gotta learn how 2 spell my name! Lmaooooooo’
Rihanna then fired back: ‘b**ch don’t u hear me askin what my OWN name is??? Lol! My bad, I’ll make it up to u *wink*’
The two thought it was hilarious that people believed that they were living together because of that one photo and a few tweets. Neither girl could have expected that they would become such good friends in a short period of time, even though Nicki had wanted to work with RiRi for quite a while. She wrote on her Facebook page: ‘“Fly” is one of my absolute faves. I wanted to work with Rihanna for a long time. I’m very proud of her accomplishments, especially since she was born on an island like me.
‘This song is a female empowerment song. But then again, it’s not specific to just women. It speaks about flying, soaring high in the face of every single solitary adversity that comes your way.
‘I speak about how the media has attempted to box me in and how that has made me feel suffocated. After years of being dragged thru the mud, I’ve mustered up the courage to re-define myself. I believe that I represent an entire generation. My fans have become my family, and together we have become a movement. Get ready for it. We came to win.’
Nicki originally planned to release ‘Fly’ in April/May 2011, but she decided to release her track ‘Super Bass’ instead, because both she and Rihanna had quite a few singles they wanted to push from their respective albums.
Pink Friday
came out only seven days after
Loud
, and Nicki therefore felt that postponing the release of ‘Fly’ would be for the best.
She explained to MTV, back in March 2011: ‘I’m gonna hold off on the Rihanna video and the Rihanna single for a little bit longer, ‘cause we both kind of dropped at the same time. So she has a lot of [songs] in rotation and I want to let her stuff have a moment and do its thing, dominate radio. [Instead], I wanted to come out with something more fun.’
Kanye West values Rihanna both as an artist and a friend, so when he made a rough copy of his album,
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
, he let RiRi listen to it. Immediately, she picked out ‘All Of The Lights’ as her favourite, and when he offered to let her appear on the track, she just had to say ‘yes’, even though he wanted to record it at 2am!
Rihanna sang the song’s hook and was joined on the single by Alicia Keys, Elton John, Fergie, John Legend, Elly Jackson, Charlie Wilson, Ryan Leslie, The-Dream, Tony Williams and Kid Cudi. Only Kanye, Rihanna and Kid Cudi appear in the actual video.
It is clear which parts of the single Rihanna sings, but for many of the other artists it is not so obvious, as Kanye layered up their vocals. Elly Jackson told MTV: ‘He just basically wanted to use his favourite vocalists from around
the world to create this really unique vocal texture on his record, but it’s not the kind of thing where you can pick it out. I don’t have a verse or anything. I can’t actually hear my voice on it, but apparently it’s there!’
‘All Of The Lights’ was released on 18 January 2011, and three weeks later, the video premiered on 19 February. Initially it was removed from YouTube for a time over safety fears because of the flashing lights and colours in the video, but it was later reinstated with the warning: ‘This video has been identified by Epilepsy Action to potentially trigger seizures for people with photosensitive epilepsy. Viewer discretion is advised’.
The song reached No. 19 in the US charts and No. 15 in the UK charts. It did best in Belgium, where it was No. 3, in Australia, where it got to No. 8, and in Ireland and New Zealand, where it was No. 13.
On 31 January 2010, Rihanna picked up another Grammy award, this time for her collaboration with Jay-Z and Kanye West. Winning a Grammy for ‘Run This Town’ made her very happy; she was grateful that Jay-Z and Kanye had picked her to sing it with them, because at the end of the day they could have chosen Beyoncé or any other female artist.
Rihanna has worked on many collaborations over the years. She has worked with Eminem, Akon, Sean Paul, Jay-Z, Kanye West… and many more top artists. Lots of her collaborations have gone straight to the top of the charts, and she’s picked up numerous MTV and Grammy Awards.
Rihanna is such a big star that other singers can
sometimes get starstruck by her, but she is looking forward to the new collaborations she will be recording in the near future.
Cheryl Cole probably never expected Rihanna would want to sing a duet with her, but after meeting the
X Factor
judge in person and hearing the type of music she was releasing, RiRi was certainly interested. She thought Cheryl is a beautiful woman with a beautiful voice.
They share a mutual friend who told Rihanna that Cheryl would love to record something with her, after Rihanna said the same thing about wanting to work with Cheryl while she was waiting in the dressing room before one of her
X Factor
performances. The friend passed on Rihanna’s mobile number to Cheryl, so they could have a chat about what they might do together.
Cheryl must have been really glad that the friend decided to help make the duet happen. She told MTV: ‘I couldn’t believe it when I heard Rihanna wanted to work with me. When I found out she wanted to collaborate, I got goose bumps all over.
‘We’re definitely doing something together next year [2011]. I’m totally up for it!’
In April 2011, the website M is for Music stated that an insider had told them: ‘Cheryl’s management want her to become the next big popstar in America and are working on securing some A-List names for the album.
‘A Rihanna duet is a certainty and Will.i.am is trying to convince Minaj to work on the LP, too. Katy Perry has also been in talks with Cheryl about a duet, as she is a big fan.’
UK Rihanna fans might be looking forward to seeing the collaboration between RiRi and Cheryl, but the majority of RiRi’s fans want to see her duet with Katy Perry first. This would be the best collaboration RiRi has ever done (not to put down those with Jay-Z, Kanye or Eminem). When RiRi and Katy finally get the chance to record a track together, the song will be something people won’t expect, because they don’t want it to be predictable: it will be a fun track and something catchy, perhaps the best track either of them has ever done.
They both admire each other’s work, and Katy even included her own acoustic version of ‘Only Girl (In the World)’ to her set list on tour. She sang it as part of a medley with Jay-Z’s ‘Big Pimpin’ and Willow Smith’s ‘Whip My Hair’.
It seems like everyone wants to do a duet with Rihanna, even Susan Boyle. The
Britain’s Got Talent
runner-up was being interviewed by the
Sun
newspaper when she said she wasn’t sure whether she’d be good at R&B, but she could dye her hair purple and do a track with Rihanna.
When RiRi found out, she tweeted: ‘Hold up! I might be a lil late, but just heard that THEE SuBo wants to collab wit ME??!? I’m game, doesn’t get much cooler than this. #BOOM.’
She obviously didn’t mind that Susan’s
The Gift
album had stopped
Loud
from taking the No. 1 spot in the US album charts.
Even ‘DJ Got Us Fallin’ In Love’ singer Usher wanted to collaborate with Rihanna. When interviewed on the
Loose
Women
TV show, he said: ‘Of course I’d do a track with her. We’ve been friends and our teams work together, and we’ve talked about working together in the past, but it could potentially happen.
‘I would love to work with her: I think she’s an incredible artist.’