On November 20th I saw Rihanna live in concert. For free. How'd it happen? Well keep reading and you'll find out about my fortune and good luck. In preparation for the release of her seventh studio album Unapologetic, Rihanna decided to tackle a revolutionary project: she would tour the world playing seven shows in seven countries in seven days. As cool as it sounds, just imagine how grueling it must have been on Rih Rih. She took the tour across the globe, and eventually ended it at Webster Hall in New York City. How it worked was that at noon everyday Rihanna would announce where she would be performing. You would then have to go to the venue and get a wristband, and then return later that night to stand in line and hope that you get a ticket. It was a great idea that was a huge success in terms of promo, and luckily I was able to attend.

At noon on Tuesday, Rihanna announced she would be playing at Webster Hall that night, so on my way to my last class of the day I stopped by Webster hall and got my wristband. I was #140, and they told me to come back to start lining up at 6pm. I tried to get someone to go with me to the show, but since it was Thanksgiving week people were either leaving that night or had exams the next morning so I had to fly solo. Honestly, I could have cared less because I was going to see the show for free. So I showed up at Webster Hall at about 5:50 and the line was already about fifty people deep. I figured I was far enough up that I would be guaranteed a ticket. As we stood there in the freezing cold we waited for any shred of information as to what the protocol for the night was. To our dismay we stood there and waited...
The people in charge of the event did nothing other than make sure we were at least 18. We waited. And waited. And waited. Eight o'clock rolled around and they started letting people in. Unfortunately, they only let in about five to ten people at a time, and then waited twenty minutes or more to let the next batch in. I didn't have my ticket in hand until 9:15. It was over three hours of waiting in the cold, but thankfully I was guaranteed to see the Bajan Beauty. So I entered the venue which is one of the City's most popular night clubs, and found a nice spot to the right of the stage, towards the middle of the room. I was actually in a really good spot with a great view.

The venue was a great size, and they had a really great DJ playing a fun set. He mainly played rap, but he brought in some good pop songs and it was complete with a few Nicki tracks. I stood there listening to the music and bobbing my head as time passed. And time passed. And some more time passed. The wait was so long that the DJ even had to start replaying some of the songs he had played earlier in the night. It wasn't until 11pm that Rihanna finally made her stage debut. It was long, but so worth the wait.
I've always said that I would never pay to see a Rihanna concert. The fact is she can't sing live to save her life. She puts on a good show, but I can't justify paying somewhere between fifty and one hundred dollars to hear her weak live vocals and to see her strut around the stage either stoned or drunk off her @$$. However, after seeing this show I would totally pay to see her live. Thankfully, when she came on stage it appeared as if she was sober. What I think I was really surprised by was the fact that she looked gorgeous. She usually looks like a hobo who threw on some jewelry, but tonight she looked flawless. She's much prettier in person, her skin glowing and so perfectly colored that she looked like a Barbie doll. She kept her wardrobe simple by wearing just a white baseball jersey and a pair of white sneakers. She started the show off with a bang, and I was freaking out.

The interesting thing with this show was that it only lasted seventy minutes, but she performed basically a regular length set list. What she did was she cut almost all of the songs down to 1.5 to 2 minutes, that way she could perform her whole repertoire without playing a long show. I actually really liked this because it meant we got to hear all the Rih Rih songs we love in such a short interval. The time flew by. Rihanna has a really great swagger when she is on stage, and I was surprised that I actually liked watching her perform in this smaller venue with no production (just a band and back-up singers) as opposed to the GaGa/Britney type spectacles. She is a natural performer and entertainer, and even though she only sang roughly half of the time, relying on her back-up singers and vocal tracks to do the bulk of the work, it was just as good of a show. Rihanna performed hit after hit, rarely taking a break to gain her breath. She interacted with the crowd a lot, and even gave away a new HTC phone that was custom created by Rihanna herself which is the only one in existence.


One thing I noticed during the concert is that Rihanna's vocals are really starting to wear thin, and she keeps producing music like it's going out of style. After many years of following the career of Britney Spears, I've learned a few things about the voice. We all know Britney by her signature "baby" voice that is used to make her sound sexy. She uses it all the time, and so now the deep, rich and mature voice that she once had is all but gone. I fear that Rihanna is headed down the same path. The entire concert I noticed that her voice was much higher and much less powerful than it used to be. And when she performed her older songs it revealed two things: 1) her voice isn't what it used to be and 2) the quality of her music has declined severely. When she was performing songs like 'Umbrella', 'Hate That I Love You' and 'Take a Bow' it was almost hard to listen to because those revealed that her voice is much weaker and those songs are better than all the music she's released over the past few years combined. I love having a new album every year, but I think she needs to take a few years off and come back and wow us. She's got the talent, I just fear she's going to lose it. Apparently Jay-Z and Azealia Banks were in attendance, a fact I did not know until I sat down to write this post. Otherwise, the concert was fantastic and I enjoyed every moment of it. "This Rihanna reign just won't let up."