The final day of the ‘Last Girl On Earth Tour’ took place in Perth, Australia on 12 March 2011. Rihanna had been touring for eleven months, but it must have been sad for her to perform her last concert. She knew she would be on the road again soon as her Loud tour was starting in June, but it wouldn’t be the same. Most of her crew and dancers would stay with her, but some had come to the end of their journey with Rihanna and would be moving on to different projects.
Finishing in Australia had been nice, because RiRi had loved being in that country. She did find it strange that no-one she met there was the same colour as her, telling chat show host Chelsea Handler that she hadn’t seen many black people in Australia and the few she had seen in her audiences had been very dark.
When the tour came to an end, some of RiRi’s dancers and members of her band decided to film a thank-you video for her. They used clips of RiRi performing as well as backstage clips, and recorded special messages to create a video that would no doubt be treasured. In all, they had done a total of 73 shows together worldwide.
Dancer Chase Benz was the first to thank Rihanna in the video. He said: ‘Robyn, what’s up? It’s Chase, I wanna say a few words, thank yous. I wanna say thank you for this year: it’s been amazing, all the stuff you’ve done for us, as a whole crew, for me – you let me propose to my wife, that was a dream come true for me. It’s also been a dream come true for me to dance behind such an amazing artist like yourself. And try not to get too teary-eyed with this one, but this year has been unbelievable, so hope you don’t forget me. Hope to see you again soon. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.’
Eric Smith, her bassist and musical director, was the next person to leave his own message for Rihanna. He said: ‘I just wanna say thanks: it’s been incredible, working with you since the beginning, basically. Like I told you in Prayer, to watch you grow from a little girl to a grown woman on and off the stage, it’s been incredible. You are amazing, A1, top of your game! I’m proud to say I’m your band leader, bass player and your big brother.’
Chris Johnson, RiRi’s drummer, apologised in his message, commenting: ‘I will say it was my mistake ever leaving you the first time. Coming back this time I’ve realised how much fun and how much of a great artist you are to work with. If you ever need anything, on, off the stage, just let me know.’
The last person to leave a message was Bryan Tanaka, another of RiRi’s dancers. He spoke direct to RiRi through the camera, telling her: ‘It’s been amazing working with you for the past four years and to see you grow into a superstar in front of my eyes, just to see you turn into one of the most amazing singers and performers. The crowd love you; just being part of it, and working with you so closely for this long is definitely a blessing in my life, it’s a big blessing. So I want to thank you very much from the bottom of my heart and it’s been absolutely amazing to be like a bro to you, because I care about you: you’re absolutely amazing at what you do! I’m looking forward to the future.’
On her return to the US, Rihanna joined with other singers, actors and sports personalities to promote the UNICEF Tap project. The aim of the campaign was to educate people so that they realised that 900 million others around the world don’t have access to clean, safe water and to encourage them to do something about it.
The idea was that restaurant owners would back the Tap project, and start charging a dollar whenever a customer wants a glass of tap water; the money raised would be used to help give those in need access to clean water, and so reduce the number of people dying from waterborne diseases. On one of the adverts Rihanna poses with a bottle of water, which states: ‘Rihanna Tap Water. Not your typical tap water, unless of course you live next door to Rihanna’. She also filmed a video, which sees her drinking some tap water in a ‘sexy’ way.
As well as appearing in adverts, Rihanna also bottled some tap water from her own house, which people who donated to the cause could win. Her bottle was one of six to be included in the ‘Celebrity Tap Pack’ prize box, along with bottles from Selena Gomez, Taylor Swift, Robin Williams, Adrian Granier and Dwight Howard. For every $5 that fans donated at www.celebritytap.org, they could have one entry into the draw to win the celebrity water.
After the terrible earthquake and tsunami hit Japan on 11 March 2011, Rihanna wanted to do something to help: she always believes that she should use her celebrity status for good and supports many charities. Universal Music contacted her, and said they wanted to release an album of tracks to raise money for the Japanese people affected by the disaster. RiRi knew she had to get involved. She joined with U2, Bon Jovi, Nicki Minaj and 32 other recording artists to support the Songs for Japan album. Rihanna sang ‘Only Girl (In the World)’ and waived her royalties, as did the other artists taking part.
On the 28 April 2011 RiRi headed to New York for the DKMS 5th Annual Linked Against Leukaemia gala. She was presented an award by Katharina Harf, one of the co-founders of DKMS, for the work she has done to get more people to register to become bone marrow donors and the help she has given to people with leukaemia. Rihanna really is one in million.
Since splitting with Matt Kemp, Rihanna has been linked with many people. She just needs to be at the same event as someone, and the media starts saying they were seen flirting and kissing! When she appeared on the Graham Norton chat show, she shared his sofa with Phone Booth actor Colin Farrell, comedian Rhod Gilbert and English actor Daniel Radcliffe.
Websites and blogs started to suggest that Rihanna and Farrell had been exchanging sexy text messages, and when they were both spotted enjoying a meal at the Los Angeles restaurant Giorgio Baldi in March 2011, people started to suggest they had been on a date. They had actually been sitting nowhere near each other and Farrell had been there for business, not to meet Rihanna.
Gossip sites also linked Rihanna to Cruel Intentions actor Ryan Phillippe only a month earlier, because he went to a few of the same events as her and attended her birthday party. The press tried to say they were keeping their relationship a secret, but Rihanna is supposed to have denied anything is going on between them to a member of the paparazzi. According to ITN, when she was asked whether she was dating Ryan, she said: ‘No, no, no! I hate to burst your bubble, but no. I am dating girls – I am just kidding!’