It’s been just seven weeks since Rihanna’s wax figure was unveiled, but already it needs a makeover.
The creepily life-like sculpture, which assumed its place in Madame Tussaud’s Washington, D.C., outpost on August 31, immortalizes the biker chick-meets-Blade Runner look that the pop star rocked this past winter: shoulder-padded blazer, airtight corset, shimmery makeup and a haircut that only she could pull off, part-buzz cut and part-blonde-streaked, sideways swoop.But Rihanna has moved on since then, now sporting mostly shoulder-length, barrel-curled locks in a shade twice as fluorescent as fire-engine red. Her new look is less severe, more romantic.
“A lot of people dress like Lady Gaga now. I’ve just stepped off into a whole new look and style,” Rihanna says calmly, phoning in just before a flight to London after a nonstop week of work and play in New York. “The whole shoulder pad thing, and the architectural look, is so sharp-edged and tough. I’m over that. I like floral prints now, which I never liked.“Trends are boring,” she adds. “It’s boring to see everyone doing the same thing.”If the 22-year-old’s ever-changing hairstyle doesn’t get that across, then “Loud” (Nov. 16, Island Def Jam Music Group), her fifth studio album and the follow-up to 2009’s “Rated R,” should do the trick. While not all that experimental sonically, the set teems with some of mainstream pop’s most unabashedly dance-driven beats yet.
It also boasts joyful hooks, markedly improved vocals and the kind of risqué lyrics that she first articulated so well on 2007’s “Good Girl Gone Bad” – her best-selling album to date at 2.6 million copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan.The singer wholeheartedly agrees. ‘Rated R’ showed that I wasn’t a shallow artist,” she says. “I have some depth. There was definitely some growth, going through that dark moment in my life.”Rihanna never refers to her relationship with Brown in specifics and says she “definitely” prefers to let “Love the Way You Lie” speak for itself, which of course is made easier by the fact that it’s not on her own album. “It’s kind of like the closing to that chapter, and now we’re in a new stage,” she says.Rihanna is the first to admit that making a personal connection with her fans hasn’t been her strong suit up to now. ‘I just felt like there was this big distance with us,” she says. “You know, they love me, they love how I dress and they move to my music, but they don’t really know who I am.”As for other high-profile looks, Rihanna is booked to perform on ABC’s “Good Morning America” fall concert series Nov. 17, the day after “Loud” hits the streets, and on the Halloween episode of NBC’s “Saturday Night Live.””For the first time, Rihanna is also delving into other sectors of the industry. She’ll launch her first fragrance, titled Reb’l Fleur (a play on words from a tattoo on her neck that reads “rebelle fleur”) next spring, and she’s has finished filmed scenes for “Battleship,” an action movie directed by Peter Berg.“My favorite part has been shooting in the ocean,” Rihanna gushes, sounding her most excited. “We were going at top speed, and I had to shoot this really badass weapon off the front of the boat. There was gunpowder all in my mouth by the time it finished.”Rihanna has a stuntwoman for her more daring scenes, but per usual, she’s more likely to take charge. “They always want me to sit down when the dangerous stuff happens, but I am a control freak,” Rihanna says. “So I said,’No. She doesn’t do it like I would do it.”