Diamonds World Tour

Diamonds World Tour was the fifth concert tour by Rihanna. It was launched in support of her seventh studio album Unapologetic (2012). The tour was announced in September 2012 following the singer’s performance at the 2012 MTV Video Music Awards. The tour kicked off on March 8, 2013 in Buffalo, New York and officially commencing on November 15, 2013 in New Orleans, Louisiana. The tour visited the Americas, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia with 96 shows in total.

The set list for the concerts included songs from a selection of Rihanna’s studio albums, the Diamonds World Tour includes five acts and an encore. Rihanna’s outfits were designed by a variety of designers including Riccardo Tisci of Givenchy, Raf Simons of Christian Dior and Alber Elbaz, footwear was designed by French fashion line Christian Louboutin and Manolo Blahnik. The tour featured support acts including David Guetta, Haim and ASAP Rocky among others.

The tour was met with praise from critics who noted artistic growth. Commercially, the tour was a success with extra dates being added due to high demand. The tour grossed $137,982,530 (USD) from 87 shows, according to Billboard magazine and was the fifth highest grossing worldwide tour of 2013. Rihanna broke numerous records during her tour including becoming the youngest artist to ever headline a show at France’s National Stadium, at the age of 25, performing at Millennium Stadium and two times at the Twickenham Stadium on June 10, 2013 and June 15 & 16, 2013 and again became the youngest artist ever to sell out the stadiums. Rihanna also made history when she became the youngest ever singer to sell out the FNB Stadium in Johannesburg.

SYNOPSIS:

The Diamonds World Tour includes five acts and an encore. The show opens with Rihanna singing “Mother Mary” while kneeling in front of a female monument in a “prayer-like” pose. The bright lights and rich stage production start after the song, when the singer performs “Phresh Out the Runway”. The show continues with a rendition of the remix of “Birthday Cake”; a performance through which Rihanna performs several sexually charged movements. For the performance of “Talk That Talk”, Rihanna is joined with additional dancers and musicians. After the performances of “Pour It Up” and “Cockiness (Love It)”, the singer finishes the set with a rendition of “Numb”.

The second set of the Diamonds World Tour is Caribbean inspired and begins with a guitar solo performed by the band. After the solo Rihanna appears on the stage with a changed costume and performs “You da One” and “No Love Allowed”. For the performance of “Man Down”, a mug shot of Rihanna together with her birth name “Robyn Rihanna Fenty” appearing on the video screen. The set is followed up with a performance of her 2009 single “Rude Boy” and ends with Rihanna singing “What’s My Name?”. The third set of the show, features Rihanna wearing multi-colored leather pants. The set is opened with a performance of “Jump” which features dubstep bass line and pyrotechnics. After that she performs “Umbrella”, “All of the Lights”, “Rockstar 101″ and finishes the set with the ballad “What Now” which features fire and crowd involvement in the performance.

The fourth set features Rihanna wearing a long red dress. During the set she performs a range of ballads; it starts with a performance of “Loveeeeeee Song” (Future’s vocals are played in the background) and then continues with “Love the Way You Lie (Part II)”. Rihanna performs a shortened version of “Take a Bow”, “Cold Case Love” and finishes the set with a rendition of “Hate That I Love You”. The fifth act, during which the singer wore an outfit made of money started with a performance of “We Found Love”. Rihanna performs a shortened version of “S&M” while having fun in the audience, followed up by “Only Girl (In the World)” and “Don’t Stop the Music”. The set is finished with a performance of her 2012 single “Where Have You Been”. For the encore, Rihanna gets back on the stage as she sings “a strong version” of “Stay” and finishes the concert with “Diamonds”.

