Rihanna looked downcast as she arrived in Milan on Saturday morning after being mocked for her performance at a pre-wedding gig for the son of India’s richest man.
The singer, 36, was seen at the city’s airport with her partner A$AP Rocky, 35, as new videos emerged of her £5million ($6.3m) concert in India for the wedding of Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant.
Rihanna cut a casual figure in an all grey outfit with a turquoise scarf and shielded her eyes with sunglasses.
Anant‘s father Mukesh Ambani, who has a net worth of $114 billion, shelled out millions for the songstress to perform a set during the three-day event, but footage has since gone viral with fans saying the singer did ‘the bare minimum’ on stage.
This was Rihanna’s first big live performance since the 2023 Super Bowl and her first full concert for eight years.
New videos show the singer, who hasn’t released an album since 2016’s Anti, bobbing around and waving her arms back and forth.
In December last year the singer dropped her biggest hint yet about releasing new songs, but fans are now questioning if she should park her music career once and for all after calling her out on her ‘terrible performance’.
One wrote: ‘I‘ve loved Rihanna since day one, but we have to be honest. That performance looked terrible. She just need to pack the music stuff up if this how she carrying on’.
Others said: ‘Rihanna got paid 9Mill to perform at a billionaires pre-wedding, there is no next album’.
‘It’s the singing while the mic is nowhere near her face’ and ‘One thing she could have done was rework her songs to go lower. That’s really easy as a trained singer.’
‘Worse than the Super Bowl’ and ‘like did she even want to be there’.
In one of the clips, Rihanna could be seen singing her 2011 hit collaboration with Calvin Harris titled We Found Love and she could be seen barely dancing.
The video was posted with the caption: ‘she just don’t give a f**k’.
Rihanna did a 19 song set list of some of her biggest hits including B***h Better Have My Money, Work, All Of The Lights, and lastly Diamonds.
The singer jetted out of Jamnagar in the early hours of Saturday morning where she told waiting reporters that she ‘can’t wait to be back’.
She added: ‘I love India. The show was the best. I haven’t done a real show for eight years. So I wanna come back.’
Rihanna posed for photographs with fans and female police officers at the airport telling them: ‘I love you all.’
Rihanna’s set worked out to a cool £55,500 per minute.
Her performance on Friday night kicked off three days of celebrations for the forthcoming marriage of Anant Ambani to Radhika Merchant, which is estimated to have cost a whopping £120million.
During the show she said: ‘Thanks to that Ambani family, I’m here tonight in honour of Anant and Radhika. Thank you for having me here. God bless your union. I wish you all the best. Congratulations!’
Footage of Rihanna singing rare fan favorites including 2012’s “Stay,” her career-launching “Umbrella” and “Consideration,” a song she shares with SZA began circulating on social media moments after she took to the stage
Rihanna wore a fluorescent green bodycon shimmering outfit for her appearance.
Speaking to the VIP audience, she expressed gratitude to the Ambani family saying: ‘Thanks to the Ambani family, I’m here tonight… In honour of Anant and Radhika’s wedding… Thank you for having me here. May God bless your union. I wish you all the best. Congratulations.’
Video and images of Friday night’s event showed an array of VIP guests enjoying the lavish occasion which took place in a gated compound built by Mr Ambani’s Reliance company.
Friday’s festivities included a performance by acrobats from Cirque do Soleil, a light and drones show and an animal show.
Guests also enjoyed cocktails and a sumptuous dinner cooked by 100 chefs especially flown in for the occasion.
Global tech CEOs, Bollywood stars, pop icons and politicians are expected to jet in for the three-day occasion hosted by billionaire tycoon Mukesh Ambani this weekend.
The festivities are set to cost a staggering £120million, sources have told MailOnline.
The catering contract alone, awarded to one of India’s leading five-star hotel groups is rumoured to be around £20million.
Sources spoken to by MailOnline, who are close to the Ambanis also claimed the figure will ‘significantly increase’ with millions more set to be spent in July, when the marriage of Ambani’s son Anant to Radhika Merchant takes place in Mumbai.
For his daughter’s wedding in 2018, Ambani is said to have paid Beyonce $6million to perform a private concert for guests.
