Rihanna (18 page)

W
hen we think of Rihanna, we think about a confident woman, commanding the stage and never afraid, but this isn’t the real Rihanna. She discussed the fact that she thinks she’s misunderstood with Kanye West, when he asked her questions for
Interview
magazine. She told him: ‘They only see the tough, defensive, aggressive side, but every woman is vulnerable – they have vulnerability. So of course I’m going to have that side. It’s not a major part of who I am, but it’s definitely there. I just don’t like people to see me cry.’

When interviewed on the Ed Lover Radio Show, Rihanna decided to hit back at bloggers who write horrible things about her and other celebrities. She was quite naïve when she first started to read blogs, but now she is more cynical. She said: ‘I still read the blogs sometimes – it
depends on what it is I am trying to find out. I’m a lot more numb to it now, only because I understand what it is: it’s a community for people who don’t have anything else to do and hate themselves.

‘They hate their life, they hate their job, they hate their appearance, they are uncomfortable with who they are, so what makes them feel good is talking smack about other people who they think they will never ever see in their life, and they happen to be celebrities.’

Obviously Rihanna isn’t talking about all bloggers, just the ones who think it’s clever to write nasty things about people they don’t even know. She thinks they wouldn’t be quite so brave if they had to meet the celebrities they write about face-to-face, instead of hiding behind their computer screens.

As well as being bullied by bloggers, RiRi has had to face bullying behaviour from the press and paparazzi, who seem to enjoy making things up about her to make her look bad or twisting the truth. RiRi was criticised after having her photo taken with some kids while wearing a ‘F*** You’ necklace, but she couldn’t help it: she had just come out of a restaurant when she was asked by the young girls if she would mind having a photograph taken with them. She never turns down her fans, and so she said ‘yes’, not realising the backlash she would face. If she had said ‘no’, then the girls would have been upset, and the press would probably have released a story saying how heartless Rihanna was and that she snubs her fans. Sometimes she
just can’t win. The writing on the necklace is so small that the girls more than likely wouldn’t have noticed it anyway.

As far as RiRi is concerned, the worst things that the media and bloggers have ever written about her was when they talked about a scar she has on her lip, and blamed it on an STD. They suggested that Chris Brown attacked her because he thought it was a cold sore, caused by herpes. Rihanna told
Q Magazine
: ‘It’s not true, it’s a f****** scar. On my lip. That’s there every day of my life.’

Rihanna will never let the bullies win, and always maintains her composure. She has worked too hard to let anyone ruin her dream. She is a fighter!

R
ihanna’s fourth single released from
Loud
was ‘S & M’, and it first came out on 21 January 2011. It was written by Stargate, Corey Jackson Carter, Ester Dean and Sandy Wilhelm, and was a dance-pop track. An ‘S & M Remix’ was released on 11 April, with Britney Spears collaborating on the track (of which, more later).

Originally Rihanna had considered releasing ‘Cheers (Drink to That)’ as the fourth single, but she decided that ‘S & M’ would be the track fans really wanted her to release. The fans had liked how controversial it was, and when they saw the video they were amazed. Director Melina Matsoukas and Rihanna (who was co-directing) created a work so risqué that it was actually banned in 11 countries! After labelling the video ‘inappropriate’, YouTube wouldn’t permit anyone under 18 to view it.
Rihanna found this strange and tweeted: ‘They watched ‘Umbrella’. I was full nude.’

When the BBC heard that RiRi’s single was called ‘S & M’ they decided to rename it and started calling it ‘Come On’. This didn’t please Rihanna one bit: she hated the fact that they had wiped out the name and some of the lyrics from her song, in order to make it more ‘suitable’.

‘S & M’ might have some raunchy lyrics, but as Rihanna explained to Spin.com, the line, ‘Sticks and stones may break my bones, but chains and whips excite me,’ isn’t just about sex. She revealed: ‘I don’t think of it in a sexual way, I’m thinking metaphorically. It’s more of a thing to say that people can talk. People are going to talk about you, you can’t stop that – you just have to be that strong person and know who you are so that stuff just bounces off. And I thought it was super bad-ass.’

Melina Matsoukas admitted to MTV: ‘When I go out to make something, I kind of go out with the intention to get it banned – well, not to get it banned, I always want my stuff played – but to make something provocative. So when you do something that’s provocative, there’s usually a repercussion. It’s gonna be talked about, or banned or slandered in some way, but it’s making an effect and people are having a dialogue about it, so to me, that’s successful.’

