ONE minute, the Barbadian supervixen known only as Rihanna was on the stage, having just sung half of the wonderful Umbrella while flying over her captivated audience in a harness. The next minute, having ceded the spotlight to let her paramour and co-headliner, Chris Brown, turn this amazing show’s finale into a duet, Rihanna was gone, not to return on this night. It seemed reasonable at the time. Rihanna had been intermittently fantastic but Brown’s consistently engaging opening set had been the very definition of entertainment. The reaction to his casual stroll back onstage during Umbrella was 10 times as loud as that to Rihanna’s acrobatic flight, too.
ONE minute, the Barbadian supervixen known only as Rihanna was on the stage, having just sung half of the wonderful Umbrella while flying over her captivated audience in a harness. The next minute, having ceded the spotlight to let her paramour and co-headliner, Chris Brown, turn this amazing show’s finale into a duet, Rihanna was gone, not to return on this night.
It seemed reasonable at the time. Rihanna had been intermittently fantastic but Brown’s consistently engaging opening set had been the very definition of entertainment. The reaction to his casual stroll back onstage during Umbrella was 10 times as loud as that to Rihanna’s acrobatic flight, too.
Actually, that combination points to Rihanna’s and Brown’s dedication to attempting to put on the perfect pop concert. Their sets had much in common, with dazzling fireworks and energetic choreography augmenting both artists’ embarrassment of R&B-pop riches.
Rihanna was comparatively subdued, perhaps to show she was definitely singing (and singing well), in front of a full band. Already hampered by the fact that the largely heterosexual and hormonal young female audience wasn’t going to scream for her like they did for Brown, Rihanna’s set also misfired a couple of times. But when she hit the spot, she was sensational – from the sexy shimmy of Pon De Replay to the invigorating rush of Shut Up And Drive via a spunky version of SOS that switched seamlessly between big-band jazz and Soft Cell’s Tainted Love.
– Smh.com/au/news