First and foremost, I want to start off by addressing the amount of time it took me to even commit to attending the Seattle tour date of the Anti-Tour. When I first heard the advertisement on the radio back in September of 2015 I really thought nothing of it, because I am a self-proclaimed Rihanna hater…Wait for it Rihanna Navy, don’t come for me just yet. But then her album was released and I listened to a couple of the songs and I had to say, I was kind of a fan of the album, especially the ever-so catchy “Work, Work, Work, Work”! So at this point maybe I was warming up to the possibility of seeing her in concert. As the months went on I kept toying with the idea and sort of planning but never making concrete plans to actually buy the tickets. But finally be and my friends decided “Well why the hell not?” So April 16th, we bought tickets yes there were still tickets available just a week before the concert and we definitely thought that we had lucked out…. Yeah thought is the key word. So the day of the concert we are all happy getting ready and getting cute and we finally get to the venue right on time to catch the opener (which I will touch on later), we climb up and up an up to our seats in section 200 and something, row boondocks. Okay so I may be exaggerating a lot, but I kid you not we were in the highest section in the absolute last row. At this point we were convinced we had to move at any cost.
Lucky for us our other friend had seats in the 100 level and was waiting for her other two friends to show up so we just moved down and kept their seats warm for them. Which was glorious because we were actually able to see everything and even see the movements of the opener. Now I can address the opener. Another thing you should know about me, I don’t have a lot of faith in celebrities that come to Seattle, meaning if they even add Seattle to their tour list then I never expect them to have a good opening act. Oh Boy, but did Rihanna surprise my hating ass. She brought none other than Travis Scott, which if you listen to rap or hip hop music this was a big deal. I kept saying all week “she won’t bring him, that would be too good of a show,” and of course she proves me wrong and I kind of hate it and love it all at the same time. After Travis performed about five or six of his hit songs, it was finally time for Bad Girl Rih Rih. But of course that was after a short 30-minute intermission, to get the stage ready for her.
During the intermission, we had to go ahead and give up our seats, but we still lucked out and found some seats just a few rows up that weren’t occupied. And then the lights dimmed and in the middle of everything there was a white stage and a light beaming down on it, at this point I’m excited but still thinking let’s get this thing started already… and out walks Rihanna in a white coat with the hood up and brown knee high boots. She climbs the steps and stands there and starts singing “Stay”, her single from 2013 that topped charts for weeks and blared out of radios for too bloody long in my personal opinion. Even though I passionately dislike the song I hear something raising from my throat, something like a shriek something like fan girl yell, I’m still not really able to identify what it was. From Stay she goes right into songs from her new Anti-album, going next to “Woo”, and as the song starts a ramp lowers from the ceiling and she gets up on it and starts strutting and by this point I’ve turned. I’m loving every part of the performance and its giving me LIFE! She doe Sex with Me also while propelled in the air and as the song ends she finally reaches the other side of her stage setup in front of the crowd. What followed is an array of old and new music perfectly configured to make sure that every audience member is getting the optimal concert experience. She kept saying “Come on y’all ready to party” and that’s exactly what we did was party! I’ve been to a lot of concerts before and this was the first mainstream one that I have ever been to that actually felt like a party or a good time. Just as she gets to her single “Diamonds” is like my heart melted completely. I have now become obsessed with everything that she is doing on the stage, the way she talks, moves, her style, her aura. Then it hits me “I’m a fucking Rihanna fan!” Which even admitting is hard for me and kind of makes me want to gag a little bit, but you can’t sit at a Rihanna concert and sing along with as many songs as I did that day.
Shantae Young Creative Services 
