Rihanna is making headlines for her voice, for better or worse.
The fashion mogul appeared at the Girls Love Karaoke event in New York City on December 29, where she took the stage to perform some of her songs like “Sex With Me” and “Needed Me.” However, it is the latter that makes fans angry.
The performance started strong and Rihanna sang to the accompaniment. However, the music director suddenly cut the music and Rihanna had to sing the chorus herself. She tried but seemed to have difficulty performing the phrase “need me” vocally.
The music then appears to switch to her song “Unfaithful” before the clip cuts out.
The clip faced criticism from fans for the singer’s less-than-stellar vocal performance.
“That doesn’t sound right at all,” one user commented.
That doesn’t sound right somehow
— Слабоумие and отвага (@Dofiga_uma) December 30, 2024
Another added: “All those long, blunt hiatuses, now she’s too tired to sing.”
During her long hiatus, her voice has deteriorated so much 😭😭😭
— ᴄᴏɴɴᴏʀ ᴛᴏᴍʙʟᴏᴏᴅ 𖤐™ (@kungpaodickens) December 30, 2024
Others simply reacted with their own reaction clips.
Notably, Rihanna has been absent from music for many years. Her last album was 2016 Anticreating the hits “Work”, “Love on the Brain” as well as the song she sang at the event, “Needed Me”.
Since then, she’s occasionally dropped singles here and there. Since 2020, she has dropped the single “Believe It” with PartyNextDoor as well as “Life Me Up” which peaked at number 2 from Black Panther: Wakanda forever background music.
During her heyday, Rihanna was one of the most reliable hitmakers, earning 14 number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, the third-most of all time. Only Mariah Carey and The Beatles have more with 19 and 20 respectively.
Her performance comes after the singer reportedly retired from music to focus on her Fenty brand products. They were successful and helped her amass a net worth of $1.4 billion.
Tags Rihanna, Music