Did Prime Minister Stuart and BTA Executive attend Rihanna’s concert?
By all accounts Rihanna’s concert on August 5th was a big success in many ways. Her fans had a wonderful evening even if some of the things she did caused more than a few jaws to drop. Everybody thought she’d turn her “raunchy” setting down to “low” for the homecoming concert but about the only thing she didn’t simulate on stage was oral sex. Then again, every artiste has to leave some room for development, so maybe we’ll see the oral sex on stage next time.
And there will be a next time because the Barbados Tourism Authority already announced they are talking to Rihanna’s people about doing it again. I wonder if they can find the same 60 year old guy for Rihanna to pull up on stage and simulate sex with? Maybe they can get his wife in on the act and have a awesome threesome. Reminds me of a wild time we had on the beach one night way back when. Well, hey… if that’s the standard for the Barbados Tourism Authority’s top representative, it should be okay for the rest of us!
What made Rihanna’s concert a “success” ?
Everyone says that RiRi’s concert was a success for Barbados so it must be so. I guess. We’ll all have to guess because it is a big secret who made the money or how much it cost the taxpapers. Rihanna doesn’t usually have to have her concerts subsidized, but it would still be nice for we taxpayers to know how much it cost us.
I’m still having trouble with the whole Rihanna – Barbados Tourism Authority deal. Sure, Rihanna’s concert raised the island’s profile for one news cycle, but I’m not convinced that translates into a return on investment in the form of increased tourism and investment.
I’m not sure whether Rihanna is capable of reaching the right audience for Barbados: high end travelers who will see her grinding away on stage and immediately think “Honey, let’s head for Barbados next vacation.”
If it’s all about making publicity and not reaching target markets, let’s really go to town and get Prime Minister Freundel Stuart up on stage to simulate sex with Rihanna. NOW THAT would get some worldwide press coverage. Matter a fact, get Owen Arthur and Mia and….
OH WAIT!!!! OH MY! I just had an idea for a couple of photoshop cartoons. OHHHHH This will be awesome! Give me a week or two to round up the talent and get in the mood.
Barbados Free Press isn’t the only publication wondering about Rihanna’s performances. Here’s an example from the Hollywood Reporter…
Rihanna needs to be careful and more mindful of her behavior. But, as she articulated to fans after one parents group recently claimed that her “Man Down” video glamorized murder, she’s not in the business of making appeasing the polyanna demographic. She tweeted, “I’m a 23 year old rockstar with NO KIDS! What’s up with everybody wantin me to be a parent? I’m just a girl, I can only be your/our voice! We have the freedom to make art, LET US! Its your job to make sure they don’t turn out like US. U can’t hide kids from society or they’ll never learn how to adapt!”
So much for hoping she changes. At the very least, we hope she passes on future on-stage inter-generational simulated sex.
From the Hollywood Life story Rihanna, Tone It Down A Notch! Simulating Sex On-Stage With With A 60-Year-Old Stranger? Ick!
Teach your children well…
Rihanna is 23 years old, a multi-millionaire with servants that come running. She’s pursued, feted and surrounded by important rich people feeding her whatever they think she wants to hear. She’s a valuable commodity and everybody, including the Barbados Tourism Authority and the Government of Barbados, wants a piece of the action. To be seen with Rihanna is to be publicly affirmed that you’re a somebody. Or a some-Country.
Money is what it’s all about – Not what Barbados is all about or should be or could be. Or was.
Our political and tourism leadership is so desperate and bankrupt of ideas that they can only latch onto Today’s Big Thing no matter what it is and with no regard for our heritage and how we want our country to be. Yesterday we embraced medical tourism. Today it’s Rihanna. Tomorrow it will be gambling. Maybe legalized prostitution after that ’cause we’re running out of things to sell ’bout hey.
I’m looking forward to the next Rihanna concert. The nature of relying upon publicity rather than product quality is that the publicity will have to be ever bigger, raunchier and more shocking to garner attention. Maybe Prime Minister Stuart will take the stage!
We’re teaching our children well…
What a powerful video. A big thanks to our long time reader UB. I don’t know where you come up with these gems, but we really appreciate them.
Barbados Free Press 
Stuuupst!
Get me hot wid dis nonsense all over again.
Listen. Tourism is dead. Tired saying so. If those of the “lighter persuasion” are getting vexx cause I say dis den GO TO HELL! Barbados don’t belong tuh wunnah exclusively.
I’d like to see the day when you guys really have to do HONEST WORK for your money. Always in some scheme to reap “ill gotten gails” and expect that it should exist on the backs of Taxpayers. On the taxpayer note, where the HELL is our tax refund monies? I cannot believe what I heard from a Treasury official the other day who said that monies earmarked for refunds were diverted to paying for this concert compliments the BTA(Better Tief ALL)
Lookah! Ah tired ah seeing dat mah munie supposed tuh be bout in ah Treasury! PAY THE PEOPLE WHAT IS THEIRS.
Chris, I hope that you did not let Richard Sealy tell you to approve this lawlwss spending. If the BTA wants to spend irresponsibly, then let the BTA do so with its OWN allotment.When that is out, send them home. Especially that pompous jackass at its helm. Actually I’d send hone the entire board and re-hire exclusively. But thats for another time.
