When Barbadian global phenomenon Rihanna takes to the stage tonight in Buffalo, New York, at First Niagara Centre for her highly anticipated Diamonds World Tour, it will be one of the biggest production efforts ever.
RiRi’s camp have released plenty of footage from the stage and wardrobe elements of the tour plus dancing auditions (with Rihanna selecting the ones she wanted to dance onstage) and it’s turning out to be quite a spectacle.
Hi-Hat, a choreographer who has worked with Justin Timberlake, Mary J. Blige and Shakira among others, said the band and the dancers have had fun rehearsing the final stages.
Joe Sanchez, production manager, said in a behind-the-scenes video that they started rolling the stage into the First Niagara Centre Tuesday night.
Design on the Diamonds tour stage started late last year “but we only started construction on it for about five weeks now,” he said, adding, “58 men will work city to city on setting up, but it will take 110 guys to tear it down nightly”.
For the Loud 2011 tour they had 15 roadshow trucks full. Now, said, Sanchez, they have 18.
“It is definitely a bigger and more complex show . . . lots of fun, innovative elements that have never been done before”.
In another video, where she was approving the stage and video content, she was asked by creative director/stage designer Willo Perron, “Anything that you loved? Anything that you didn’t like so much?”
Rihanna responded: “Oh my God, my favourite thing . . . content for Act 3 . . . the black and white.” Musical director Omar Edwards chimed in, “Yeah, the reggae part.”
To keep fans up to date, Rihanna has been posting footage. She is seen in rehearsal practising the dance routine to her Unapologetic album single Pour It Up. Rocking some baggy sweats, a tight tank top and a snow cap, RiRi gets loose with some sensuous waist movements.
With all eyes on her, she is sure to step up the game in her tour wardrobe.
For the Loud tour, she went with customized pieces from Adam Selman, Tom Binns, Mel Ottenberg, Nicolas Caito and Jeremy Scott. For footwear it was Oscar de la Renta and Max Kibardin, among others. The pop star sported fluorescent coloured booties, face masks and body armour, as well as encrusted bikinis, denim bras and skimpy metallic rompers.
For the Diamonds tour, there is a theme for every section, reportedly three, and the video shows the costumes being made for Rihanna, backup singers and dancers. In a huge warehouse, tailors and seamstresses were putting final touches on costumes. Costume builder Marley Glassroth called the getups “a little bit of rock and roll” and “sexy”.
Design director Selman and stylist Ottenberg are back again and were seen looking at Rihanna For River Island collection pieces on racks and also the accessories.
RiRi has 33 shows in North America between today and May 5 and already ten of her shows have been sold out, according to a website – Sunday’s show in Boston at TD Garden, Thursday’s in Philadelphia, and at the ON Air Canada Centre in Toronto on March 18 – with the rest in Chicago, Los Angeles, and the Barclays Centre in Brooklyn, New York.
She then goes on the European leg on May 26, starting off in Bilbao, Spain, and moving to Portugal, France, Switzerland, Turkey, Belgium, Germany, Sweden, Norway and Britain. Of those 38 dates, 16 have been sold out.
Diamonds will be Rihanna’s fourth worldwide tour, following Good Girl Gone Bad, Last Girl On Earth and Loud.