She felt that the video’s content fits with the theme of the title, and believed that YouTube’s banning it for
under
-18s wouldn’t stop the fans seeing it if they wanted.

Rihanna also told MTV what she loved about the track when she heard the demo for the first time. She said: ‘I love
that song. When I first heard it, it was a demo and it was rough and some of it was done, but I knew, I knew what it was the minute I heard it. And the energy in that song is so rebellious and in your face, unapologetic and that’s what I loved about it.

There was no turning back from that song and the lyrics really make sense to the way I feel, and it’s a metaphorical song, y’know it’s really not about sex. It’s not about anything S&M, but we play off of that.’

RiRi told
Extra
: ‘“S & M” is my favourite video I’ve ever done, and I can’t wait to keep making more incredible videos and beating them out every time. “S & M” is going to be a hard one to beat.’

In fact, ‘S & M’ was RiRi’s eighteenth Top 10 hit in the US.

The critics were split when it came to writing their reviews. Several felt it was a track that would have been better suited to the
Rated R
album, while others believed it was a great dance-pop song and very sexy, too. The song performed well, staying at No. 3 in the UK charts for three consecutive weeks. In Australia it did even better, charting at No. 1 for two weeks. When the Britney Spears version was released, it gave Rihanna another Top 10 single in the US, her tenth USA No. 1, and No. 1 in Canada.

Celebrity blogger Perez Hilton will never forget the moment he was asked to be in the video, and admits the appearance is one of his career highlights. During an interview, he told MTV: ‘My takeaway from this video was that it was very strategically made to get attention and
make a point. It reminded me of Madonna during the “Erotica” phase and the “Hollywood”/ “American Life” phase, both of which were controversial.’

He liked the message behind the song and video, and added: ‘What I love especially was that you got to see Rihanna in a new light. We’ve never seen Rihanna like this before, plus it wasn’t too serious, and that’s a great message: You shouldn’t let what others say about you affect you.

‘She’s being all sorts of crazy in the video and it’s like she’s saying, “Be who you are and let your freak flag fly”. I’m really emboldened and inspired by the message of “S & M” and the movement that seems to be happening. Pop songs can be meaningful songs.’

Filming the video wasn’t all plain sailing for RiRi, though, because she had to keep eating bananas all day, and she told her fans via Twitter: ‘I HATE bananas too, I made ‘em gimme a spit bucket in between takes.

‘I am really happy rt now abt the tremendous response from everyone on the S&M clip... glad u love the smell it!

‘I had tons of fun in the pink zebra room! My bff M, Perez, Trannys, a hott little person and a silver fox! Can’t be crazier.’

When celebrated photographer David LaChapelle saw ‘S & M’ he was not impressed. He felt that a lot of the imagery in the video was ‘directly derived from and substantially similar’ to his work. In February 2011, the
Daily Mail
and various other newspapers and magazines reported that LaChapelle was suing for unspecified damages.

When RiRi was invited to release her own perfume line, she spent time thinking about it. She has never been one for doing things just to make money, and she didn’t want to put her name on something she hadn’t created herself. Since she was a little girl, she has always loved perfume, and she knew the fans had been waiting a long time for her to release a fragrance or two.

She decided that the time was right, and set about creating the perfume with an expert team of perfume designers. Her first fragrance was released on 26 January 2010, and it was available in the Macy’s chain of department stores to begin with, before going on sale in other outlets in the US and beyond.

Because releasing a perfume was something that Rihanna had wanted to do for a long time, she was keen to give it a name that meant something special to her and her family. She chose the name ‘Reb’l Fleur’, a nickname her grandmother gave her when she was a little girl. She would say Rihanna was her ‘Rebel Flower’, and that is why she decided to have this tattooed on her neck. On her neck it is spelled differently as ‘Rebelle Fleur’, and some people have suggested that it should be ‘Fleur Rebelle’ instead, because the French usually put the adjectives after the nouns they follow. This wouldn’t be appropriate, though, because her grandmother never called her ‘Fleur Rebelle’.

Before her perfume hit the shelves, she talked to
People
magazine about the challenge of finding a unique scent. She said: ‘Over the years, I layered many different scents to
get something that was truly my own, but I wanted something that said, “Rihanna was here” – something delicious and special, a fragrance with subtle hints that linger and leave a sexy memory.’

