'It symbolizes how I've had to remove myself from society,' Em says of 'glass-cube' cover.
By James Montgomery

Eminem (file)
Photo: Michael Caulfield/ WireImage

It was, to say the very least, unseasonably cold in Detroit back in April — like, 33 degrees cold — but that didn't stop Eminem from ditching his down coat to shoot the cover for his Recovery album.

Of course, he wasn't exactly happy about doing it, but at the request of photographer Nigel Parry, he shed his coat and sat in a makeshift living room in Detroit's Hart Plaza, joking, "Oh man, listen, take your time, listen, I am enjoying the weather so f---ing much!" while Parry snapped away.

All of this occurs within the first minute of a brand-new, behind-the-scenes video posted late Thursday on Em's official site. The video gives fans an exclusive look at the creation of Recovery's two iconic covers. In part one, we watch him shoot the so-called "glass-cube" cover, which, as Em explains, has a lot more symbolism than you'd think.

"It symbolizes, like, what my life is like right now because of the fame, but also kind of how I've had to remove myself from society a little bit, pull back to conquer my demons, my addiction and that whole thing," he says in the video. "It also symbolizes me never leaving Detroit, you know? I'm kinda just sitting in the middle of Detroit, watching TV. And it's kind of my living room, where people are just walking by."

The first clip ends with Eminem, Parry and a team of art directors piling into vans to go shoot the second album cover, which Em describes as "the road to Recovery." And then, in an extended gag — designed to make the rest of his crew as cold and miserable as he is — Em goes on a lengthy rant where he spouts self-help mantras ("You gotta take it one day at a time," etc.) while everyone huddles by a van, laughing.

At the end of the video, we see a quick scene of Eminem wandering down a deserted stretch of highway, and a title card promises that episode two of the Recovery behind-the-scenes footage will be coming soon.

• The Evolution Of: Eminem

• Eminem

Reaction to album 'has been gratifying' to rapper, Paul Rosenberg says.
By Gil Kaufman

Eminem
Photo: Jeff Kravitz/ FilmMagic

With a five-week chart run for Recovery that shows no signs of abating and sales of 2 million just over the horizon, Eminem has been on a winning streak lately. His hit duet with Rihanna on "Love the Way You Lie" has topped charts and given Slim Shady one of the biggest non-satirical crossover pop hits of his career, but according to longtime manager Paul Rosenberg, the path to success had plenty of obstacles.

Rosenberg spoke to HITS magazine and said the title of Recovery had a very literal meaning for the MC, who has openly spoken about his struggle with prescription drug addiction. After admitting that he made his 2004 album, Encore, in the throes of drug addiction and that last year's Relapse was part of the process of flushing the drugs out of his system, Recovery was about taking a step forward.

"Em was certainly gaining his footing after not being sober for awhile," Rosenberg said. "It took him a bit to get on stable ground and figure out what he wanted to do. After almost overdosing, everything looks and sounds different to you. He was really thrust back into the game and had to adjust."

Rosenberg sidestepped a question on whether he agreed with the rapper's assessment that Encore and Relapse weren't Eminem's finest work. "With respect to Relapse, we were just excited that he was focused and recording music again, that we could get the record out there and not make the fans wait any longer," he said. "And I think we accomplished that. He's a little hard on himself. Even at his worst, Eminem is still far better than most. He wants everything he does to be received on that level of excitement, wonderment and anticipation as his first couple of albums."

Saying Em was "really" smart in realizing what went wrong with those releases, Rosenberg said his star client has a clear understanding that his audience wants to connect emotionally to his music and realized he hadn't done that recently and needed to get back into that mode. "His mission was to create songs that would accomplish that. It's just good to see that when you make something great, people are still there for it. You can take a misstep, but you can still get back on track."

As for why Marshall deviated from his previous method of working with mentor Dr. Dre on Recovery, which only features one Dre production, Rosenberg said once the original plan to do a Relapse sequel was dropped, Em realized he'd turned a musical corner and wanted to keep moving in that direction.

"When Em started working with Dre on sessions for the second record in Hawaii, he turned a corner artistically," Rosenberg explained. "And at that point, he wanted to keep moving in that new direction. So it was an evolution. ... By the time Marshall started focusing on making a new album, Dre was already working on his own stuff. So we reached out to Just Blaze first, worked on several tracks with him, and that opened the door to the other producers — Boi-1da, DJ Khalil. Those three are the guts of the record. It was a natural progression, a matter of timing."