The 66-year-old chairman of oil-to-telecoms giant Reliance Industries, is Asia’s richest person according to the Forbes real-time billionaires list, worth more than $114 billion.
On Wednesday evening, Ambani and wife Nita – along with their son Anant and his fiancee Radhika Merchant – launched a three-day feast for more than 51,000 villagers at the Reliance Township in his hometown of Jamnagar, in India’s western state of Gujarat.
Anant, 28, who also serves as a director on the boards of several Reliance-owned firms, is expected to marry Merchant, 29, the daughter of an industrialist, later this year.
Ambani held the most expensive wedding in India for his daughter in 2018, which reportedly cost $100million and saw US pop megastar Beyonce perform.
This time, Rihanna, illusionist David Blaine and Bollywood’s Diljit Dosanjh will perform for the guests, who are expected to include Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Meta head Mark Zuckerberg, and several current and former political leaders, according to a list released by Reliance.
Also among the invitees is Disney chief Robert Iger, following a deal agreed Wednesday between Reliance Industries and Walt Disney to merge their Indian media businesses.
Other guests invited include Ivanka Trump, the former US president’s daughter, as well as ex-Swedish prime minister Carl Bildt, former Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper and the King of Bhutan.
Bollywood stars Amitabh Bachchan and Shahrukh Khan, cricket icons Sachin Tendulkar and M.S. Dhoni, and industry titan Gautam Adani are also invited in a who’s-who of India’s super-rich elite.
A source said: ‘No expense has been spared for this three-day party. It is a jaw dropping amount of money but when the Ambanis do something they do it big.
‘The whole of Jamnagar is celebrating because they are all being fed and pampered and treated like celebrities.’
Another source said: ‘This is not the first time that they are spending money like this on one of their children’s weddings.
‘These are going to be a memorable three days with some of India’s and the world’s most famous people present. It’s going to be as lavish as you can get.’
The Ambanis are building a Hindu temple complex in Jamnagar, to keep ‘India’s rich cultural and spiritual identity at the heart of the wedding festivities’, the Reliance Foundation said on social media.
The main celebrations, running from March 1-3, will have different themes, events and dress codes – including a ‘jungle fever’ day with a visit to an animal rescue centre run by Ambani, the Hindustan Times newspaper reported.
The couple are hosting 1,000 VIPs who will be housed in specially arranged five-star facilities just outside the city of Jamnagar in the state of Gujrat, western India.
Hundreds of staff will be on hand to look after them with a series of penthouses and villas renovated for the occasion.
More than 100 chefs are also being flown in to cater for them and will prepare 500 dishes over the three days, ranging from traditional India food to Mexican, Chinese and European.
Bride-to-be Anant Ambani, 29, is the daughter of billionaire Shri Viren Merchant, who is the CEO of private health firm Encore Healthcare.
The invite for the pre-wedding celebrations – which have been widely circulating on social media – read: ‘With hearts full of joy and excitement, we invite you to the pre-wedding celebrations of Anant and Radhika at our home in Jamnagar.
‘We look forward to having you with us to share in our joy, love, and laughter, and create memories that we’ll cherish forever.’
It would also seem that there is a strict dress code to follow for guests taking part in the lavish wedding warm up.
On the Friday night, the happy couple’s loved ones will enjoy an ‘evening in everland’-themed cocktail party on the premises.
The following day, they have been told to wear ‘comfortable shoes’ to take a ‘walk on the wild side’ by visiting the groom’s Reliance animal rescue centre, which spans 650 acres and homes more than 2,000 animals.
That evening, the couple will host their ‘Mela Rogue’ and guests have been told to dress in a ‘dazzling desi romance’ style.
On the third day, guests have been told to pack something ‘casual chic’ for the Tusker Trails, where they will presumably explore the local area.
The final event will be a Hashtakshar, which translates as ‘signature’, and guests will be expected to wear traditional clothing, such as sherwanis and sarees.
James Parker is a UK-based entertainment aficionado who delves into the glitz and glamour of the entertainment industry. From Hollywood to the West End, he offers readers an insider’s perspective on the world of movies, music, and pop culture.
