Rihanna live at Manchester Arena 16th May 2010

On the 16th of May 2010, three friends and myself went to see Rihanna's "Last Girl On Earth" Tour preformed at Manchester's evening news arena, with a supporting act of Pixie Lott. Firstly Pixie Lott preformed, and her dress was amazing as the top half was black and the bottom, a turquoise tutu made of feathers and knee high boots! Pixie Lott preformed eight of her most well known songs ( such as Turn It Up, Mama Do, Here We Go Again, Gravity, Cry Me Out and more) off her "Turn It Up" album that was released in 2009. She set the evening off to a good start as she engaged in the audience by talking to us and making good use of the stage, this got the right mood going. To get us even more ready for Rihanna, she even changed the lyrics of one of her chorus' to wish us a good time listening to the amazing artist that Rihanna is.

After Pixie Lott preformed there was an interval, while changes to the stage was made and just generally make Rihanna's entrance even bigger. To make her first entrance a screen of brilliant graphics announced : ' When Rihanna dreams of a world of her own she wakes to find her dreams have come true. The streets are empty, no sign of other life. Ghostly radio crackles reports on the dying embers of an unexplained disappearing world- "There have been no reports of earthquakes, there has been no war, no natural disasters" Look around you and you will see Rihanna is the only star on the cover of every newspaper and magazine and the "R" symbol is embellished everywhere. Now experience her dreams and nightmares- A world filled with demons, fantasies and memories of The Last Girl on Earth.' With that the back of the stage opened and a tall platform moved forward with the star of the show on it.

Rihanna was hardly visible as the lights were low, but this had been planned as she was wearing a black, floor length dress which had tiny red lights on which moved and flashed on and off. The dress was a very appropriate as she then started to sing "Russian Roulette" off her most recent "Rated R" album, and at the end of the song (when the character is shot) all the lights on her dress went off. Within a flash Rihanna somehow got changed into a military look-a -like uniform and a huge, pink tank had appeared to the side of the stage, so then she sung "Hard" with a group of male dancers dancing around her. The next prop came with then next song when Rihanna then went on to sing "Shut Up And Drive", and the prop was a old banger car which she danced on top of and got a member of the audience to dance with her. Graphics introduced every three or four lots of songs, and like the website for the tour said, she had definitely pulled out all of the stops.

My favourite graphics was for "Disturbia" and in that performance people on large stilts came out and Rihanna dodged between their legs. The song with the best atmosphere, in my opinion, was "Rockstar 101" and a really talented guitarist came on stage and Rihanna applauded him. For the encore Rihanna came up out of the stage and singing a rather appropriate "Wait Your Turn" as we waited a few minutes for the encore, then she also merged into other songs such as her part in "Live Your Life" which she featured in with T.I and her most famous song "Umbrella".

All in all, Rihanna must have worn at least 10 outfits and used a different way to get off stage each time which gave the night extra surprise, she also sung at least 25 songs and more of her songs were featured as backing music to go with along with the graphics. The night has been one of the most brilliant nights of my life and I think all of her albums are amazing, my favourite song is Fire Bomb which is off her "Rated R" album.

I think the best thing about Rihanna's tour was the fact she didn't just perform her newest songs, or them of a certain genre.

Written by Beth from Appleby, winner of the wotson4u review competition.