Rihanna!
Singapore Indoor Stadium
Thursday
Who is Rihanna exactly, and where does this 20-year- old from Barbados with the slick chart hits fit in with other female pop stars?
Her latest album is titled Good Girl Gone Bad, but she has some way to go before she can snatch that particular crown from Britney Spears.
Perhaps she fancies herself a consummate entertainer such as Madonna, wanting to Take A Bow for her showmanship.
After all, it seems that she is deliberately inviting such comparisons. The warm-up song before her concert began was, oddly enough, Spears’ Womaniser. And Madonna’s Music was sampled in the introduction to Please Don’t Stop The Music.
And yet, her concert on Thursday night offered few answers.
Rihanna started with Disturbia. She was dressed in dominatrix chic – an all-black ensemble with a sleeveless top that showed off her toned arms and form-fitting pants.
The tough yet sexy effect was unfortunately marred by a mike malfunction which silenced her, not the best way to start a concert. It was left to her hardworking back-up singers to carry the show while she went offstage.
That was not the end of the audio problems. While mostly serviceable, her voice came across as ragged and harsh at times, possibly due to the patchy sound system.
The crowd of almost 8,000 were not put off, though. They came determined to party and nothing was going to get in their way. Fans were on their feet from the opening number and screamed and danced throughout.
Rihanna delivered hits from her three albums, including the infectious SOS, the energetic Pon De Replay and the paean to infidelity, Unfaithful. The crowd lapped them all up eagerly.
But mostly, she seemed to be going through the motions, putting her sharp cheekbones to good use as she preened and posed while singing. It was MTV-ready and it all remained on the surface.
It did not help that even though the show was promoted as a 90-minute affair, it clocked in at a miserly 60 minutes. The singer hardly had time to thank her musicians and crew and did not even change costumes until her encore.
Dressed in a black-and-white showgirl outfit, she ended the evening with her biggest hit, Umbrella, and soaked in the adulation from the crowd.
“I cannot wait to come back. Singapore, I love you,” she claimed.
Yea, yea, but we barely knew you.
(ST)