Never has there been a time when we watched a Rihanna performance, back-to-back, more than two times. After last night, that all changed. Rihanna, who was the opening performer at last night’s American Music Awards ceremony gave her most well rounded performance to date in 7 minutes and 33 seconds.
Already dumping the straight locks, a curly haired Rihanna sat on a tree that looked like something straight out of her Rated R era. Starting off with “Love the Way You Lie (Part II),” the entire room was quiet as Rihanna’s improved vocals spread throughout the room. Que the bright lights as Rihanna fell (literally) into her #1 hit, “What’s My Name.” This is when all her island flavor came out; this was the most choreography in a Rihanna performance. Before ending the song, four dancers came out to join Rihanna for a reggae break and then a quick switch came as Rihanna shook her rear (Ricky Martin style) to some deep tribal drum beating. The tribal rendition of “Only Girl (In the World)” made the song that much better. Rihanna finished up with some acoustic vocals that did not go off without a hitch but she did manage to knockout the very last line.
Like we said last night, let the LOUD era be known as the era that Rihanna started to perform.
I was quite impressed by this performance. I hope she builds off of it. Twitter and blogs have been her secret weapon. She’s been doing her research on our comments etc.
Hey man, haven’t seen you around these parts in a long while. It wasn’t shocking but it was pleasant to finally see her mix choreography in with her singing. Let’s hope she really leave her lethargic stage ways in the past.