A lot of money was spent creating the online video for Reb’l Fleur, because the people behind the perfume wanted to create a buzz about it, rather than sticking to the normal magazine ads that are used to push other celebrity perfumes. Indeed, the total advertising budget behind the launch was estimated to be $5 million.

The video for the perfume shows two sides of RiRi: there is the good Rihanna wearing a peach dress, and on the other side of the mirror the bad Rihanna is in a black minidress. As she steps through the mirror, she changes outfits and personalities. Fans watching the video have the ability to make RiRi switch sides, which makes this perfume ad video so unique. It’s no wonder that it went viral. Fans rushed out to buy it, and it immediately became the No. 1 bestselling perfume in the US, a fantastic achievement.

The video was produced by Droga5, an award-winning advertisement agency. They had Rihanna walk backwards for some sections of the video, rather than doing this artificially, because they wanted viewers not to realise which way they had filmed it. Even the music was composed with this in mind; whichever way the video was played the music was the same, because Droga5 had wanted it be ‘palindromic’, so the notes for each frame are identical.

Earlier predictions were that the video would be viewed
worldwide more than 20 million times, but it looks as if it could do even better. Once the fans got to try the fragrance for themselves, they realised it was just as good as the video.

The perfume was produced by Parlux Fragrances Inc., who have also produced fragrances for Paris Hilton, Jessica Simpson and Queen Latifah. RiRi was fully involved in the process of creating the perfume, and would have meetings with the designers to discuss what she wanted it to smell like, as well as the bottle and packaging design. The finished scent was based on the perfumes RiRa combined herself so she smelled unique, and was created by Marypierre Julien and Caroline Sabas. They chose a bottle shaped like a stiletto, which reflects how RiRi wanted the perfume to be: ‘Like high heels with a short, flirty dress.’

Perfume experts loved Reb’l Fleur, with Marie-Helene Wagner writing on The Scented Salamander blog: ‘Just like Rihanna may lead you on a red herring trail with her neon raspberry-dyed hair, showy behavior and mega-wattage stage-diva persona, the perfume finally lets through a much more subtle personality, one which is even classical in a sense, more like the Fleur (flower) part in her affectionate
petit nom
“Rebelle Fleur.”

‘The fragrance may seem almost bipolar, with its juxtaposition of garisher notes on a harder-to-detect discreet aroma of classicism. But it offers this very positive, intangible quality in perfumery, which is that the more you smell the perfume (on skin, please), the more you like it and appreciate it, discovering each time new hidden nuances and qualities.

‘The first part may well send you the message that if you
don’t identify with a girly, flaming red singer, then there isn’t much left for you to smell. But if you persist, then there is an anchoring of the scent which is extremely classic, light, restrained, lady-like and soft. You start with a color-saturated Hawaiian shirt and you end up almost with a convent sister’s shirt, starched and clean as she is taking a walk by the breezy sea.’

When RiRi launched the perfume in Macy’s department stores in the US, hundreds of fans would turn up to see her and get their hands on a bottle of Reb’l Fleur each time.

Before she arrived at one of the launches, she tweeted: ‘I hope yall lookin REAL sexy @ Macy’s rt now! Mama’s on her way, and she smellin real good too.’

At another launch, Muriel Gonzalez from Macy’s told the press: ‘This scent really strikes a chord with her fans. They love the contrast of hard and soft elements – the rebel and the fleur.’ Fred Purches of Parlux Fragrances added: ‘Rihanna brings a lot of energy and a lot of people. It boosts sales, but it’s also about the resonance afterwards.’

I
n February 2011 Rihanna’s lawyer Donald Etra told E! News that she has agreed that the restraining order stopping Chris Brown from contacting her could be relaxed. He had been banned from being within 50 yards of her, or 10 yards if at a public event, for his five years’ probation. By modifying the restraining order, he would be able to have contact with RiRi again as long as he did not ‘annoy, molest or harass her.’

Some people objected to Rihanna’s decision, which confused her a little as she was the one who had been attacked by Chris, not them. She tweeted that she didn’t care about the restraining order, and went on to talk to
Rolling Stone
magazine about it, telling the magazine: ‘You can never please people, that’s my decision. It
doesn’t mean we’re getting married tomorrow. It doesn’t mean we’re gonna be in a relationship, or make up, or even talk ever again. It just means I didn’t want to object to the judge.

‘What he did to me was a personal thing, it had nothing to do with his career. Saying [he can’t perform at awards shows] definitely made it difficult for him.’

