In April 2011, Rihanna moved into her first proper home, after purchasing a modernist mansion in Los Angeles. It has 12 bedrooms, and so she always has room for her family and friends to stay over when they visit her; it was also extremely expensive.
She revealed to Vogue: ‘I looked steady for two years, and it is way above the price I was looking for, but I loved it.’
RiRi enjoyed being able to decorate it in just the way she liked, and added: ‘It is all white – there is a gun chandelier in the middle of the living room. In one room, I have this huge black-and-white painting of Bob Marley, and the wallpaper is green, yellow and red, the African flag colours.’
She won’t be living there on her own, though. RiRi now has her own baby: her toy poodle Oliver, who lives with the singer and her best friend Melissa Forde. In the last place they shared, Rihanna received so much fan mail that she had to give it a whole room in her house! The former theatre room became her fan-mail room, and she filled it with letters, drawings and gifts that fans have sent her over the years. She receives loads of stuff every day from all around the world. It’s a good job she has so many bedrooms, because she might need two or three to store her fan mail; she keeps getting more and more each day.
Quite a few of RiRi’s friends are older than her, but it’s no surprise really; she behaves much older than she is. She explained to W Magazine: ‘I’ve been paying my own bills since I was 17, living in a foreign country, and I’ve always been a little older than my real age. People always said that to me, and I always felt that in my head.’
The ‘Loud Tour’ is set to become Rihanna’s biggest-ever tour, as she is doing 88 dates from 4 June to 22 December 2011. Originally, it was going to be smaller than the ‘Last Girl on Earth Tour’ (which had 73 dates), but so many fans wanted to go that Rihanna added more dates. She didn’t want people to miss out, and sold more than 300,000 tickets in the UK alone. RiRi also broke the record for the O2 Arena, as no other solo artist has ever performed 10 shows there: normally, they just perform one or two.
She said in a statement: ‘We’re creating an incredible ride with this tour. I’m excited to get out on the road and share my new music from this album. We are going to have an amazing time and I know my fans are ready to get LOUD!’
As well as performing lots of tracks from her Loud album, Rihanna also made sure ‘Disturbia’ and ‘Umbrella’ were part of her set list, as she loves performing them and fans love them, too – they are big fan favourites.
RiRi wanted her concert to be the best her fans had ever seen, and so as soon as the tour was announced in December 2010, she started working with her creative team on the new set and costume designs. She also wanted the best supporting act, and was thrilled when J. Cole signed up to come on tour with her. Cee Lo Green, singer of the Gnarls Barkley smash hit ‘Crazy’, originally signed on for some dates, but unfortunately had to pull out because of a scheduling conflict.
Back in February 2011, RiRi told Extra: ‘I’m really excited about [the “Loud Tour”]. We’re just starting to put it together and it’s going to be even bigger than my last tour, which I didn’t think [was possible]. The “Loud Tour” is going to be special.’
In another interview with Ryan Seacrest, she said: ‘We’re going to start the first week in June in the United States. It’s the Loud era, so I’m very excited! It’s going to be new colours, new stage and a new show…’
She added in a later interview with Ryan: ‘We’ve just designed the stage and we have a section that we are building where the fans can actually be in the show and in the stage, and be closer than they’ve ever been. It’s real VIP!’
When some websites started to spread the rumour that some of RiRi’s tour dates might have to be cancelled because of poor ticket sales, she was understandably upset. There was no truth in the stories, as all of Rihanna’s tour dates were proving popular and looked like they would be sell-outs.
On most nights of the tour, the set list ran as follows:
Both critics and fans agree that RiRi’s ‘Loud’ Tour is her best tour to date. Amanda Ash from the Vancouver Sun wrote in her review: ‘Rihanna knows how to throw a party – a sexy, steamy, tight and bright bash where yesterday’s troubles are crushed beneath mile-high stilettos and drowned by intoxicating club beats.’
Rihanna has achieved so much already but she wants to try some more things in the next few years. In the next 10 years she would like to have her own make-up and clothing lines. She is so passionate about fashion that having the opportunity to design clothes for other women would be a dream come true for her.
RiRi would also like to win more Grammys and other awards for her music, and release more hit singles. What matters to her the most, though is keeping her fans happy because they make everything she does worthwhile.
She is so thankful to everyone who has helped her get where she is today, and looks forward to what the future holds…