Rihanna

After enduring a slightly tempestuous time in Belfast for the last few days where she came under fire from farmers, Free P’s and over-amorous fans, Rihanna rolls up her metaphorical sleeves and gets down to business this evening at the Odyssey Arena for her second date in a three-night stand in NI’s capital city. Though there was considerable controversy about her opening night in the Odyssey (see report page 64), tonight, thankfully, runs more smoothly. Kicking off with ‘Only Girl (In The World)’ the singer makes her grand entrance inside a giant disco ball wearing what can only be described as a flasher’s mac. Wasting little time breaking out the big guns, we get ‘Disturbia’ and ‘Shut Up And Drive’ in quick succession as she lies across a large luminous car like a Jeremy Clarkson fantasy made flesh, while her live band (which features erstwhile Extreme axe-man Nuno Bettencourt) pull out all the stops to add a little meat to the music and give the numbers a rockier edge.
While reports of the tour’s opening night complained about the singer’s time keeping and lack of audience interaction, this evening Rihanna is charming, confident and cheeky and hits every note with military precision. In fact at one point she even treats a lucky female fan to some friendly straddling onstage before indulging in a little light bondage for ‘S & M.’ Needless to say, it’s the type of eye-popping affair that steams up the glasses of most of the dads in the audience, but it all goes down well with the predominantly female crowd.
What’s most striking about the show though is that it proves the 23-year-old really does have a staggering amount of great songs in her repertoire. Yeah, the pillow fights, copious costume changes and fireworks are fun and Rihanna’s brief drum solo in the middle of the arena is a nice detour, but it’s tracks like ‘What’s My Name?’ ‘Run This Town’ and ‘Unfaithful’ that prove she’s fast becoming planet pop’s biggest star. In addition, aside from fluffing her lines on ‘Don’t Stop The Music’, she delivers the songs with a passion that’s sorely lacking among many of her peers.
Signing off with ‘Love The Way You Lie (Part II)’ and ‘Umbrella’ (which sees her ivory tinkler perform on a piano that descends from the rafters) the singer tells us she loves us for the last time, and after tonight’s performance, it’s pretty obvious that the feeling is still mutual for the majority of the Belfast crowd.