Rihanna returned to The X Factor in December 2010, this time to duet with Matt Cardle in the final. Each of the finalists had to do a duet, and Matt was thrilled to get the chance to perform ‘Unfaithful’ with Rihanna. After they sang, she told the audience: ‘He’s amazing, he’s adorable and I’m honoured to share the stage with him. I really love your work – I wish you all the best. He is going to go very far!’
Rihanna and Matt’s duet was by far the best of the night, with their chemistry clear to see. Rebecca Ferguson sang ‘Beautiful’ with Christina Aguilera, One Direction sang ‘She’s The One’with Robbie Williams, while Cher Lloyd did a mash-up of ‘Where Is The Love’ and ‘I Gotta Feeling’ with Will.i.am.
After the duets, Rihanna took to the stage later on to perform her track ‘What’s My Name?’ and Christina Aguilera performed ‘Express’ from her latest movie, Burlesque. Over 2,000 people ended up complaining about the performances, though, because they didn’t think they were suitable for children watching at home.
Later that night, Matt was crowned winner of The X Factor 2010, but he had one regret: he wishes he had kissed RiRi during their duet. That night he released his winner’s song, ‘When We Collide’, and it sold 439,000 copies in the first week alone, making it the UK’s Christmas No. 1.
In April 2011, the media regulator Ofcom ruled that Rihanna’s and Christina Aguilera’s performances did not breach broadcasting rules and were ‘at the limit’ of acceptability for a pre-9 o’clock broadcast.
Rihanna spent Christmas 2010 in Barbados with her family and friends. She was heading home, when she got a big surprise at the airport: her family had travelled all the way to Miami so that she wouldn’t have to travel back to Barbados on her own! She was totally shocked when she arrived at the departure gate, and later tweeted: ‘I’m in Miami Airport…Guess who just popped up and surprised me at my Gate??? My mooooommmyyyyy…and my AUNTY!!! We all going home together… #BarbadosIloveyou’
Once they all landed, RiRi headed off for a party her brother Rorrey was hosting, and enjoyed being Robyn Fenty again, just a Bajan girl. She had a really relaxing holiday, catching up with people she hadn’t seen in a long time. Two days before Christmas, she decided to visit her mum’s fashion store in the Decosta Mall. As soon as people spotted her, the news spread that Rihanna was heading for the ‘Fabulous Boutique’. One fan rushed there and spotted RiRi standing with her mom, her friends and the people working at the store. She bought a T-shirt, and then asked Monica if she could meet Rihanna. RiRi was happy to pose for a photo, and the fan left feeling as if she was on Cloud Nine.
Rihanna enjoyed a private Christmas Day with her family, but was spotted on Sandy Lane beach the next day with her friends: she wanted to make the most of being near the sea, and Sandy Lane beach is one of the finest on the West Coast of Barbados. It is one of the best places to go swimming because the water is so calm, and lots of people enjoy using jet skis there. She spent the next few days on the beach, catching up with friends and having fun. Her bodyguard, Sonya and Ja’Maal Buster joined her on the beach along with her brother Rajad. Ja’Maal is the man behind RiRi’s gorgeous eyelashes and goes by the nickname ‘The Eyelash Guru’.
In the evenings they would go somewhere for drinks, and one night they headed to the Pre-Old Year’s Models & Bottles party at the Ship Inn Club. The Models & Bottles party is held every Tuesday night, and is the biggest party night in Barbados, with 1,000 people turning up each week. On an average night they serve 400 bottles to partygoers, and the Pre-Old Year’s party was the final Models & Bottles party of the year.
RiRi hadn’t been particularly close to her father for two years when the media reported that she had decided to forgive him for the things he had done in the past that upset her. She has always maintained a relationship with him, even when he was on drugs and had split up with her mum, but when he got drunk on her tour bus during a visit, she decided enough was enough. She was even more hurt when he spoke to the media about her attack without first discussing this with her.