SETLIST:

“Mother Mary”
“Phresh Out the Runway”
“Birthday Cake”
“Talk That Talk”
“Pour It Up”
“Cockiness (Love It)”
“Numb”
“You da One”
“Man Down”
“No Love Allowed”
“Rude Boy”
“What’s My Name?”
“Jump”
“Umbrella”
“All of the Lights”
“Rockstar 101″
“What Now”
“Loveeeeeee Song”
“Love the Way You Lie (Part II)” / “Take a Bow” / “Cold Case Love”
“Hate That I Love You”
“We Found Love”
“S&M” / “Only Girl (In the World)” / “Don’t Stop the Music”
“Where Have You Been”
“Stay”
“Diamonds”

TOUR DATES:

March 8, 2013: Buffalo,U.S.
March 14, 2013: Philadelphia, U.S.
March 15, 2013: Hartford, U.S.
March 17, 2013: Montreal, Canada
March 18, 2013: Toronto, Canada
March 19, 2013: Toronto, Canada
March 21, 2013: Detroit, U.S.
March 22, 2013: Chicago, U.S.
March 24, 2013: St. Paul, U.S.
March 25, 2013: Winnipeg, Canada
March 27, 2013: Edmonton, Canada
March 30, 2013: Calgary, Canada
April 1, 2013: Vancouver, Canada
April 3, 2013: Seattle, U.S.
April 6, 2013: San Jose, U.S.
April 8, 2013: Los Angeles, U.S.
April 9, 2013: Anaheim, U.S.
April 11, 2013: San Diego, U.S.
April 12, 2013: Las Vegas, U.S.
April 19, 2013: Tampa, U.S.
April 20, 2013: Fort Lauderdale, U.S.
April 22, 2013: Atlanta, U.S.
April 24, 2013: Baltimore, U.S.
April 28, 2013: Newark, U.S.
April 29, 2013: Washington D.C., U.S.
May 1, 2013: Montreal, Canada
May 2, 2013: Ottawa, Canada
May 5, 2013: New York City, U.S.
May 6, 2013: Boston, U.S.
May 7, 2013: New York City, U.S.
May 24, 2013: Rabat, Morocco
May 26, 2013: Bilbao, Spain
May 28, 2013: Lisbon, Portugal
May 30, 2013: Istanbul, Turkey
June 1, 2013: Barcelona, Spain
June 2, 2013: Montpellier, France
June 3, 2013: Lyon, France
June 5, 2013: Antwerp, Belgium
June 6, 2013: Antwerp, Belgium
June 8, 2013: Paris, France
June 10, 2013: Cardiff, Wales
June 12, 2013: Manchester, England
June 13, 2013: Manchester, England
June 15, 2013: London, England
June 16, 2013: London, England
June 17, 2013: Birmingham, England
June 20, 2013: Sunderland, England
June 21, 2013: Dublin, Ireland
June 23, 2013: Amsterdam, Netherlands
June 24, 2013: Amsterdam, Netherlands
June 26, 2013: Cologne, Germany
June 27, 2013: Cologne, Germany
June 29, 2013: Zurich, Switzerland
June 30, 2013: Zurich, Switzerland
July 2, 2013: Berlin, Germany
July 3, 2013: Hannover, Germany
July 5, 2013: Roskilde, Denmark
July 7, 2013: Gdynia, Poland
July 9, 2013: Vienna, Austria
July 10, 2013: Monte Carlo, Monaco
July 11, 2013: Monte Carlo, Monaco
July 13, 2013: Perth and Kinross, Scotland
July 15, 2013: Manchester, England
July 16, 2013: Manchester, England
July 18, 2013: Birmingham, England
July 20, 2013: Lille, France
July 22, 2013: Stockholm, Sweden
July 25, 2013: Oslo, Norway
July 26, 2013: Bergen, Norway
July 28, 2013: Helsinki, Finland
September 13, 2013: Macau, Macau
September 14, 2013: Macau, Macau
September 19, 2013: Manila, Philippines
September 22, 2013: Singapore, Singapore
September 24, 2013: Perth, Australia
September 26, 2013: Adelaide, Australia
September 28, 2013: Brisbane, Australia
September 30, 2013: Melbourne, Australia
October 1, 2013: Melbourne, Australia
October 3, 2013: Sydney, Australia
October 4, 2013: Sydney, Australia
October 6, 2013: Auckland, New Zealand
October 7, 2013: Auckland, New Zealand
October 8, 2013: Auckland, New Zealand
October 13, 2013: Johannesburg, South Africa
October 16, 2013: Cape Town, South Africa
October 19, 2013: Abu Dhabi, UAE
October 22, 2013: Tel Aviv, Israel
October 26, 2013: Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
October 29, 2013: San Juan, Puerto Rico
November 9, 2013: Denver, U.S.
November 12, 2013: Oklahoma City, U.S.
November 14, 2013: Houston, U.S.
November 15, 2013: New Orleans, U.S.