Not surprisingly, Rosenberg said Em is very happy with how his latest album has been received and the smash sales he's racked up so far. "He's really happy with it," he said of the rapper, who has come out of his shell a bit to promote the album with some viral videos and rare TV appearances. "He put a lot of work into it. He thought it was what people would be looking for, so the reaction has been gratifying. That his fans love it is the most important thing to him. Em feels he let people down because he didn't give what he felt he needed to give them. That's what drove him to make this album."

As for "Love the Way You Lie" giving Slim Shady his biggest crossover hit since the "8 Mile" smash "Lose Yourself," Rosenberg said the tune was an attempt to reach that elusive wider audience. "Em wanted to connect with a radio audience this time," he said. "He realized the last time that it didn't make it all the way like he wanted it to. He certainly had that in mind making this album." For now, Rosenberg said, there are no plans for a major tour and Em will stick to the two co-headlining gigs he's got booked with Jay-Z in New York and Detroit and an appearance at the Epicenter Festival in Fontana, California. "We don't have anything else booked," he said. "He loves performing, but he doesn't love traveling, so we try to figure out a way to make that work. We'd like to find ways he can perform without going to different cities."

• The Evolution Of: Eminem

• Eminem

Tony Yayo and Lloyd Banks attribute Eminem's chart-topping success to his fan base.
By Shaheem Reid

Eminem
Photo: Kevin Mazur/ WireImage

His reign at the top is not short like leprechauns, but long like scowling giants: Eminem is enjoying his fifth week with the top-selling album in the country. Wednesday, on the set of Lloyd Banks' "Any Girl" video, G-Unit members Lloyd Banks and Tony Yayo said the key to Em's success is simple and obvious: He has a very loyal fanbase.

"Congratulations, man," Lloyd Banks said. "Damn! I don't even know what else to say. I know he's happy and I'm happy for him. It's big. He might do six weeks or seven weeks [at #1]. Em has a cult following and they ain't gonna turn their backs on him. He's gonna shine on the darkest day. I think he wasn't never afraid to bring people into his life, [but] at the same time you don't see Em. You don't see [him on] reality shows, you don't see him as much; you see him through his music. He brings you into his life. You know about his wife, his kids, his best friend. On that last album, he touched on a lot of those topics and other personal things he had going on, too. A lot of people can relate to it. I feel like his music is getting more and more powerful. The messages are bigger. With me touring and going all around, you actually see it. I just hope I get a record with him real soon."

"Eminem is like the godfather of the hip-hop game," Yayo said. "In a time like this, when records are not selling, he's the only one that is selling. You know, Drake and all the other ones [did well], but Em did [close to] 800,000 his first week, and he's #1 for the fifth week. It's incredible. I think he has a faithful fan base of people who have been following him for years. They're not going to stop following him and not stop listening to his music. Em said he didn't like his last album as much as this one. You can hear the difference. I like both of the albums. '3 a.m.' is one of my joints. But Eminem has followers that's gonna mess with him until the day he dies."

Are you one of Eminem's faithful? Sound off in the comments below!

• The Evolution Of: Eminem

• Eminem
• Lloyd Banks
• Tony Yayo

Slim Shady beat out Rick Ross for his fifth week on top of the Billboard albums chart.
By Gil Kaufman

Eminem
Photo: Kevin Mazur/ WireImage

Back in the good old days of the early 2000s, major artists sometimes sold a million records during their first week and topped the charts for months at a time. Thanks to Internet piracy, a precipitous decline in album sales and the rise of à la carte music grazing courtesy of the iTunes store, those days are mostly gone.

But apparently no one told that to Eminem. The rapper, who was one of the aforementioned acts back in the day, made it five weeks in a row this week atop the Billboard 200 albums charts, beating back a strong challenge from Rick Ross' Teflon Don, but, more impressively, seeing a miniscule 4 percent week-to-week sales drop, also practically unheard of these days.

So, how did he do it?

"It's no puzzle," said Keith Caulfield, senior chart manager and analyst at Billboard. "He's Eminem. He isn't deteriorating as fast as some would have thought. ... He was sale-priced at two big box merchants last week and he has a big single [with Rihanna] with 'Love the Way You Lie.' "

Billboard even posted a story last week predicting that Ross could, in fact, beat Eminem, putting the Bawse's totals somewhere between 150,000 and 180,0000, which would have given him his fourth #1 in a row. In the end, Ross' 176,000 beat the first week totals for 2009's Deeper Than Rap (158,000), but Caulfield said those initial projections based on interviews with industry sources began to fade as the week wore on and the race tightened.

