Much to my surprise the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards (VMA's) took place on Sunday (25/8/13) at the Barclays Centre in New York City, US. Although she was only nominated for one award the final leg of Rihanna's Diamonds World Tour starts shortly and politically she's pretty much all the US have got at the moment. As a result Rihanna played a large part in the build up to the ceremony.
Firstly her friend Leandra hosted a pre-VMA's party at a nightclub on Saturday (24/8/13). The intention here was to push her into the spotlight in order to pique Chinese interest into Rihanna's core tour party by creating speculation that Leandra could be the CIA's so-called agent in the room helping to keep Rihanna in line and on her mission. Then there was Katy Perry's show closing performance. Katy Perry has of course been lumbered with being the public face of opposition to Rihanna and Chris Brown's relationship. Initially the plan was that Katy Perry would perform her new single "Roar" on top of the Brooklyn Bridge but the Mayor's office objected forcing Katy Perry to perform under the bridge instead. "Under the Bridge" is a famous song by the Red Hot Chili Peppers which is all about heroin addiction - illegal drug use is of course a big theme of Rihanna's upcoming tour leg.
The main purpose of Rihanna's involvement in the VMA's though was to demonstrate that the 'community containment' of Chris Brown was working so there is no need to put in place a formal restraining order preventing Chris Brown for contacting Rihanna. While Rihanna was in New York Brown was in Hawaii which is really the furthest point within the US from New York City. Brown has since been joined in Hawaii with his on again/off again girlfriend Karruche Tran and Rihanna was rumoured to have had dinner with her ex-boyfriend Drake on Saturday night. Therefore the intention was for Rihanna to turn up at the VMA's with Drake showing that both Rihanna and Chris Brown had moved on from the relationship. Bizarrely this actually seems like an attempt to reunite Chris Brown and Rihanna because while I don't think there is much chance of Drake and Rihanna resuming their relationship forcing them together in this sort of publicity stunt makes it far less likely that they will.
In the end the speculation about whether Rihanna would turn up with Drake turned into speculation about whether Rihanna would turn up at all. Although this added to the drama I think this was a genuine problem with Rihanna trying to decide whether she actually wanted to go or not. That's because while these award shows look great on TV when you're actually there they can be rather tedious with people like Rihanna being forced to sit there trying to act all natural while someone points a TV camera at them for the best part of three hours.
Another thing that would have put Rihanna off going to the VMA's was the fact the ceremony was very much dominated by Miley Cyrus who was nominated in multiple categories and was performing during the show. You may remember a while ago I said something along the lines of; "If I was being arrogant I would say that all the attention I've been giving to Rihanna has made Miley Cyrus jealous." As such making Miley Cyrus the Belle of the VMA's ball could well have knocked Rihanna's confidence by making her worry she could be getting replaced and reminding her that the grip she thought she holds over me isn't quite as strong and she'd like.
Also since I made those comments back in the spring Miley Cyrus has gone on to release a hugely successful single "We Can't Stop." This has caused quite a bit of controversy for the former child star of "Hannah Montana" because the song appears to make reference to things like casual sex and illegal drug use. The video features Miley Cyrus wearing not very many clothes and engaging in what is known as 'Twerking' which is a form of sexual explicit dancing common in Hip-Hop and RnB videos such as the ones frequently put out by Rihanna. Therefore there has been lots of discussion about whether Miley Cyrus is mimicking Rihanna and Hip Hop and RnB culture or gently mocking them. Miley Cyrus of course performed We Can't Stop on the night and stayed on stage dancing around in her underwear while white RnB star Robin Thicke performed his big summer hit "Blurred Lines." Obviously due to recent events any talk about lines being blurred is risky at the moment however with lots of white being used throughout the performance it was intended to be a reference to the white lines of cocaine that is a major theme of Rihanna's upcoming tour leg rather then Obama's red lines. Although I've not been following it the song Blurred Lines is all about female heterosexuality which has apparently angered certain feminists (the homosexual ones) not least because the video features female models dancing in not very many clothes. This is pretty much par for the course for Hip Hop and RnB videos but the way it is done in the Blurred Lines video has led to people suggesting that it is gently mocking Hip Hop and RnB culture.
Therefore coming at the start of a week of events in the US to mark the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King's famous March on Washington and "I Have a Dream" speech the purpose of these two white music stars being front and centre of the VMA's was to prompt a backlash against them for daring to suggest that the example set by black music stars such as Micheal Jackson and Chris Brown isn't quite what Martin Luther King was aiming for. Fair play to the both of them though because they seem to have deliberately made sure their critics had plenty of ammunition.
22:50 on 26/8/13.
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