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January 15th, 2013
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Roskilde Festival unveils performance of pop superstar Rihanna with veiled apology to rock fans, who attack the announcement as “a joke”
Following on from its acquisition of Bruce Springsteen in 2011, the Roskilde Festival has confirmed it will be welcoming another superstar of music to its stage this year – at least in terms of record sales.
Because love her or hate her, the Barbadian R&B/pop/dance/hip-hop songstress Rihanna, the part-time punchbag of Chris Brown, will very arguably become the biggest individual act to ever appear at the festival this July. In just eight years, she has already sold 100 million plus albums – the same number as Prince (who appeared at Roskilde in 2010) and Springsteen, who have been active since 1976 and 1972 respectively.
The festival’s official confirmation described Rihanna as “a poppy queen of hearts”, promising a “spectacular party under the Nordic summer sky”.
“Rihanna’s talent, charisma, dance moves and long line of hits dominate a show filled with glamour, sex appeal and inescapable choruses,” it enthused.
And perhaps in anticipation of some complaints from the hordes of fans who attend the festival predominantly to rock out, the festival added that while Rihanna is “from the poppy end of the genre scale”, it has already announced “more rock-orientated bands”, including Queens of the Stone Age, Slipknot and Volbeat.
Nevertheless, it hasn’t stopped many fans taking to the festival’s official website forum today to criticise the choice.
“Is this a joke,” one commenter wrote in disbelief, while another warned fans to expect her to be late. And a third blasted the festival for hiring someone who he felt would be more at home at the family-friendly Langelandsfestival. “What are your future goals?” he demanded.
Similar concerns about Rihanna’s suitability were voiced by a commenter on the festival’s official website back in December.
“Rihanna sucked ass at her festival tour last year,” he wrote, drawing readers’ attention to a Swedish review written for Gaffa magazine last year, which only gave Rihanna one star out of six.
Rihanna is touring the UK extensively this summer, both before and after Roskilde, to promote her latest album ‘Unapologetic’, which she released last month. She is scheduled to appear at another festival, T in the Park in Edinburgh, from July 11-14.
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