In allowing the restraining order to be dropped to Level 1, RiRi wasn’t inviting Chris to be involved in her life again, she was just letting him get on with his musical career.

Just a couple of days after the press broke the news of Rihanna’s decision, she was on stage again, performing at the Grammy Awards on 13 February. That night, she was nominated for four awards of her own, along with another two for the songwriters of ‘Love The Way You Lie’.

‘Love The Way You Lie’ was nominated for both Record of the Year and Song of the Year (songwriters’ award) but was beaten both times by the Lady Antebellum track, ‘Need You Now’. Eminem and RiRi were up for ‘Best Rap/Sung Collaboration’ and ‘Best Rap’ (songwriters’ award) but lost out to Jay-Z and Alicia Keys for ‘Empire State Of Mind’. In the ‘Short Form Music Video’ category they were beaten by Lady Gaga’s ‘Bad Romance’.

RiRi did triumph, though, in the ‘Best Dance Recording’ category with ‘Only Girl (In the World)’. She also performed ‘What’s My Name?’ for the first time with Drake, and ‘Love the Way You Lie (Part II)’ with Eminem. Afterwards, she tweeted: ‘CONGRATULATIONS #RihannaNavy!!!! We
won a Grammy for BEST DANCE RECORDING!!!Only ho in the woooorrrrrlllldddd!!!!’

When Eminem collected the Best Rap Album award for ‘Recovery’ he thanked RiRi, saying: ‘I wanna thank Rihanna, too, for helping to propel the album to where it’s at now.’

On 20 February 2011, Rihanna turned 23. Her best celebrity pal Katy Perry wasn’t able to be there because she was on tour, but lots of her other friends and family helped her celebrate. RiRi tweeted fans: ‘Go grawl, its ya birthday, ITS PARTY TIME! All my best friends are here!!!! And my BRO!! Wish u cud see how SICK this s**t is!!!’ Katy was upset that she missed it, and tweeted: ‘Happy birthday boo. Wish I could b there to blackout! Luv U!’

But RiRi didn’t want Katy to feel bad and tweeted back: ‘Bitch are u kidding? I missed ur WEDDING!! This is small stuff boo! #whenworkcalls.’

Rihanna actually performed at the NBA All-Star Weekend on her birthday, but she had lots of fun entertaining the crowds. She sang ‘Umbrella’, ‘Rude Boy’ and ‘Only Girl (In the World)’, then Drake came on stage and sang ‘What’s My Name?’. As he was singing, he wished her a happy birthday and she got all giddy. Her final track was ‘All Of The Lights’ with Kanye West.

Afterwards, she watched the game with Justin Bieber and Lenny Kravitz, and then jumped into a car and rushed to a party back at her house. She had time to get changed and tuck into some special red velvet cupcakes with the Barbados flag on top before her guests started
to arrive. Rihanna spent time with her closest friends before going on to the main party room to mingle with her celebrity friends. P. Diddy, Jay-Z, Beyoncé and Mary J.Blige all wanted to make sure RiRi had the best birthday ever.

Zac Efron, Rya Phillippe, Ce Lo Green and Christina Milian were there too, and Snoop Dog arrived late at around 1am. RiRi loved the trouble people had gone to, and posed for photos next to two special ice sculptures. One was of a column decorated with the letter ‘R’ and a crown, and the other was a giant fish. There was a huge display of around 30 jars of different sweets and lollipops for the guests to help themselves, and they partied until the early hours.

The day after her birthday, lots of media outlets started to say that what Rihanna wore for her NBA All-Star game performance was inappropriate for a family audience. They objected to her wearing fishnet stockings, and said that she grabbed her crotch during one song.

Usher knows how the media can twist things, and he defended RiRi’s birthday performance during his interview on the
Loose Women
TV show. He declared: ‘Artistic direction is just that, you know, and obviously subjective. Everyone has their opinion and it’s a family show. I think she is a responsible young lady, and maybe the song represented the attitude of, you know, think about it like this: how long have guys been grabbing their crotches?’

The next day RiRi had some good news, as the President
of Mercury Music Group in the UK released an official statement saying she had sold over 10 million records in the UK alone, and was the first female artist to have No. 1 singles for five consecutive years. Jason Iley said: ‘It was clear to me from the first time that I met Rihanna that she had the potential to be one of the most successful artists in the world.

‘It has been a privilege to work with her these past six years. I believe that we have only seen the tip of the iceberg, and I’m looking forward to seeing her achieve even greater success in the coming months and years.’