In one interview she talked frankly to Vogue about her relationship with her father, and how she’s been left feeling stunned each time he has sold stories to the press or given them photos of herself as a child. She never expected him to do something like that, because she thought he would be loyal to her, and wasn’t the kind of man to want to profit from her fame by selling stories about her. Furthermore, she was deeply hurt when he spoke to the press shortly after her attack.
Rihanna explained to the fashion magazine interviewer: ‘My dad went to the press and just told them a bunch of lies because he hadn’t talked to me after that whole thing. He never called to find out how I was doing, if I was alive, nothing. He just never called. He went straight to the press and got a cheque.’
In the last few months of 2010, RiRi seemed to have decided to let Ronald back into her life. She went to see him more and even visited him on Christmas Day; she treated him to some new clothes and aftershave, and they seem to be mending their relationship. The Mirror interviewed him a few weeks later, and he confessed: ‘Maybe we’re not as close as we were when she was growing up here and was at school. But we are blood, we do not stay angry and we are friends again.’
He also talked about the incident that caused their rift two years earlier: ‘We did have a disagreement about the drinking on the tour. I got plastered on the tour bus. I can drink rum or beer, but vodka does not like me – or gin. She blasted me for that – she was always lippy, from her small days. I was picked up from the hotel in the morning and I was just shuttled to the airport.’
Rihanna will never decide not to love her father. After all, she wouldn’t have been able to handle some of the things that have come her way if she hadn’t been made a stronger person by what she went through as a child. She thinks her childhood gave her a thick skin, and helped her deal with the sometimes brutal recording industry. Her life might be like a huge rollercoaster at times, but she always has more ups than downs.
Interviewers like to talk about her parents splitting up or her dad’s drug problems, and paint the picture that RiRi’s childhood was horrible, but things weren’t so black and white. Yes, she witnessed some terrible scenes, but at the same time she had fantastic days on the beach with her family and friends; she also learned how to swim with the help of her father. She can remember practising how to write with him as well. He wasn’t the hopeless father that the media like to portray: when he wasn’t on drugs, he was great.
Now, as an adult, RiRi tries just to focus on the positive experiences she had with her father while growing up, and tries to forget all the bad times. Thinking of them won’t change anything and her whole family have learned to move on.
On 28 December 2010, the news broke that Rihanna had split with Matt Kemp. The media reported that the split was down to the singer’s schedule being so busy, and that the couple had struggled to see each other. Matt’s schedule was pretty packed, too, as he had to travel whenever the Dodgers had away games.
RiRi has always been honest with her fans, and in an interview with BBC 1Xtra back in October 2010, she admitted that things were tough, saying: ‘It’s really difficult because we are so far from each other most of the year, and we both have very demanding schedules. It gets difficult at times, but it is what it is.’
Rihanna saw in the New Year in Las Vegas, hosting a party at the Pure Nightclub inside Caesar’s Palace. She wore a gorgeous red maxidress with sheer stripes by designer Louise Goldin and seemed happy as she chatted to guests. After doing her duty at that party, she moved on to The Cosmopolitan party, hosted by Jay-Z. The Cosmopolitan is a $3.9 billion hotel (approximately £2.3 billion). RiRi changed out of the red dress and put on a brown wraparound dress, before dancing the night away with Beyoncé, Kanye West, Jennifer Lopez, Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin in the hotel’s Marquee Nightclub.
It was a night of singing and laughter: Beyoncé performing ‘Forever Young’ with Chris Martin, John Mayer performing ‘99 Problems’ with Jay-Z, Kanye performing ‘Runaway’, ‘Homecoming’ and ‘Monster’ with Jay-Z (as well as being DJ ) and RiRi performing ‘What’s My Name?’.
There was so much champagne on offer that people were dancing with a bottle each, and at $300 (£180) a time, the Armand de Brignac champagne bill must have run into thousands. Rihanna might have had a nice time the year before – ringing in the New Year with Matt in Abu Dhabi – but to be surrounded by Jay-Z and her celebrity friends, who have become like family to her, must have been truly amazing! It’s just a shame that Katy Perry and Russell Brand weren’t there to celebrate with her, too.