Today Rihanna preformed at the Formula 1 Grand Prix festival in
Singapore. Unfortunately this also provided an opportunity to test out
Rihanna's CIA handlers/Live Nation (the management) commitment to this
information blackout they've been insisting on during the final leg of
the Diamonds World Tour.
In terms of information relating to Rihanna's travel from Thailand to
Singapore Rihanna herself couldn't have been more co-operative posting
lots of Tweets/Instagram pictures making it clear when she had left
Thailand and when she had arrived in Singapore. One of this posts
included the fact that when Rihanna handed her passport over at Thai
passport control the border guard instantly handed Rihanna a picture of
herself to autograph giving Rihanna an interesting story to tell. To me
that suggests that the Thai authorities were very keen for Rihanna to
provide information about her departure. That could indicate that the
Thai authorities are beginning to think the US and the UK are not as
reliable allies as they had once thought. Annoyingly Rihanna's friend
and travelling companion Melissa Forde couldn't have been more
unhelpful. Although she did take to Twitter/Instagram to indicate that
they were leaving Thailand she went onto imply that they could be
returning. Rihanna's other travelling companions remained silent. To me
this indicates that a formal order to lift the information blackout has
not been given and the management are hoping to get away with it now
that the main island hopping part of the tour is over.
This impression was reinforced by the complete lack of official
information provided about Rihanna's actual performance although Rihanna
herself had a pretty good excuse for not sending out Tweets/Instagrams.
Fortunately the unofficial information available was excellent. As it's
already been established that Rihanna had done away with the scheduled
concert costume changes in favour of a single outfit the first thing
everybody was interested to found out what outfit Rihanna had 'chosen.'
Although it did feature a cape the outfit itself was politically
unremarkable being just a simple dress. However Rihanna later revealed
that simple dress had been made especially for her by Raf Simons a
Belgian fashion designer who is the creative director at Dior and
unfortunately known as RAF. This was a problem because RAF is the
acronym used to identify the Royal Air Force - the British air force. It
is also the acronym used to identify the Red Army Faction who are
sometimes also known as the Baader-Meinhof gang.
Although I pretty sure they were referenced heavily during one of the
2012 Olympic ceremonies for those who don't know the Baader-Meinhof gang
were Marxist terrorists in West-Germany during the 1960's. 1970's and
1980's. The late 1960's to early 1980's were of course very much the
golden age of international terrorism which featured multiple aircraft
hijackings for ransoms including the 1976 hijacking of an Air France
passenger jet that ended at Entebbe airport in Uganda with a little help
from Kenya. It also featured the 1972 attack on Israeli athletes at the
Munich Olympic Games. With the current terrorism situation in Kenya and
the German General Election taking place this choice of outfit struck
me as being in extremely bad taste. Mind you it was in nowhere near as
bad taste as the US Navy deciding to crash one of it's NH-60S Knighthawk
helicopters attached to the 5th Fleet into the Red Sea. This of course
forced the Israeli, Egyptian, both Sudanese, the Bahraini, Saudi and
possibly Eritrean governments to liaise with the US over a rescue
operation while trying to work out if it was all a Rihanna reference.
Needless to say US President Barack Obama will be meeting Palestinian
'President' Abbas on the sidelines of the United Nations General
Assembly (UNGA).
Apart from the outfit the other big talking point of Rihanna's Singapore
concert was always going to be the set-list. That's because although it
has been presented as such the Singapore concert was not strictly
speaking part of the Diamonds World Tour. Instead it was part of the
entertainment surrounding the Formula 1 Grand Prix race weekend. It
continues on Monday (23/9/13) with a Justin Beiber concert.Therefore I
was hoping that Rihanna would send all her tour equipment ahead to
Australia and just do a sort of greatest hits concerts. Unfortunately
management decided to put on the full Diamonds World Tour stage show
even though the allotted time meant that the full set-list couldn't be
performed and some songs would have to be cut. Personally I would have
just scrubbed the entire fourth act (Take A Bow) because the ballady style didn't really suit the occasion.
Unfortunately though management saw an opportunity to make a political point and decided to cut "Cockiness."
With A$AP Rocky featuring on the remix this was supposed to promote
discussion about whether the management were apologising for their
cockiness in thinking anyone in the business would fall for all these
rumoured liaisons between Rihanna and A$AP Rocky, Chris Brown, Drake and
their associated pregnancy rumours. "Love The Way You Lie" was
also cut which could equally be interpreted as an attempt to promote
discussion about whether Rihanna was done with the domestic violence
themes of the song or its coded references to me through the songs main
artist Eminem or its Shakespearean roots. Finally "Loveeeeeee Song"
was cut in order to give the impression that Rihanna is doing just fine
so we don't need to worry about her anymore. After all she clearly no
longer needs "love and affection." Sadly though that last point was
contradicted somewhat by Rihanna's use of the Raf Simons' cape to make
her look like a superhero. This could possibly have been a reference to
the Ani DiFranco song "Superhero" which is rarely listened to by people
who are doing just fine. That said anytime you are a bit stoned and
wearing a cape it is always really tempting to use it to pretend you're a
superhero.
Since the end of the concert Rihanna has taken to Twitter/Instagram to
indicate that she has left Singapore but not indicated where she is
heading too. I am significantly confident that Rihanna is now heading on
to Australia. However due to the deception and breach of trust
associated with the Thailand trips I will need that confirmed.
I will of course also need the management to buck their fu*king ideas.
(Originally Posted) 22:25 on 22/9/13 (UK date)
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