Rihanna was one of two prominent women to back out of the Grammys at the last minute. Lauryn Hill was supposed to perform with The Weeknd, only to claim at the last minute that she was never scheduled to perform. Rihanna was supposed to debut a song off of her new album, ANTI, and she backed out literally minutes before the Grammys, citing medical reasons. Something about a possible vocal cord hemorrhage and/or bronchitis (both excuses were used officially). What’s weird about the excuses is that Rihanna was out and about for a solid week – she went to some pre-Grammy events, like the MusiCares Person of the Year event on Saturday, where she performed and apparently sang flawlessly. She was also in New York last week for fashion week, where she presented her latest FENTY collection. So… what happened? TMZ doesn’t know, but they’re side-eyeing the “bronchitis” story:
Rihanna was screaming and hysterical before she bailed on the Grammys, but there are conflicting stories about what triggered her outburst. Sources connected with the show, and several sources who were not connected but present at the show, tell TMZ … the singer was loudly expressing displeasure over her rehearsal. They say she was loud and upset and, as we first reported, bailed on the event.
Rihanna’s people say she had a medical issue … bronchitis that was so bad she could not perform and that’s why she left. Sources close to RiRi tell us she was too upset to stay and watch the show.
It’s interesting … Rihanna sang flawlessly two nights before the Grammys at a Lionel Richie charity event. Several sources say her voice was also great at the Grammys rehearsal.
There was an excellent joke on Twitter that Rihanna saw Kendrick Lamar during rehearsals and she was like, “Nah, I’ll skip the Grammys, I can’t compete with that.” Here’s another theory: Rihanna might have realized that this year’s Grammys telecast was going to be friggin’ amateur hour with terrible sound mixing, editing and general f—kups. I mean, how terrible do you have to be to make ADELE sound bad? Or maybe it had nothing to do with any of that and Rihanna was just throwing a hissy for some other reason. Who knows? It feels like it’s been so long since she’s had an album to promote, maybe she’s rusty.
Photos courtesy of Getty.
She’s such a beautiful woman.
That’s all I have.
She really is gorgeous. Is that Luke Bryan?! Lol
She really is so beautiful…I was so mesmerized by her face that I scrolled through a whole set of her pictures in this dress before I realized that the dress is completely sheer.
I didn’t realise until I saw this comment, that her dress was sheer! THAT is how distractingly beautiful her face is.
Adele looked a bit frustrated throughout her performance.
Maybe Rihanna had the right idea in bailing.
My local radio station was playing Adele’s live singing from her new album when it dropped. In 20 degree weather, in my shitty Hyundai, with factory speakers, her live singing at a bar sounded better than the fakakta Grammys. Shameful.
Artistic temperament-and probably foresight…
‘expressing displeasure’ and ‘screaming and being hysterical’ sound like very different things… gives a side-eye to TMZ
And yeah I wouldn’t be surprised if the audio was terrible during rehearsals either, but I would be surprised if Rihanna was the only artist that took notice/offense/action to it out of all the participating performers.
But isn’t the rehearsal where all the bugs are suppose to be worked out? So if there were problems it should have been taken care of at that point.
well, the sound people totally screwed over adele. maybe rihanna sensed it in rehearsals and had the foresight to get out of there.
They really did. The sad thing is that her set up wasn’t complicated (I studied audio engineering) and it should have been the easiest to set up. It might have been done by a so called “professional” but it was clear they had no idea what they were doing.
How do you get to run sound for the GRAMMYS if you don’t know what you’re doing? Shakes head.
I don’t think it matters what the issue was, she should be happy she avoided that s*it show.
I didn’t watch the Grammys but I do love that everyone said the sound issues were so awful and the show was so boring that they don’t even blame her. It’s so funny given that this headline is meant to make rihanna seem crazy and unreasonable.
I don’t care about Rihanna or Lauren Hill any longer.
Next.
That’s really unprofessional to bail at the last minute.
The whole grammys are unprofessional. She’s been right to bail out.
She’s always so stunning and Anti is really good.
So because she has a good album and is attractive, she gets a pass for pulling out of a professional commitment at the last minute.
That’s a joke right?
If she really thought the grammy’s were going to be boring, I would have thought that someone so seemingly self-assured would have done everything in their power to perform, because surely they would have been recognized as stand-outs, right? Something is fishy here.
seems like alot of these commercial pop stars were having emotional pre grammy/post grammy meltdowns. Must have been a bad batch of whatever confidence booster they take doing the rounds that night.
Who else had a meltdown besides Rihanna?
She sounded great at the MusiCares event. Love her
I think Riri might have some anxiety about performing songs from Anti for a larger audience because she also backed out of the Victoria’s Secret thang at the last minute. That and drugs.
I’m just mad that I took years off of my life watching that garbage because I didn’t realize she had cancelled until an hour in!
Yes, this seems to be a pattern of behavior for her lately.
maybe she heard andra day, and was out of there.
Doh!!!
MayBey? Let’s just say that Riri’s “work” dropped last week..then out comes Formation and, well…I often wonder if those rumors about Ri& jay ( who I will never like) are true. What a slap in the face it is to Rihanna if Beyonce just pooped on her new release with such grandeur. Cackles.
Personally formation is dumb easily forgotten song. The only reason its even talked about is because of the race issues nothing to see here. Work is not that smart either
Gorgeous woman. She can do whatever the hell she wants. Love her. 🙂
If she was a man she would have been “standing up for herself. Or forcefully expressing herself.” But, she’s a woman. So she’s hysterical.
I’m thinking maybe she has developed an anxiety disorder? Due to stress, being overworked or from past traumas? Her whole years has been so off. Maybe it’s a strong performance anxiety.
Look at Chris Evans. Career pressure has suddenly made him get performance/interview panic where he even had to walk off stage before he could finally find some help.
Rihanna’s behavior reminds me so much of when I suddenly developed an adjustment disorder (years after my mum got cancer which apparently traumatized me more than I knew) and couldn’t speak up in University anymore, give speeches, sit in small rooms, write and deliver papers. I had panic attacks left and right without knowing where they even came from and I would stand up friends, back out of courses days before having to deliver a presentation; I would delay any kind of test or student activity for many semesters. It was so weird and a living hell. All while I pretended to be alright towards everyone (‘Oh, I’m just tired.’, ‘I just lost all interest in this course, meh.’, ‘I had a cold’, ‘Oh, my computer crashed. Can’t deliver the paper.’). I really, really had no idea what was going on so I never felt I could tell anyone and everyone just assumed I had gotten lazy, flaky and unreliable. :/ I’m so glad I now know what was going on.
Look for instance here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/adjustment_disorder
I’m not saying that’s what she has. But this whole ‘everything is okay up until the point of the actual big performance/speech’ reminds me so much of what I had.
(You’ll rebalance your brain with regular behavioral therapy. Everything is fine now so I’m very sure she will get out of this.)