Rihanna has always been that girl. Well, as much as you can be that girl while also being a billionaire who hires alleged abusers to walk in your fashion brand’s runway shows. However, Rihanna’s latest performance at an Indian billionaire’s wedding has the girlies fighting about her icon status, and whether they think it’s still deserved.
Mukesh Ambani, probably a name unknown to many of us normies, is a billionaire and the chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries, a massive company in India.
Its businesses are far-ranging, from telecoms to textiles to media (it recently partnered with Disney to dominate India’s entertainment sector), but it’s mostly known for the fact that it’s the largest producer of petrochemicals in the country.
Ambani spared no expense for his youngest son Anant‘s 1,200-guest wedding which took place over the weekend — including spending a rumoured $9.7 million just on coaxing Rihanna out of retirement to play at one of the events.
The likes of Disney CEO Bob Iger, eternal meme Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Ivanka Trump and heaps of Bollywood icons attended the wedding, because the whole affair was just as much a business event as it was a marriage celebration.
Rihanna hasn’t done a tour since 2016, and has mostly been focused on building up her makeup and lingerie brands Fenty Beauty and SAVAGE X FENTY — aside from her 2023 Super Bowl performance.
So, her coming out to play a private concert is a pretty big deal.
However, videos of her performance at Anant Ambani’s wedding are doing the rounds, and people are yet again divided on how to feel about it given Rihanna’s low energy performance. Go girl, give us nothing!
Some have slammed the “Umbrella” singer as “lazy” and complained that she “don’t give a fuck”.
Others accused her of only appearing to “get her coin” with little interest in actually delivering a good product. One person even jokingly called her a “scammer”.
However, others have come to Rihanna’s defence, with some stating that her disinterest in performing now doesn’t mean she has always been a bad performer.
Others made the point that Reliance Industries is about to acquire the rights to Sephora India, meaning Fenty Beauty will be available in India for the first time. So, really, this is all also a PR trip for Rihanna to promote her brand before its local launch.
Honestly, I love that even Rihanna’s defenders aren’t trying to claim that the performance was good, actually. They’re either fine with it being “meh” or just impressed at the money she raked in for minimal effort.
Honestly, here’s my take on all this: Rihanna is a billionaire. Mukesh Ambani is also a billionaire. This is just two billionaires making money off of each other — no one is getting scammed, and everyone is making bag.
Really, the only people getting scammed by Rihanna are her fans — remember when FENTY X SAVAGE was fined almost $2 million for defrauding customers?
There’s no good billionaires, baby — even our queen Rihanna.
Image: Twitter @fentyyjosh