Bajans need to expunge the mantle of self-rightreousness which they so ably veil themselves in. Rampant homosuxality and the sexual abuse of boys by older men and girls by older women and you guys are here talking about raciness, raunchiness and outward shows of HETEROSEXUALITY by Ri-Ri. I guess we just want a scapegoat! That girl has little control or input into many aspects of her profession and sometimes personal life. Remember Britany Spears? Good. Stop pointing fingers to divert attention from your own failings and train the little bastards you have. all this “new age” parenting is worthless. We’re seeing the results daily.
Leave Rihanna alone or just don’t patronize her, Train your children properly, Stop being Self Righteous and absorbed in your own supposed good, and Focus on getting Barbados back on tract. Try that for a change
And by the way whomever you are holding back our taxes from the shadows.
I WANT MY BLASTED MONEY!
Have to thank the Advocate News for a good belly laugh yesterday Thursday, Aug 11. As I was perusing their “dead tree” edition I came across an article therein about the BTA’s post mortem on the Rihanna concert ‘Ball dropped’ in some aspects of Rihanna concert when I came across this gem:
“And what god would she be praying to?” said a relative with whom I shared the object of my mirth.
“Maybe Beelzebub,” I replied.
Here’s a link to the Aug 11th Advocate News article ‘Ball dropped’ in some aspects of Rihanna concert (because the embedded link I included above doesn’t work):
http://www.barbadosadvocate.com/newsitem.asp?more=local&NewsID=19227
anyone know who the old guy on stage is?
Well at least the crowd was well behaved!
@the watcher
i want my money too you aint the only one
i however didnt hear about the using of that money for anything to do with the rihanna show i just thought they were being lazy about getting them out to people almost a year now other people get theirs and i waiting but now i guess i understand why them giving me the run around -them aint got no more money.
While RiRi gave an international type of performance, she also made her fellow bajans aware that while you can take the girl out of the country, the girl still had plenty of the country in the girl.
At 23, RiRi is still a girl and she will mature in time. Most likely, when the King/Queen Makers in Holywood consider casting her aside because of her, management induced, raunchy style.
Without fear of contradiction, RiRi needs to bring a personal coach on board. IMMEDIATELY!!
Is the arrangement between BTA and RiRi designed to drop the name of the country at every event and pique the interest of potential tourist to Bim…to see the place of her birth?
Does the agreement contain codes of conduct, to ensure that the Barbados product is not harmed?
What a major responsibility for one so young and whose every move is placed under the social/political/corporate microscope, while not displaying the appropriate skills to handle it.
I wonder if the public realise they did not even play the National Anthem of Barbados before the start of the concert, that just to tell you about organisation,wallah!!
Is it necessary to play the anthem at an event like that? Was it a national event? was the GG there in official capacity? What is the difference between that and a Wadada/Berger Boys fete [sorry about the spelling.. I do not go to these things] Exactly what is the protocol for the anthem nobody seems to know for sure but the people who should know never really tell you.
@watch: Agree with you, no one knows the protocol for playing the national anthem.Does a show like Richard Stoute Teen Talent have to play the anthem?
If this concert was all about promoting Barbados, why wouldn’t they play the National Anthem?
Personally I’m glad they didn’t play it. It would be as disrespectful as haveing a Bajan flag as a backdrop when Rihanna was simulating sex as she did many times during the show.
There were Bajan flags visible on the stage scaffolding and that was bad enough.
Rihanna is not the most talented vocalist, but she is a very exciting entertainer. I may not approve of her bump and grind, strip tease stage act, but scolding Rihanna for what she chooses to do with her time on or off that stage is not my greatest concern. Today, the music industry is more fickle than it ever was. There is no permanence. There is no substance. It is all form. That Rihanna even bears the Barbadian flag is a shock. Yet we expect Rihanna to conform to some vague notions about Barbadian culture, especially now when the rise of ICTs has deepened ‘metropolitan cultural penetration.’
I present to you a video about the music industry in the united states of america. Some of the language is a little graphic but it gives you an idea of what people like Rihanna have to do in order to be successful including selling your soul to satan. When the concert was delayed initially, indeed she was praying to her father the devil. We can only pray for her soul but in the meantime we will continue to see the carnage perpetrated on on young people by our governments and our entertainers. As it was penned in one of the late Michael Jackson songs. “They don’t really care about us”!!!
@Concerned citizen;If what you say is correct and I think it is ,what an indictment on the BTA and Adrian Elcock the Chairman.
@rasta man; I don’t think they care that much. They are as corrupt as a 3 dollar bill.
what Rihanna did on stage is downright mild compared to what takes place at Grand Kadooment. I HATE HYPOCRISY! Managers, politicans etc. here in Bim have been caught doing much worse so get over yourselves. Wasn’t a paster just released from prison for having sexual relations with a minor! Wasn’t a mother recently arrested for gun possession! Focus on these people who are actually designated guardians and role models rather than an international star with more than enough money to do what she likes!
@JWTK It took 2/300 people hours to complain they didn’t get their “free” stuff. But as yet 25,000 people including members of government haven’t noticed that the National Anthem wasn’t played. Show’s where people priorities lie
@clank. Have you to ANY music event ANYWHERE in Barbados???? What went was mild by comparison, with many said people in church on a Sunday. Now there’s hypocracy for you.