An admission – I have no Rihanna tracks in my iTunes library, so beyond knowing she had a penchant for arriving late on stage I had no real expectations heading to her concert in Macau. And afterwards, well I have to admit to being confused as to why she’s so popular… The overseas media hype for the Diamonds tour reached the front pages and beyond the complaints of arrogance about arriving on stage so late (as she did here) spoke of mega production values, dynamic costume changes… – the Venetian and local fans paid good money for the ‘Rihanna experience’ so why do so many artists still think it’s ok to come to Asia and short-change their fans. 
The 80 minute mostly lip-synced concert was continually broken up as the diva disappeared for what obviously a costume change in places she values more – but here it meant she spent almost 25% of the show off-stage. If you’re going to do a stripped-down show, then at least make the effort to create a ‘proper show’ rather than run the same show but forget the clothing changes etc. Oddly enough Rihanna, courtesy of the global media which panders to your ego and made you very rich – your fans around the world are fully aware of what the full ‘Rihanna Diamonds Tour experience’ is… and the CotaiArena has the facilities so that can’t be used as an excuse.
With her ladyship lacking any sort of stage presence and slipping off stage after almost every song, the first hour of concert was bitty and dire, sitting stage right the mix was so bass heavy that Rihanna’s supposedly strong voice was completely lost in the mix. Sadly not one song had me going, ooh that’s good, need to go buy the album. The energy levels picked up around the hour point when a medley of hits/songs the fans knew had the CotaiArena rocking and oddly rather than leaving the audience on a high the encore was a semi-ballad, where yet again from my seat her vocals were less than impressive.
One fan bemused me though, he’d spent lots of money on his ticket then stuck his ipad infront of his face for most of the concert as he used the not very good ipad camera to record the show and watched the show on his ipad screen.
It’s great for music lovers that the Venetian as part of its ‘integrated resort’ commitment is bringing such events to Macau, but they should insist – for the premium they’re obviously paying to do so – that artists bring their full show rather than some bastardized version of it.
In truth it wasn’t much of an ‘experience’ from a supposed global superstar, nor I think was it one that satisfied many of her wildly expectant fans. The bus queues outside after the show weren’t buzzing with sounds of happy fans discussing their favourite parts of the show, more the practicalities of reaching the border/ferry before it closed. Many artists complain of Asia’s attitude to music piracy, but when artists screw their fans at live shows as Rihanna did, pot kettle black/hypocrisy comes to mind.
Thank you to the Venetian Macau who provided bc’s ticket free of charge.