Rihanna-anna-anna-eh-eh

Jon & I caught Rihanna's performance at the O2! :)










Umbrella-ella-ella!
Yes, we did see some people bringing umbrellas for the concert.










Anyway, in contrast to Smashing Pumpkins where most people were around our age, this time around most of the people attending were young, screaming girls. Gosh. They can really scream. When Rihanna first appeared I thought I would go deaf! Already our ears had a pre-taste of what those vocal chords were capable of. When some celeb (I assume) came in, the girls all started screaming, and already I thought that was loud. Actually, I first heard the screaming then noticed they were screaming over someone that I totally didn't recognise. Jon and I asked the couple next to us (who happened to be around our age) who that guy was, and they didn't know either. I think we're all too old to know these things... :) But yes, there were some others our age and older. But the bulk of the crowd were kids (with chaperons!) and teenagers. Actually it's quite cute to see parents and their kids bonding over this event :)










But lest we sound like old fuddy duddies, we actually knew quite a lot of her songs :) Jon was surprised that certain songs he was familiar with were sung by her.

Paying tribute to Bob Marley










She put up a good show, and actually sang during the concert, not lip-sync, though the back-up singers did a lot of singing too. But I like her voice, there's a distinctive tone to it. Still, the concert felt more rehearsed and structured than the others that I've been to here. I guess it's cos she has to coordinate the songs with the dancers and dance routines, with props and multi-media displays behind. So she had less leeway to improvise. It's probably all timed and choreographed. But that's probably how it is with a lot of pop acts like Spice Girls and Kylie Minogue I think. Saw on TV the Spice Girls rehearsing their moves for their latest tour that just ended. On the other hand, Smashing Pumpkins was a rocking good time that felt free form and independent, and Mika was an intimate affair and crazy fun (even if he did have dancers occasionally, they really just pranced around freely in a non-choreographed way).

Overall it was a worthwhile trip, and fun to join in and sing the songs when I knew them...and of course we all know the ella-ella song! :)