Rihanna

Rihanna Music Up Close

Sassy, sexy and as famous for her outré fashion sensibilities and romantic relationships with Bad Boys as she is for her golden voice, Barbados songbird Rihanna was almost as big a sensation at last week’s Pepsi Pre-Superbowl show in Miami as winning Saints quarterback Drew Brees.


This was the pop star’s second of back-to-back Superbowl appearances, and oh what a difference a year makes. In January 2009, a black-haired Rihanna was showing off then boyfriend, R&B singer Chris Brown, to the Superbowl crowd.

Then in February rihanna and Chris Brown’s fairytale romance shattered as Los Angeles police booked Brown on felony criminal assault charges. The victim? Rihanna herself. The celebrity couple had been on their way to walk the red carpet together at the 51st Grammy Awards when the attack took place. Needless to say, they were a no-show.

“You start lying to yourself,” the 21-year-old singer told “Good Morning America,” nine months after the violence, explaining why she went back to Brown for a brief moment after the attack. “I’ll say that to any young girl who is going through domestic violence: ‘Don’t react off of love.’”

Rihanna hasn’t seen Brown since, but she told Diane Sawyer she wishes him well: “I want him to do well, have a great career, have a great life and grow up. And just take this as something you had to go through to grow up and learn.”

One year later, the Caribbean superstar appears to be at the top of her game once again. The singer’s short spiked hair is now blonde, is dating L.A. Dodger Matt Kemp. Kemp has his own Bad Boy rep to contend with: a former girlfriend has taken out a restraining order against him. Rihanna doesn’t seem to care. “He makes her happy,” a friend told People.com.

Two things that haven’t – Rihanna’s daring fashion choices and her amazing voice. At Sunday’s show, the singer in a revealing catsuit – or rather, half a revealing catsuit – sang a medley of her greatest hits, including “Wait Your Turn,” “live your life Riana” from her latest album, “Rated R” as well as “Riana Disturbia“ off her 2007 multiplatinum album, “Good Girl Gone Bad.” (All three songs are available as You Tube Music.)

Rihanna was also very much in attendance at this year’s Grammy Awards where she picked up two nods for her hit single, “Run This Town” (bringing her total number of Grammys to three) and hit the red carpet in a dramatic, shoulder baring cocktail gown that almost succeeded in stealing all the camera action from the night’s big winner, superstar Beyonce.