"As the week progressed, things were getting closer and it could have gone either way," he said about the competition for the top spot, which Em ultimately won by a wide margin with sales of 187,000, according to Nielsen SoundScan. The key to Eminem's continued dominance is the combination of the mostly positive reviews for Recovery, a higher media profile and the chart-dominating hit single with Rihanna.

"It's impressive that he's been able to hold the top spot for so long, which is something you don't see much anymore. But Eminem is almost a relic from another era," said Entertainment Weekly correspondent Simon Vozick-Levinson. "He was one of the biggest stars in music when it was at its hugest in 2000 and he still carries some of that magic with him."

Vozick-Levinson said few artists today are able to debut big and then keep the top spot after a few weeks. But the run by Eminem says less about Ross than it does about Slim Shady's continued popularity. He said that while Ross is one of the most popular MCs in rap circles, he doesn't have the kind of pop crossover appeal that Eminem has, which is the key to dominating the charts.

"What is behind this is connecting with the hard-core rap audience and then the broader pop audience, which has been [Eminem's] big trick," said Levinson. "His team played it really intelligently this time, picking a great first single ["Not Afraid"] to introduce the album and then following with the Rihanna song, which was a savvy move that paid off."

The next question is: Can Eminem keep the streak going? The buzz from the Rihanna hit will eventually taper off, but the good news for Team Shady is that there doesn't appear to be much in the way of competition over the next few weeks.

Caulfield looked ahead and said the latest from Avenged Sevenfold, next week's Nightmare, doesn't look to be a major threat, and the August 3 release from Arcade Fire, The Suburbs, should do well, but might also not have enough to knock Em down if his sales trend continues.

That takes us out to August 10, when the "Camp Rock 2" soundtrack doesn't seem like much of a real threat, though the debut from "Cooler Than Me" singer Mike Posner, 31 Minutes to Takeoff, could pose a challenge. In fact, you have to go all the way out to August 24 and the chart debut of Katy Perry's Teenage Dream to find a disc that could knock Marshall Mathers from his perch.

"Eminem has always been in a class by himself," said Levinson. "In between now and then [August 24], it's anybody's game."

• Eminem

'I think it's so rare that an artist comes along in our generation that has a loyal following no matter what — Eminem has it,' Drake says.
By Shaheem Reid

Drake
Photo: Michael Caulfield/ WireImage

Drake knows a thing or two about having a loyal fanbase: His following propelled him to a #1 album in June with Thank Me Later. But when it comes to the SoundScan charts, 2010 has belonged to Marshall Mathers. Eminem's Recovery is #1 for the fifth straight week and looks to be an unbeatable monster right now — he's close to 2 million copies sold. Drake expects his good friend Lil Wayne to have that same success when he's released from prison and resumes his career. Much like Eminem and Jay-Z, Drizzy asserts, Weezy has a core that has unconditional love for him.

"I think it's so rare that an artist comes along in our generation that has a loyal following no matter what — I think Eminem has it," Drake explained last week on the Atlanta set of his "Fancy" video. "I think Jay-Z has it, although he's never faltered enough to test it. Jay is almost like the perfect guy. Media-wise, there's never been a true test of your fans staying with you. Eminem has had gone through a couple of ups and downs and his fans were with him no matter what.

"I think Wayne is that guy," he continued. "I know Wayne is the next guy, after the two I just named, that has that unconditional, no matter what [loyalty]. You get caught with this and you go to jail. You make little life errors that people should never find out about, but because we're in the public eye, everyone knows everything. Wayne has those fans."

Drake told Mixtape Daily that during a recent call, Wayne rapped some verses from Tha Carter IV over the phone — and the world better watch out!

• Drake, T.I., And Swizz Beatz Get 'Fancy'
• 'Drake: Better Than Good Enough'

• Drake's Style: From A To Drizzy

• Drake
• Eminem
• Jay-Z

Ross' Teflon Don debuts at #2.
By Gil Kaufman

Eminem
Photo: Kevin Mazur/ WireImage

Rick Ross may have called his new album Teflon Don, but his nonstick verses weren't slick enough to knock the crown off of Eminem's head. With a barely perceptible 4 percent slip from the week before, Slim Shady's Recovery is looking bulletproof, as it will lodge a fifth straight week at #1 on sales of 187,000, helping the album blow by the 1.6 million mark, according to figures provided by Nielsen SoundScan.

