Two weekends ago, Rihanna was in LA for Grammys weekend. She performed at a MusiCares event and thoroughly rehearsed for her Grammy comeback performance. But Rihanna ended up pulling out of the Grammys at the last minute. The official cause? Something something bronchitis, something something vocal chords. But some people thought Rihanna had seen Kedrick Lamar rehearse and decided “Nah, I’m good.” That was the joke going around – and according to Page Six, that might have been close to the truth!
Rihanna canceled her Grammys performance due to “bronchitis,” but sources exclusively tell Page Six it was just a ploy to get her out of the awards show at the eleventh hour, because she feared giving a lackluster performance.
“She felt like her performance couldn’t compare [to some of the other artists’], and she was trying to avoid the embarrassment because she knew it wasn’t the right comeback performance,” said an insider. “She said, ‘I’m not doing this.’”
Sources said RiRi rehearsed her tune “Kiss It Better” twice, but then got cold feet after seeing Kendrick Lamar and others rehearse. Another source who saw the pop star’s rehearsals told us, “It was underwhelming. The performance was like a throwback to an ’80s talk show. James Corden was going to introduce her, and she was supposed to walk over, talk to him, then gyrate on the mike.”
Our source continued: “People were watching like, ‘Oh, is that it?’ She was singing parts of the song live, but it had a lot of recorded vocals [in rehearsal]. We were surprised when she rehearsed the ballad [all the way through], because we thought she was going to kill it and come back with [her more upbeat single] ‘Work.’ It didn’t seem like Rihanna.”
Producers then powwowed with her team. “It was an intense conversation. It didn’t seem like they were discussing a doctor’s note,” we’re told. But another source said the singer “looked upset after rehearsals and a doctor came to see her . . . after the doctor talked to her and told her the diagnosis, she was forced to pull out.”
Yeah… I kind of buy this. There was something fishy about the sudden bronchitis diagnosis and it really does seem possible that Rihanna would suddenly get a bad vibe. To be fair to her, the Grammys were pretty screwed up this year, and several performances (Adele, Justin Bieber) had sound issues. Plus, it’s totally possible that Rihanna watched Kendrick and was like “who can even compete with that?”
Here are some photos of Drake and Rihanna leaving the Libertine Club in London early Tuesday morning. They’ve been in London all week, preparing for their BRIT Awards performance tonight. And possibly hooking up, who knows?
Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.
Maybe she’s like me and she’ll do anything to avoid that song Work
Very much this. All day long. That song is lazy.
wuhwuhwuhwuhwuh wuh
durdurdurdurdur dur
blahblahblah blah blah blah
omfg
and then there’s drake…
zzzzzzzzzzzzz
it’s sad because she has such a great voice
This! Enunciate.
She’s singing that song in patois, a Caribbean dialect of English. Yes, its annoying because most can’t understand her, but it is her native language.
@MyHiddles
wellllll… now I feel bad =/ lol… I guess that bit of info makes the song a *little* better… no…not really. I still don’t like it. I love me so Ri-Ri, don’t love me the work song. Gawh, she’s so damn pretty.
Myhiddles- that is incorrect- Rihanna is from Barbados- English is her ‘native’ language. patois is Spoken in Jamaica and some other Caribbean islands, Barbados isn’t one of them. There’s def. a bajam dialect, it would not be called patois
@myhiddles- Barbados does not speak patois only st lucia. She’s singing in a very fake jamaican accent. That song just sucks ass but glad she got another #1
Yes she does seems to be singing in a patois dialect. However the main issues is that people who are not familiar with the language is calling it gibberish. Some music reporter and reviewers who are ignorant in the knowledge of Patois which she was using called it that. They said it was gibberish because they couldn’t understand what she was saying. They need to be careful because that word when used to call a language they don’t understand gibberish has some racial undertones to it.
He say mi haffi work
He see mi do mi dirt
That’s not gibberish; that’s patois. I guess a lot of people are not familiar with true Jamaican music or to be even more modern Jamaican artists such as Sean Paul or Kranium. Kranium has a hit song on pop radio now called ” Nobody Has to Know. But he sings it nobody na fi know.
And let’s not forget Rihanna’s second hit off her debut album was Pon de Replay. How many people know what that means without looking it up.
@V4Real eeeehhhh, racial undertones might be stretching it. When I say gibberish, I think incoherent…like baby babble or my drunk Cuban cousin or my grandfather when he takes his teeth out. I know Rihanna has an accent and I took that into account. I did NOT, however, know about patois until I was told here and then I googled the song and there it was! Even knowing what I know now, I still don’t like the song.
Pon de replay was a fun song. It had a great vibe and beat. Way before all this twerk and grind music. ..lol.. She also enunciated more in that song. BTW, I’m still to this day, figuring out some words to some Sean Paul songs. They’ve been playing Temperature on the radio lately and I FINALLY got it. (I didn’t want to look at the lyrics). And I still, to this day, shake my ass in the car when I hear it. 😉
@ Yolo please know I wasn’t referring to you. But the word gibberish goes back in history and it is related to racial history.
BTW I really don’t care much for the song either
God I hate that song so much.
I totally hate it.
Underwhelmed is the perfect name for her return to music. “Work” is just not that great.