Naturally, Rihanna doesn’t like it when people say nasty things about her, and when she found out that ‘Speechless’ singer Ciara had been negative about her during an appearance on
Joan Rivers’ Fashion Police
show, she decided to fight back.

Ciara had been asked to give her opinion on the dress Rihanna wore for the Brit Awards, when she commented: ‘I ran into her recently at a party and she wasn’t the nicest. It’s crazy because I’ve always loved and respected what she’s done with fashion and I’ve ran into her before, but this time it wasn’t the most pleasant run-in.’

RiRi used Twitter to ask Ciara: ‘My bad ci, did I 4get to tip u? #howrudeofme.’

Ciara responded: ‘Trust me Rhianna u dont want to see me on or off stage,’ but this was a foolish thing to say because it seemed to make RiRi more angry. She shot back: ‘U gangsta huh? Haaa. Good luck with bookin that stage u speak of.’

Things soon calmed down and the girls decided to let bygones be bygones. RiRi tweeted: ‘Ciara baby, I love u girl! You hurt my feelings real bad on TV! I’m heartbroken! That’s y I retaliated this way! So sorry! #letsmakeup.’ Ciara replied: ‘Rih u know its always been love since day 1! Doing shows/everything. you threw me off in that party! Apology accepted. Let’s chat in person.’

Once their little disagreement was over, RiRi could get on with celebrating the fact that her YouTube VEVO channel had just passed the billion views mark. This was a great achievement and proved how popular all her videos are, because their combined views made Rihanna the fourth artist ever to reach such a landmark amount. The only other artists to have previously achieved a billion views had been Eminem, Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga.

After celebrating
Loud
going platinum in the US after selling one million copies, Rihanna decided to ask her fans which single she should release next. Up until then, she had sold 3.5 million copies of the album worldwide.

She tweeted her 3.7 million followers the message: ‘QUESTION EXISTING: I’m shootin a new vid in a cpl wks, I just need u to tell me, which song should I shoot? What is my next single? its hard to go from s+m to SKIN! Don’t wanna be 2 swiney.’

Her fans jumped at the opportunity to tell RiRi what they thought, and the tracks that received the most votes were ‘Raining Men’, ‘Man Down’, ‘Cheers’ and ‘California King Bed’.

Once she’d seen what the fans wanted RiRi posted: ‘K so its lookin like Man Down, CKB, Fadin, Cheers! But this was the EXACT problem I had b4, I can’t choose between these 4 songs!

‘Helllp!!! Ok, now gimme de top 2 in order of how they should be released! Remember its spring/summertime!!!! See why I had to ask u guys??? SO HARD to choose.’

Even after lots of fans replied she still didn’t know which song would be the best, tweeting: ‘Man, I love CKB, But Man Down is so GANGSTA! Like dance hall queen type gangsta.

‘And Cheers makes me wanna get chocolate wasted!! Whether its the weekend or NOT.’

In the end, she weighed them all up and decided to release both ‘California King Bed’ and ‘Man Down’.

RiRi first performed ‘California King Bed’ as a duet with Sugarland’s Jennifer Nettles at the Academy of Country Music Awards on 3 April 2011. She then did a solo on
American Idol
, with Nuno Bettencourt on guitar, and received a standing ovation from the judges. Everyone watching in the studio and at home was completely captivated, with many fans saying it was her best live performance to date.

She hired Anthony Mandler to direct the video, and he teased fans by tweeting: ‘emotional light.....raw, and inspiring. Ckb.’ He didn’t give any more info but it was later reported that Jay-Z watched the video being filmed, and RiRi handpicked the male model she wanted to star as her lover. She had two models to choose from, and she picked one called Nathan because he had the best abs. RiRi’s outfit for the video was sexy underwear, as the video is based in a bedroom, and she is caressing her lover on the bed.

The video was partly paid for by the skincare brand Nivea, because RiRi is the main face of their 100
^th
anniversary campaign. They would use the song in their advertising campaign and be sponsoring her tour as well. All in all, they would spend $1.5 billion on the marketing campaign. The first promotional photo that she did for them was one with her topless, with her arms crossed, covering her breasts. She had no make-up on and was just showing her natural beauty.

In the official statement to announce the campaign, Markus Pinger from Nivea said: ‘Over the past 100 years,
NIVEA has been an iconic skincare brand across the world that is built on the trust of our consumers.

‘We are excited to have Rihanna supporting us in our celebration and building a new generation of fans.’