Last week I was lucky enough to get hold of a few tickets for the Manchester Rihanna gig at Emirates Old Trafford. I only got the tickets on the day so it was arranged that day, it's probably the most spontaneous thing I've ever done on a Wednesday.
I won't claim to be a massive Rihanna fan, I've liked a lot of her songs but haven't really followed her career, I definitely hadn't listened to her new album before the gig! The doors for the event opened at 4 (we didn't arrive until about 8) There was a support act called DJ Mustard (??) on first and we entered as the second support, Big Sean, was playing.
Rihanna didn't come on stage until about 9:15, which I'm sure for the people who had queued all day that would have been exhausting to wait so long! I'll be totally honest here, for £75 a ticket (which I didn't pay, mine were free) the performance should have been much better, much longer and I feel the song choices could have been a bit better!
Most of her most popular songs she only played a short snippet from, I get that she has a LOT of songs and maybe that's the way to get as many as possible in but it was difficult to get fully involved! She obviously played a lot from her newest album, as expected but I was hoping for a bit more variation.
Now if the title didn't give it away, and you somehow haven't come across this news over the last week, Drake showed up at the gig! Although it was rumoured he might do, we didn't think he actually would. He sang Work with Rihanna which was amazing, and then sang his own song One Dance, which is so incredible to hear in that kind of atmosphere!
Rihanna finished the show with a song called Love on the Brain, which if you haven't heard, and I hadn't before the show, you should definitely go and listen to it, it's a really incredible song and she did a great job singing it live. She had a reputation as a bad singer in her younger years but she has definitely improved.
I was very surprised that there was no encore at the end of the gig, I've never seen an artist not do an encore before, maybe her and Drake needed to be somewhere. I was begging for them both to come back on and sing Too Good and Take Care but I can only be so lucky in one day!
So for last minute plans, free tickets I had a really great night. But I think tickets are getting way too expensive, the fact that Rihanna didn't sell out this show and tickets were given away for free at my work (work work work work work) place shows you that maybe they were way too much!
Beyonce is playing this week at the same venue, as it is open air I'm debating going somewhere nearer to the stadium to hear Queen B sing! I don't think I'll be so lucky to get more free tickets!
Did you attend the gig? Are you going to see Beyonce?
Thanks for reading,
Rachel xx
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