That means the Bawse will have to settle for a #2 bow for Don, which moved 176,000 copies, landing it well ahead of the next highest debut, Sheryl Crow's 100 Miles From Memphis (#3, 55,000).

The only other new faces in the top 10 belonged to the 18th edition of the Kidz Bop series (#5, 43,000) and the soundtrack to the new Disney Channel series "Jonas L.A.," which came in at #7 (32,000).

The rest of the top 10: Drake, Thank Me Later (#4, 47,000), Justin Bieber, My World 2.0 (#6, 39,000), Now 34 (#8 27,000), Lady Antebellum, Need You Now (#9, 25,000) and Lady Gaga, The Fame (#10, 24,000).

It was a short trip to the top for Korn, as Korn III: Remember Who You Are sagged by 68 percent in week two as the nu-metal pioneers drop 11 spots to #13 (20,000). Meanwhile, former Police leader Sting's orchestral album, Symphonicities, suffered one of the week's biggest tumbles, shedding 61 percent of its first week's business as it falls 17 spots to #23 (14,000). The news was also not great for embattled singer M.I.A., whose divisive /\/\/\Y/\ also dropped 61 percent in week two as it skids 25 spots to #34 on sales of 11,000.

Further down the line, the soundtrack to MTV's own "Jersey Shore" fist-pumps its way to #55 (8,000), thanks to tracks by Enrique Iglesias with Pitbull, Taio Cruz, Ludacris, Lil Jon and LMFAO.

Over on the iTunes album and singles charts, Eminem continued his stranglehold, keeping the top spots on both locked down with Recovery and his hit collabo with Rihanna on "Love the Way You Lie." The singles chart doesn't look much different than last week, with Em followed by Cruz's "Dynamite," Iglesias' "I Like It," Katy Perry's "California Gurls," B.o.B's "Airplanes," Travie McCoy's "Billionaire," Mike Posner's "Cooler Than Me," Jason Derulo's "Ridin' Solo" and Eminem's "Not Afraid." The only newcomer on that chart is Perry's latest single, "Teenage Dream."

While iTunes does not release sales figures, Eminem clearly did the digital trick, beating out Ross and Crow, who come in at #2 and #3 as well, followed by the "Jonas" soundtrack, Drake, the "Inception" score, Jack Johnson's To the Sea, Lady Gaga, the early digital version of Avenged Sevenfold's Nightmare and the Black Keys' Brothers.

Eminem looks safe for another go-round on Billboard, as next week's chart debuts include new albums from Avenged Sevenfold, Dru Hill and the "Step Up 3D" soundtrack.

• The Evolution Of: Eminem

• Eminem
• Rick Ross (Hip-Hop)

'I Love the Way You Lie' was 'authentic, it was real,' singer says.
By James Dinh

Rihanna performs in front of a burning house while filming the "Love The Way You Lie" music video
Photo: Danny Mayer/ Eric Ford/ On Location Photos

When Eminem approached Rihanna to be featured on "Love the Way You Lie," she felt a powerful connection with the track. The singer, whose domestic violence tribulations with ex-boyfriend Chris Brown played out in front of the world, sat down with "Access Hollywood" to talk about her decision to collaborate with Eminem.

"It's something that, you know, [Eminem and I have] both experienced, you know, on different sides, different ends of the table," she said.

"It just was authentic. It was real," Rihanna continued. "It was believable for us to do a record like that, but it was also something that needed to be done and the way he did it was so clever. He pretty much just broke down the cycle of domestic violence and it's something that a lot people don't have a lot of insight on, so this song is a really, really powerful song and it touches a lot of people."

Despite the rather forward lyrics, the singer had no apprehension in tackling the song because of her faith in Em's artistry. "Eminem is an artist of class and I knew if he sent me a record there must be something to it," she said. "It couldn't just be, 'Oh, duh! She was in that relationship, so we have to get her.' "

Ultimately, the song was something Rihanna felt was in line with her past relationship. "The lyrics were so deep, so beautiful and intense. It's something that I understood, something I connected with," she revealed.

Just last week, Eminem stopped by the Los Angeles stop of Rihanna's Last Girl on Earth tour to perform the song, which currently holds the top spot on the "Billboard" Hot 100. The cameo wasn't planned; Ri explained that it was all just matter of time and place.

