Today Rihanna performed her third and final concert in Auckland, New Zealand. As always Rihanna's CIA handlers/Live Nation are still insisting on an information blackout. However from the unofficial information that is beginning to trickle out I can tell you that Rihanna appeared on stage well within the expected 15-20 minutes of lateness. Rihanna went on to perform the standard set-list and costume changes but as with all the performances at the Vector Arena the stage set was slightly trimmed back due to a smaller stage. From the tiny glimpses of video that are available it appears that Rihanna put in a vocal strong and energetic performance.
If Rihanna had delivered a poor performance it would not have been for a lack of behind the scenes pressure on her coming almost exclusively from the US. Firstly Chris Brown has been in Houston, Texas, US over the last few days alongside on again/off again girlfriend Kerruche Tran. Yesterday Tran posted a picture on Twitter/Instagram featuring what fans think is Chris Brown's arm in the background leading to speculation that they are once again together. Although I must confess I'm not an expert in what Chris Brown's arms look like I have to say that I'm not convinced. The purpose of sending Brown and Tran to the same city at the same city at the same time was though of course intended to reduce the clamour for the restraining order keeping Brown away from Rihanna to be reinstated by giving the impression that the potential for a relationship between the two is now over. This has the knock-on effect of being slightly upsetting for Rihanna because I suspect she still has enough residual feeling for Brown to prevent Rihanna from sending Kerruche Tran a thank you gift for taking that particular bullet for her.
Secondly rumours are doing the rounds that Rihanna has had a major falling out with her long time friend Melissa Forde which has resulted in Forde being kicked off the tour and sent home to Barbados. I am in no position to confirm nor deny these rumours and I'm really not the person to be commenting on this. That's because I think it is well established that I have long been a source of tension between Rihanna and Forde and things have been getting brutal recently. In fact the purpose of getting Rihanna to appear on UK Channel 4's "Alan Carr: Chatty Man" was to give all the people at Channel 4 who have never met me but seem to hold a massive grudge the opportunity to provide Forde with lots of ammunition - no matter how false - to use against me. With the South African concerts coming up this rumour is being put about in order to create speculation about Forde's sexuality by giving the impression that the falling out between the two has been caused by Forde's unrequited sexual attraction to Rihanna. The unconfirmed rumour also forces people to pay attention to Rihanna's tour to find out if it's true or not.
Although I cannot confirm that rumour one way or another I am starting to er on the side of thinking that it is true. However if a falling out rather then Forde simply having urgent business to attend to away from the tour has occured I think it was caused by an argument about the amount of information that should be provided during the tour and whether Rihanna should be following my advice or Forde's advice rather then anything sexual.
11:55 on 8/10/13 (UK date).
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