Rihanna Covers British Vogue by Inez & Vinoodh

[RAMROD 109,711]

 

 

In the midst of it all, the NFL came knocking. “I was approached…” Every year for the last 10 years, I suggest. “Well,” she twinkles, diplomatically. “But for this Super Bowl I was approached a few weeks before [the announcement] and I kind of kept putting off my answer.” The deadline to accept came and went – again, classic Ri – but this was more than timekeeping. There was history here.
 

In 2018, she turned down the NFL’s invitation to perform in solidarity with Colin Kaepernick, the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback who took the knee while The Star-Spangled Banner was sung at a game in 2016, a stance against the racial injustice and police brutality he saw the national anthem, and American flag, as having come to represent. Though Kaepernick became an international icon of protest, inspiring dozens of other sportspeople in the NFL and beyond to do the same, he brought about the mother of all meltdowns for many conservative Americans, whom the NFL duly indulged by seeking to squash the kneeling. And so: “I just couldn’t be a sellout,” Rihanna told US Vogue in 2019 when asked why she had refused to do the Halftime Show. “There’s things within that organisation that I do not agree with at all, and I was not about to go and be of service to them in any way.”

So what changed? “There’s still a lot of mending to be done in my eyes,” she says now, “but it’s powerful to break those doors, and have representation at such a high, high level and a consistent level.” This last point is key for her. “Two Super Bowls back-to-back,” she says, referring to last year’s headliners, Dr Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Mary J Blige and Kendrick Lamar, “you know, representing the urban community, globally. It is powerful. It sends a really strong message.” There’s another key difference this time as well. “Of course,” she says, becoming visibly moved by this thought, “raising a young Black man is one of the scariest responsibilities in life.” It’s made her re-evaluate everything. “You’re like, ‘What am I leaving my kids to? This is the planet they’re gonna be living on?’” She shakes her head. “All of those things really start to hit differently.”

On top of the responsibility, she felt emboldened by motherhood too. “It’s this knowing that you can do anything,” she explains, “even things that seem the craziest, like, ‘I’m going to say yes to the Super Bowl in the middle of postpartum?’” She still can’t believe she agreed. “What the heck am I thinking? But you’re geeked on a challenge like that because you know what your body just did. You feel this sense of ‘Nothing is impossible.’” Not that the nerves aren’t jangling; of course, she had no clue when she accepted that she would be pregnant again by the time of the performance. “It was almost like an out-of-body experience,” she says of the day it was announced. “I have not been on stage in seven years,” she says. “Seven years! From zero to Super Bowl? That’s mental.”

By now we’ll have seen her performance so will know if the following came to pass. Here was Rihanna’s intent: “I want to put on a show,” she says. “I want to have fun. I haven’t done this in a minute and I’m doing this for the people that love my music, the people that have supported me and gotten me to this place in my career. And who miss me as a musician in particular. It’s me really just getting back onstage – a crazy stage to be back on – but I’m really doing this for my fans.”

Wonderful, I say. And how many costume changes are you planning? “My goal is to do none. Seriously.” She does indeed look serious. “You get 12 to 13 minutes. You just want to come out, rock out and be done. Costume changes aren’t fun.” There’ll be dancers though, right? “You do get dancers,” she reassures me. “Tonnes!” She starts laughing. “So. Many. Dancers.”

With dawn still an hour away, now seems as good a time as any to face the moment all interviewers must face. The moment you ask Rihanna about her plans to release a new album. Anti, her last, came out in 2016, and in the years since she has fluctuated between blind optimism and borderline anger in the face of incessant fan and media questioning. But I’ve never seen her so up for it. “You can ask!” she says when I broach the subject. 

She’s been thinking a lot about her process lately. “When you come off of an album like Anti…” she begins cautiously, then visibly decides to just spit it out. “In hindsight, it really is my most brilliant album. I say that because in the moment, I didn’t realise it. But it always felt like the most cohesive album I’ve ever made. When you break it down and you realise this album goes from ‘Work’ to ‘Kiss It Better’ to ‘Needed Me’ to ‘Love on the Brain’ to ‘Sex with Me’ to ‘Desperado’.” She beams. “And somehow it all fits and not for a second did you glitch?”

The variety is exquisite. “Right? It’s like a DJ’s worst nightmare,” she says. “But there’s this pressure that I put on myself. That if it’s not better than that then it is not even worth it.” That’s such a toxic pressure. “It is toxic. You’re right. It’s not the right way to look at music because music is an outlet and a space to create, and you can create whatever. It doesn’t have to even be on any scale. It just has to be something that feels good. It could just be a song that I like. It literally could be that simple.”

https://www.vogue.co.uk/arts-and-lifestyle/article/rihanna-british-vogue-interview

 

That R9 album might never coming out 

[MelbHawker 6,583]

Whoever did her hair like that needs to go back to beauty school. Queen looks like she’s thrown a toaster in her own bath. Outfits, make up and body are FLAWLESS tho. 

Honestly, love that she’s literally just living her life / focusing on motherhood and doing all the important stuff. I think she’s really cool, & should she ever decide to release new music again I’d stream it. I do feel for her stans though. It must be tough because she constantly gives nothing.