Once Rihanna hit the stage Friday at 10:15 p.m., the thousands and thousands who were agonising over the long wait between the prior two acts, J-Cole and CoverDrive, became LOUD!
Patrons of VIP and VVIP boxes, which included calypso monarch Popsicle, party monarch Red Plastic Bag, Blood, Mara Thompson, Dr Jerome Walcott, Terencia TC Coward, Trinidadian entertainers Machel Montano and Farmer Nappy, and Opposition MP Mia Mottley, went as close as possible to the stage once the lights went down announcing the Bajan superstar.
A huge roar erupted from Kensington Oval that seemed to shake the grounds once the notes to her opening song Only Girl (In The World) were played.
When she appeared on stage, it was to screams of “I love you Rihanna” to “Oh My God, Rihanna” throughout the venue.
Thereafter, fans sang with her word for word; the songs they didn’t know only meant that they stared in awe at the amazing, unprecedented local production.
They waved Barbados flags with one group holding a banner high that read: We Love You Ri Ri.
In return, Rihanna connected with her $1 000 and $500 VIP fans by going right down to greet them. But there was one fan who got the ‘Bad Girl’ treatment as she brought him on stage, put him to lay down, climbed atop him for a grind until the stage disappeared below.
And if it couldn’t get any more exciting – in the middle of her So Hard performance, the songstress played a solo drum set which had most everyone’s jaw dropping.
Curtain call came at 12:10 a.m. when she said: “They tell me the show is over . . . . I love you Barbados, thank you!” Then, she sang Umbrella as it rained confetti on those who waited, screamed and loved LOUD.