"Actually, it came really last minute. We shot the video last night and he happened to be in the same city and he was like 'Hey, can I perform with you?' " she said. "We fit it in and we couldn't have done anything better because Los Angeles loves Eminem. They couldn't stop screaming."

Photos of the duo on the music video's set, one of which showed Rihanna performing in front of a burning house, surfaced online last week. Megan Fox and Dominic Monaghan, who were spotted on location kissing on a Los Angeles rooftop, will also appear as the video's love interests. On Saturday (July 24), director Joseph Kahn tweeted that the video will premiere sometime in the coming week.

How do you feel about Rihanna singing "Love the Way You Lie"? Share your opinions in the comment section!

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• Eminem

The actors were snapped on the set of Em and Rihanna's 'Love the Way You Lie' clip.
By James Montgomery

Megan Fox and Dominic Monaghan shoot the music video for "Love the Way You Lie" in Los Angeles on Friday
Photo: Eric Ford/ On Location News

Joseph Kahn took to his Twitter account over the weekend to announce that he had finished his video for Eminem and Rihanna's "Love the Way You Lie," but he neglected to mention the bigger news about the video. It was up to an enterprising photographer to confirm the rumored appearance of Megan Fox and Dominic Monaghan in the clip.

Photos taken on Friday by On Location News show the actors shooting a scene and sharing a drink on the roof of a liquor store in downtown Los Angeles. In the pics, Fox and Monaghan can be seen sitting in a pair of lawn chairs, laughing and kissing. Monaghan's character, who is dressed in a ratty army jacket, is clutching a bottle of vodka, while Fox's character wears a short skirt and black combat boots.

On Location also speculated that the "injury of some kind" on Fox's elbow "is probably fake and for her character" and that, in addition to the scene on top of the liquor store, Fox and Monaghan also filmed inside the store and at "a seedy dive bar next door."

According to Kahn, the "Love the Way You Lie" video will premiere sometime this week. It's perfect timing, especially considering that the song currently holds the #1 spot on Billboard's Hot 100 chart (ending the six-week reign of Katy Perry's "California Gurls"), and that, for the fourth consecutive week, Em's Recovery album sits at #1 on the Top 200.

Do you think Megan Fox and Dominic Monaghan are the right stars to illustrate "Love the Way You Lie"? Who else would you cast? Talk about it in the comments.

• The Evolution Of: Megan Fox
• The Evolution Of: Eminem

• Eminem
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'Love The Way You Lie' clip features Megan Fox and 'Lost' star Dominic Monaghan.
By Kyle Anderson

Rihanna films her "Love The Way You Lie" video
Photo: Danny Mayer/ Eric Ford/ On Location Photos

Eminem and Rihanna have already hit the top of the Billboard Hot 100 with "Love the Way You Lie," the second single from Slim Shady's smash hit album Recovery. The song has managed to scale the chart without the benefit of a music video, but one is on the way soon. Photos of Eminem and Rihanna on set surfaced last week, and over the weekend director Joseph Kahn announced that the clip would be premiering sometime in the coming week.

"And that's a wrap! Eminem/Rhianna premieres in a week!" the director tweeted on Saturday (July 24). (A few minutes later, he corrected himself on a crucial point: "Oops Rihanna," he added. "That's what I get for typing while feeding my white Siberian tiger. More caviar, slave!")

Little is currently known about the clip, other than that Megan Fox and "Lost" actor Dominic Monaghan reportedly star in it and were spotted filming the video in Los Angeles last week.

"Love the Way You Lie" will be the third video Kahn has directed for Eminem. He previously took the lead on the clips for "Without Me" and "We Made You." During Kahn's 20-year career, he has directed videos for the likes of Britney Spears ("Womanizer"), U2 ("Elevation") and Lady Gaga ("LoveGame").

Kahn sounds extremely satisfied with the final version of his latest project. "My director's edit of Love the Way You Lie is done," he tweeted on Sunday (July 25). "I love this video."

What do you hope to see in the "Love the Way You Lie" video? Let us know in the comments!

