Customer Reviews

Rihanna- Barbadian Superstardom Unauthorized

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1 star:		(2)

 

 

This video was not expected. I was looking for a concert video. If you are a big fan of Rihanna and want to know more about her, here is your opportunity to get a large dose. Overall, the video is informative and entertaining.

This Rihanna biography has false information. I've bought this cd, thinking it was a concert. So i was upset about that. But anyways im a big Rihanna fan, so i watch this video. Almost every fact in there is wrong.

love her great addition to my collection. however not a real documentary but nice overview of her stardom

If you need to know more about Rihanna, save your money, and read it from Wikipedia, her official website, and watch some interviews from Youtube.
This is waste of time and money, real junk!
Don't go anywhere near "unauthorized". Full of trash.
I regret that I watched the first 20+ minutes.

This is the unauthorized biography of the "Barbadian Superstar", Rihanna. Quite noticeable is her quick rise to fame perhaps not giving enough time for writers or sources to release books, or create documentaries. From her start to her album Good Girl Gone Bad: Reloaded [CD/DVD], this narrator describes Rihanna's beginnings, slow but quick leaps, and explosion into the lime-light. Also, there are brief accounts on her personal alone time leading to sometimes loneliness, her array of "boy" toys [although not all mentioned], and clips of her talking rather briefly. It's rather unusual the way the entire documentary is done as the narrator thoroughly discusses an array of artists ranging from Ne-yo, Jay-Z, to Sean Paul and others. Thus, shifting focus at times from Rihanna to other discussions yet further connecting the reasons to how each bring about the end product: Rihanna, "The All American Dream".

When you first view this DVD there is a play button and chapter access in the menu. The entire experience takes you "into" the first album Music of the Sun, the singles sales positions, videos, and overall reaction, as well as the same comparison with her second A Girl Like Me, and third Good Girl Gone Bad, but not much on the fourth Good Girl Gone Bad: Reloaded [CD/DVD] as it may have been too recent when the documentary was made. He takes you on a journey "inside" her home birth of Barbados, the culture, the musical background, and her parents. Her father's use of drugs is briefly discussed as giving Rihanna much more knowledge of the dangers of drugs and their destructiveness. Also, there are quotes, and brief clips of Rihanna mentioning this. She speaks of Whitney Houston's downfall into drugs/alcohol and how she has learned to avoid the price that fame sometimes can bring.

While the overall excitement of her albums soared, many questioned her third album's title, "Good Girl Gone Bad" as being somewhat controversial and even her hometown felt it God fearing to a degree. She further explains this through quotes and brief clips that bad can be interpreted in different ways and that she wanted to try something new, edgy and more risky--thus explaining her new look and style. Her dream is to be the "Black Madonna" she states. While contemporary American embraces icons like Madonna, many conservatives feel that Madonna has at times been too controversial. Either way, Rihanna takes great pride about publicly stating she wants to be just like her.

For those who enjoy gossip, there is "very" little found here. There is nothing on Chris Brown, nothing much on her other love quests [except a few photos and sentences], and very little on the Jay-Z rumor. Although, the Jay-Z fuss over Rihanna is glossed up-- just mentioning the rumor that Beyoncé pushed Rihanna down some steps--The entire Internet debacle over her "stealing" Beyonce's man and more. Then there's the "all access" view on the side dress in a wedding event that caused her to be thrown out. Aside, those few topics nothing else was put to make the fan or viewer more "in tuned" to how Rihanna is as a person. This I feel needed some work and better presentation.

The viewing is a bit tiresome after a while. Perhaps, with some pizzazz, energy talking and a glitz and glamour background this could have been substantially improved. There's so little on Rihanna and the fact the narrator was able to explain so much and so thoroughly to the best of his abilities was quite impressive. I would recommend this to the die-hard fan. One can only hope that Rihanna herself will release a DVD with all her videos and a true biographical account and documentary done by her!