I’VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS NIGHT FOREVER.
After months & months of waiting I finally got to see Rihanna live in concert last night as she performed ANTI.
My super incredible best friends, Alexa & Yvette, so generously gifted me Rihanna tickets for Christmas. The show was set to go on the weekend of my 21st birthday but unfortunately that show never happened.
Instead of being February, we were forced to wait till May. Apparently the start of the tour had been postponed because of production issues and because Rihanna was straight up exhausted from running the world. Rihanna’s last album, Unapologetic, was released a long four years ago which is some time to be away from the music industry. Yet Rihanna never seemed to be out of the spotlight as she spent her time taking on various projects such as movies, fashion, fragrance design, film scoring, philanthropy, and features; this girl literally does it all.
Even with all of that going on fans were starting to become skeptical of Rihanna and her rumored album “R8“. The album was started in 2014 and set to release in 2015. Yet there we were in October 2015 with nothing but a couple singles, a feature, album artwork, and the official name, ANTI. All of this but no actual album. Fast forward to December 2015 — STILL NO ALBUM. Yet tickets for the ANTI World Tour were already going up for sale? Did Rihanna really expect her fans to buy tickets to a show for an album they never heard before? Yup. Did the fans buy the tickets anyway? Yup. That was a pretty bold and confident move of Rihanna but she certainly did not disappoint.
January 28, 2016 — the day the Rihanna Navy finally got their long awaited album, ANTI. Thanks to Samsung, Rihanna was even able to make the album a free download for Tidal subscribers. Instantly fans and critics alike were raving about the album. This wasn’t at all what we had expected of Rihanna. ANTI is this well constructed varied album of ballads that played with themes of sensuality, self empowerment, and love. She even brought psychedelic, Motown, and dancehall inspirations to the project. I also think this is the album where we got to hear Rihanna’s vocals shine in a way that we haven’t heard before. So needless to say, I was more than excited for the ANTI World tour.
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In addition to my first Rihanna concert, this was also my first arena concert. I’ve been to a lot of shows but they’re always ratchet little hole in the wall venues which I 100% prefer. Arena concerts are very expensive and a lot less intimate or crazy depending on what kind of show you’re seeing.
Walking into the arena I was pleasantly surprised at the size. It was kind of a small arena so it seemed that no matter where you would be sitting, you would be able to see the show relatively well. We found our seats, got some beer, and were able to get back in time for the opener, Travis Scott.
I’ve had the opportunity to see Travis Scott many times before but something always happens and I never end up going. There was actually this one time where I did go but I was too drunk and the staff made me sit down on the street before they would let me inside. After what felt like 20 minutes, they decided to let me into the show. We won’t talk about why but I ended up getting kicked out of the venue within like the next 7 minutes anyways. So I spent the rest of my night freezing in the parking lot — which I do not remember. Thankfully security was able to bring my friends to come save me after the show was over because I also managed to lose my phone somewhere. No worries though, after missing work the next day and searching in the rain for an hour I was able to find my phone which was across the street, in a bush, and no where near the venue’s parking lot. So yeah, that’s my history with Travis Scott shows and why I haven’t seen him yet.
Anyways, Travis didn’t let me down. Of course I would have preferred to see him outside of an arena but I’m still really impressed with what I saw. He did a really good job of getting the crowd pumped up and that’s gotta be so hard to do with a huge crowd like that. People were jumping and dancing which I truthfully didn’t expect in an arena but Travis made it work. At one point he even jumped in the crowd and turned up a whole section of the arena. It definitely made me respect him more as a performer and motivated me to make sure that I see him at a show of his own. I also really liked his set. There was this huge, illuminated cyborg in the
After Travis was done, we waited about another 30 minutes or so for Rihanna to come on. As we were waiting, the floor area was flipping out over someone but we couldn’t really see who it was. Later I found out it was Kendall and Kylie who had gone to Legoland with Travis Scott and a bit of Odd Future earlier that day.
♫•*¨*•.¸¸♪ FINALLY ♫•*¨*•.¸¸♪
It was time for the show to begin.
The lights went down and the instrumental for “Stay” started to play as everyone lit up the arena with their phones. Then on the staircase of the back stage emerged a hooded Rihanna as she carefully climbed the stairs and met the crowd. After she finished singing “Stay” she had a moment with the crowd as she humbly presented herself while we all cheered.
Overall, I really enjoyed the concert and had a lot of fun. I was so thankful that Rihanna performed some of her older hits too. I love ANTI but the older hits that she performed were so much fun to dance to and were ultimately the songs that made me love Rihanna up to this point. It was like a high school dream that finally came true (lol). I also loved all the outfit changes and production as well. That’s one thing that I’ve never really experienced before because I’ve never been to a high budget world tour like this one. I especially loved the guys in the glittery cat suits that were dancing to “How Deep Is Your Love”, they were amazing! Watching Rihanna’s sexy ass dance above the crowd was probably my favorite dance sequence though. She was a total tease as she fearlessly played all around her clear runway, strutting her stuff in mid-air. I wish I would’ve gotten a better video of that part of the show because it was definitely something to see. Watching her sing “Love On The Brain” was another favorite part as well. “Love On The Brain” is one of my favs off ANTI and the crowd really got to hear her do her thang during this performance. To close she performed “Kiss It Better” and I’m so glad she did! I was almost afraid she wasn’t going to! “Kiss It Better” is my number one, favorite favorite favorite song off of ANTI. I immediately fell in love with it because the guitar in it reminded me of something that would come from a Prince song. However I always kind of kept that opinion to myself because Prince, being the legend that he is, has fans that will straight up tell you how it is and I didn’t want to be wrong. However my opinion was reassured as the guitar player transitioned “Kiss It Better” into the outro of “Purple Rain”. It was such a dream to hear the two songs mix together live and it instantly made me feel connected in an indescribable way. I felt present but I also felt nostalgic. It was a moment I’ll never forget, that’s the only way to explain it.
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