• Eminem
• Rihanna

After Travie McCoy and Ke$ha opened the show, Eminem made a surprise appearance to sing 'Love the Way You Lie' with Rihanna.
By Kelly Marino

Rihanna performs on tour in Los Angeles on Wednesday
Photo: Aaron Pinkston/ MTV News

LOS ANGELES — Rihanna's Last Girl on Earth tour may have been plagued by poor ticket sales during a bad summer for concerts, but fans were out in force at the tour's Los Angeles stop on Wednesday night. With sexy moves, a hint of violence and pyrotechnics, the singer delivered a nearly two-hour set (following opening sets from Travie McCoy and Ke$ha) that was capped by a surprise appearance by none other than Eminem.

The show began shortly after 7:30 p.m. as Gym Class Heroes frontman Travie McCoy hit the stage in support of his debut solo album, Lazarus. Tattooed from head to toe, wearing jeans, a T-shirt, suspender straps and a paperboy hat, he performed a quick 20-minute set as fans continued to trickle in and fill the arena. With a drummer, a DJ and a backdrop featuring his dog Stitch, McCoy strutted back and forth across the stage performing tracks including "The Manual," "Dr. Feel Good" and the summer hit "Billionaire" — sans Bruno Mars — before closing out by showing his softer (yet possibly still bitter) side with the breakup song "Need You."

Following McCoy was a wild, playful, foul-mouthed and at times sloppy Ke$ha, who emerged between two large lighting props shortly after 8 p.m. While echoes of "Right Round" filled the venue (the Flo Rida hit on which she's featured), the singer ordered everyone in the crowd to "Stand up right now!" Decked out in a black sequined short jumpsuit, a leopard bandana, sunglasses, fishnet hose, body glitter and a star painted on her left eye, the singer kicked off her performance, which as promised, provided nothing short of a full-fledged party vibe.

"I can't believe I am playing a show at the motherf---in' Staples Center!" the Animal singer exclaimed as she broke into "Blah, Blah, Blah." Accompanied by a full band and two quirky dancers, who at times where seen dancing in only American flag-designed Speedos, Ke$ha's set was a visual assault that included a gun-shaped guitar, exotic animal hats, cartwheels, drum smashing, and psychedelic cartoons that played on the stage behind her. She tore through six more songs from her debut album, including "Party at a Rich Dude's House," "Dinosaur," "Stephen," "Your Love Is My Drug," and finishing, of course, with the song that rocketed her to fame, "Tik-Tok."

After an hour-long intermission, the energy in the arena soared when Rihanna finally took the stage. Wasting no time, the singer opened up with her pop-rock ballad "Russian Roulette," wearing a floor-length black dress with flashing red lights while images of burning naked mannequins were displayed on screens behind her.

While stage lights flashed, six of her dancers emerged with glow-in-the-dark rifles. Rihanna reappeared shortly after, revealing a pink sequined bodysuit with her signature shoulder pads, which were a common theme throughout several of her outfit changes. Performing "Hard," the singer straddled a giant pink army tank with a Mickey Mouse army hat on while images of her video "Hard" flashed behind her.

Rihanna went on to perform a set filled with 23 hits, including "Disturbia," "Rehab," playful dance hits like "Pon de Replay," "Please Don't Stop the Music," and "S.O.S," and more intimate songs such as "Take a Bow" and "Hate That I Love You," and five different outfits, all of which had the similar leotard skin-tight looks that show off her figure. All the while, messages flashed across the screens, displaying statements that reflect Rihanna's dreamlike world: "One image. One voice. Welcome to Rihanna's world. The last girl on Earth."

Toward the end of the night, the crowd received the biggest treat of the show. As Rihanna began to sing the hook for "Love the Way You Lie," Eminem emerged from beneath the stage to join her. Allowing Eminem to take center stage, Rihanna gracefully stood nearby while the crowd screamed louder then ever. Dressed all in black, Eminem took control of the show and for an instant it almost appeared as if the crowd forgot they were attending a Rihanna show. But just as quickly as the song began, it was over, as the two disappeared beneath the stage together, leaving the audience chanting for more during the encore.

Closing out the night, Rihanna returned to play a medley of songs. As if to tease the audience into thinking another artist would make a guest appearance, she sang the hooks from "Live Your Life" and "Run This Town." The show ended with Rihanna's biggest hit song to date, "Umbrella," with red confetti released into the air, as she was elevated above the crowd on a platform. Once she was brought back onto the stage, she did a cute curtsy, thanking fans for making her dreams come true, before exiting the stage. As the lights came on, the dreamlike messages continued to flash up on the screen — "The dream is over. The dream is real" — while "What a Wonderful World" played throughout the arena.

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Eminem And Elton John Perform At The 2001 Grammy Awards

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