COMMERCIAL PERFORMANCE:

After the North American leg of the tour was announced, due to high demand extra dates were added in New York City, Toronto and Montreal. After Rihanna announced the UK leg of the tour, pre-sale tickets searches rose by 700% on viagogo. Experts predicted that tickets for all of Rihanna’s European shows could sell out in under six minutes.

Rihanna made history on May 24 at the kickoff of Morocco’s annual Mawazine Music Festival by performing for a crowd of 150,000; a new record in the country’s capital. Rihanna also made history by becoming the youngest artist to ever headline a show at Paris’ Stade de France, at the age of 25, stealing the distinction from Lady Gaga who performed at the stadium the year before at the age of 26. Rihanna also performed at Millennium Stadium and two times at the Twickenham Stadium on June 10, 2013 and June 15 & 16, 2013 and again became the youngest artist ever to sell out the stadiums. Istanbul’s İnönü Stadium hosted Rihanna on May 30, 2013. The stadium welcomed 35,000 people for the concert, which lasted an hour and a half.

Rihanna performed to a crowd of 65,000 in Singapore during Singapore Grand Prix on Sunday September 22, 2013. It was one of the biggest concert crowds in recent history. Also, Rihanna’s shows in South Africa were a commercial success. Rihanna made history on Sunday night when she became the youngest ever singer to sell out the FNB Stadium in Johannesburg. Rihanna was named the fifth-highest touring artist of 2013 by Billboard magazine, earning a gross of $137,982,530 over the course of 87 shows, of which 84 were sold out. On Pollstar’s year-end chart of the top one hundred grossing worldwide tours, from January 1 to December 31, 2013, the Diamonds World Tour was placed at number six with a gross of $141.9 million from the shows that were played during the given time period. Tickets were sold with an average gross of $1,867,248 per city.

FASHION:

To support her performances, Rihanna appeared in several different outfits on the stage. The outfit for the opening of the show was created by Italian fashion designer Riccardo Tisci for Givenchy. It features a masculine over-sized black printed and hand embroidered parka, which channels his signature mix of streetwear and Haute Couture. Under the parka, there was a black and white leather bra and a gold star embellishments, a sheer black silk shirt, gold embroidered satin shorts, and a gold shark tooth necklace engraved with the singer’s name: “RIRI”. In an interview for Women’s Wear Daily, Tisci said, “Rihanna represents what young and amazing means today. She is punk and talented. She offers intelligence, energy and pure beauty. She is the face of her generation.” According to a representative from Givenchy, the costume is a symbol of “female empowerment and urban haute couture elegance.” Tisci further contributed to a dark floor-length black cape, a printed parka with gold bullet motifs, and an energetic pink-and-neon dress paired with holographic kicks.

Belgian fashion designer Raf Simons and the creative director at Christian Dior, also collaborated with the singer and created a sheer black dress with white Rihanna x Raf Simons text on both sides of the item paired with shorts, and white python custom Christian Louboutin boots. According to Hilary Moss of New York magazine, both the boots [cargo pants] and the sunglasses which were wore with the outfit drew inspirations from the style of the nineties. Her personal costume designer Adam Selman also designed some of the outfits including a red halter and wrap-around skirt wore for the ballads section and a red, white and yellow color-block bustier with matching leather pants and Manolo Blahnik snakeskin boots. He also designed a dollar bill hologram dress combined with metallic Pierre Hardy high-tops. The jewelry for the Adam Selman looks was designed by Lynn Ban. Regarding Rihanna, Selman spoke to New York Daily News, “Her body is so insane. It’s the dream body to make clothes for. You don’t have to try as hard.” For the encore, Rihanna wore an Alber Elbaz created jumpsuit that made visible her chest tattoo of goddess Isis. The singer’s personal stylist Mel Ottenberg, describe the outfits for the show in general as “a very Thug Life Tupac mixed with nineties candy raver”.