The Good Girl Gone Bad Tour was the second overall and first world concert tour by Barbadian singer Rihanna, in support of her third studio album Good Girl Gone Bad (2007). The setlist was composed of songs mostly from Good Girl Gone Bad but also included some songs from her first two albums. Akon was selected as the opening act for the Canadian dates of the North American leg, while Ciara and David Jordan supported the UK dates of the European leg. Chris Brown joined the tour during the Oceanian leg.
The show featured Rihanna wearing revealing leather costumes during each show. Many changes were made to the set list throughout the tour. The original set list features a cover of Bob Marley's "Is This Love" and during the European leg of the tour, the set list was shortened to fifteen songs. In the third set list of the Oceanian and Asian leg, the show ended with an encore. A DVD of the Manchester concert at the Manchester Arena titled Good Girl Gone Bad Live was released on June 17, 2008.
Background and development
Rihanna performing during the tour.Rihanna performing "SOS".
The tour, directed and choreographed by Tina Landon, was the first tour headlined by Rihanna.[1] It presented a whole new image as she wore very provocative and revealing leather costumes during each show.[2] The stage was elaborate, consisting of a large set of stairs; two large LCD screens which showed images of Rihanna and special-made clips during the concert; and six slim LCD screens which were evenly spaced out, with three on the left and three on the right. The stage also consisted of thousands of lights which flashed in different colors, there was also a huge LCD screen in the middle of the stage which was mainly focused on Rihanna performing. The stage was packed with pyrotechnics and different on-stage props which Rihanna and the dancers used during their performances. Her back-up singers and band were on either side on the stage. During the Australia leg of the tour the stage also featured a small rising platform at the front center of the stage. For "Disturbia" she started high in the air on the platform, and rose on it again during "Unfaithful".
Akon was selected as the opening act for the tour in Canada during North America leg. The rest of the shows during the North American leg didn't have a supporting act. Ciara opened shows for Rihanna on all UK dates in December and David Jordan opened for her on all March UK dates. Adam Tensta joined Rihanna on her March 2008 European dates. Chris Brown joined Rihanna and performed a full set list at the Australia, New Zealand and Philippines leg of the tour. In Mexico City Mexican pop star María José opened the show with a four-song set: her first three singles and her then brand-new single, "No Soy Una Señora", and the Spanish Singer, David Bisbal sing with Rihanna the Spanish remix of "Hate That I Love You" in Mexico City. In December 2007, Rihanna cancelled the Good Girl Gone Bad concert in Nottingham, Birmingham and Bournemouth at very short notice under doctors orders.[3] The Birmingham and Nottingham concerts were eventually rescheduled.[2] During the Sydney, Australia concert on November 7, 2008, Rihanna ran off stage while performing "Umbrella" along with tourmate Chris Brown.[4]TMZ reported that Rihanna may have felt ill due to air conditioning problem in the arena.[5] The shows for February 12 and 13 in Asia were cancelled following Brown's assault on Rihanna.[6]
Critical reception
Mike Usinger, of The Georgia Straight, gave a mixed review of the concert at Vancouver, BC’s GM Place saying, "the Barbados-born knockout has plenty to learn about keeping an audience engaged."[7] However, Usinger commented that the "kindest thing you can say about Rihanna is that she's shown some improvement since her last visit. For a start, she no longer seems tone-deaf."[7] Jason MacNeil of Canadian Online Explorer gave a positive review of the concert’s intro and style, from Toronto’s Molson Amphitheatre, saying "the singer made a rather eye-popping impression, opening with ‘Pon de Replay’ and clad in a sexy, dominatrix-like studded black leather ensemble."[8]
Regarding a cancelled Asian show, originally scheduled for February 13 in Malaysia’s capital city of Kuala Lumpur, the conservative Malaysian Islamic Party recommended that Rihanna's tour be barred from performing in the country due to her ‘skimpy’ outfits; ultimately, the show was cancelled due to the rising media coverage of Rihanna’s then-partner Chris Brown’s physical assault against her, with leaked police photos of Rihanna’s face appearing bruised and battered widely circulating in the media.[9][10][11] Within the Asian market, the tour received mixed to positive reviews, with praise mainly being given for the live vocals by Rihanna and the overall theming, concept and fashions. Cheryl Leong, of MTV Southeast Asia, gave an average review of the show, commenting, "I did enjoy myself a whole lot at the concert. It just wasn't the most mindblowing. Nevertheless, she did what she does best, which is to bring out an entire collection of #1 singles 'live'."[1]
The 24 September 2007 show at Montréal's Bell Centre was recorded and broadcast via MSN Music, where it was also made available for download. It quickly became popular and broke several records, as it was viewed over one million times within the first week. Rihanna's concert was the most-streamed show by a single artist on MSN Music in 2007.[12] Rihanna's concert in Ischgl, Austria, on 1 December 2007, was taped and aired on Austrian national television (ORF). The concert itself was free. The show at the Manchester Arena (in Manchester, UK) on 6 December 2007 was recorded and later released on June 17, 2008, as a live DVD titled Good Girl Gone Bad Live. The DVD also includes a behind-the-scenes documentary, featuring interviews with Rihanna, her band and crew, and their experiences on tour. The Manchester show would later air on Channel 4's Christmas Day programming for 2008. On November 16, 2008, the concert in Fort Bonifacio in Manila, Philippines, reached an at-home audience of more than 70k viewers. The concert was sponsored by MTV Philippines and Globe Telecom.[13]
^Martínez, Laura Celia Ángeles (October 21, 2008). "'No parará la música' con Rihanna en México" ['Don't Stop the Music' with Rihanna in Mexico]. esmas Web site (in Spanish). Archived from the original on January 22, 2010. Retrieved March 13, 2010.