V4Real, MyHiddles, NewKay, fair points but it’s not that most of us don’t understand the lyrics or respect the culture. It’s that the song is awful.
She was planning on performing Kiss it Better.
Actually this seems more like the reason that her camp gave to the press, I wouldn’t believe if it wasn’t for all the things that’s going on with her tour & the cancelled dates. Is it just bad organization or is there something else going on?
I’m going to say the underlying reason is that her new material is bad. All the showmanship in the world can’t disguise that if the rest of it is as awful as ‘Work” was. And she doesn’t have that much showmanship to begin with.
Work is not a reflection of the album. The album is far better than that song work
All the songs sound the same and her voice isn’t good live.
Her new album is good but it doesn’t have any catchy songs aside from “Work”, I feel like the material won’t have as much play in the radio compare to her other ones.
There done a lot of shuffling around with the tour. She’s gone from performing in large venues to smaller more “intimate” ones on I believe as much as two venues, so far.
Her new album is the best thing she’s done so far.
As for radio friendly singles, Kiss It Better and Desperado are radio friendly.
Overall the Grammys were underwhelming so….
And? It was still unprofessional on her part to cancel the performance like that.
See, I don’t understand why she has to be the IT person of the night. She needs to gracefully learn how to let others shine (if all this is true and bronchitis is not).
I never said it wasn’t unprofessional. I was simply commenting on the title. An underwhelming performance by her wouldn’t have really made or broke the night. She should’ve gone through with it, or at least come up with a much better or more believable excuse. She was in the promo commercials so it made even less sense for her NOT to perform, bad move on her part.
Oh, Rih, work, work, work, work and try again next year.
“Kiss It Better” is my favourite on the album, so i hope she’ll perform it at some award show.
Me too Cynthia, love it. I call bs on the story altogether, Rihanna is pretty much fearless. Maybe she was ill, but probably just didn’t want to go. Who was she “afraid” would outdo her Taylor Swift, lol, I think not. It’s never been her favorite event to attend. Ditto for Drake.
how does that work? backing out like that? do they get paid and sign a contract to perform? do they have to pay $$$ to make up for backing out?
“how does that work?: No pun intended, right. LOL
You should have said how does that work, work, work work, work. The title of her latest release.
Adele was Ellen and she said if she was ever in situation like what she experienced at the Grammys she would just back out until they got thier stuff together
Maybe she was being spoiled, but from a PR perspective I think she made the right call.
Even Adele cried the day after her performance and said she was embarrassed.
I’ve been a fan of her guitarist for 20+ years and he had a total meltdown over this on social media. It was weird since he totally hyped it, then was devastated and MAD when he didn’t get the chance to perform. I think something like this did happen, coz he’s usually so professional. But I guess that’s how things may go when you’re just a hired hand in the R&B/Pop world. He used to have soooo much integrity…
Who is the guitarist?
Nuno Bettencourt. He’s an incredible musician. Was in the Boston band Extreme, popular back in the ’90s.
Omg, Nuno’s on FB.
Anyway, I could see that. His guitar has never been as prominent on one of her album’s as it is on this one and that track (Kiss It Better). I’d be disappointed. He’s an amazing guitarist ( loved him back in Extreme days too).
The album is HYPE. Her song is number one regardless. She could afford to pull out and even be lazy about it. Go Rihanna.
Her song is number one because there’s zero competition right now. She won’t last long if she stays lazy and unprofessional.
If it’s not that then something else is wrong because this whole ‘era’ has been a mess. I tend to believe the rumors that the album was still being put together till the very last second even after all the hype and waiting and that Riri wasn’t really ready to come back full swing.
That would make sense. They released it in a messy rush and it’s been issue after issue ever since.
Hope she plugs that hole.
Both her new videos already are severely underwhelming. After Beyonce’s epic Formation video, I was bored to tears with both. And why make two videos for such a TERRIBLE song?!
It’s hard to believe the excuse of “bronchitis” when she’s seen smoking blunts a few days before at NYFW and then smoking blunts a few days after. I fully believe she backed out due to fear of a bad performance and got a doctor to co-sign it as an illness. Her voice is shot and I expect A LOT of performances that end up being cancelled.
I agree with the above comments that Work is not a good representation of the album. The album is actually great with a lot of experimental tracks (read: not radio friendly), Desperado, Kiss It Better, Needed Me (which i think is about Leo DiCaprio), Woo and Same Ol’ Mistakes (which is a cover) are the best songs on the album.
Don’t forget Higher! Love
That song
If she had been there perhaps the Grammys wouldn’t have been so underwhelming.
I admit that sometimes I enjoy a couple of songs from her, but she’s mostly basic, in everything but the looks.
This!!!^^^
Probably true. She does get occasional moments of anxiety. I believe it. Kendrick Lamar’s performance outshone everyone but good for him, he raises his game.
I love Rih but she needs to work on her live performances and stage presence. Burlesque isn’t enough anymore. The novelty is off her supersexual act.
Ps – If people here don’t like Work, fine, don’t like it but do stop whining about ‘gibberish’ – whether it is or isn’t is debatable but she’s not the first to have a hit song with unintelligible or deconstructed lyrics. It’s not new. So are you complaining about the lyrics or the fact that it’s a hit?