Rihanna attends her 'Rated R' album release party in New York City on Tuesday
Photo: Jerritt Clark/ Getty Images

NEW YORK — To quote a track from her just-released album, Rated R, the wait is over for Rihanna.

The singer was feted at her album-release party in Manhattan on Tuesday night as Jay-Z, Diddy and Fabolous, among others, turned out at Juliet's Supper Club to celebrate Rihanna's first project since her February assault earlier this year by Chris Brown.

The Barbadian beauty arrived at the festivities fashionably late, just after 1 a.m., but the cameras were at the ready, capturing Rihanna's red-carpet strut. The fashion icon sported a shimmering gold micro-dress with long spikes sporadically jutting out all over and matching shoes.

Rihanna was quickly escorted inside where DJ D-Nice was spinning tunes ranging from Jay-Z's "Run This Town" (featuring the guest of honor) to Maino's "Million Bucks" and, of course, RiRi's Young Jeezy collaboration, "Hard."

Frequent Rihanna collaborator Sean Garrett said he was happy to support the Def Jam star. He said she took more control of this album, her fourth, and showed that she is not only resilient but also, at 21, she's more of a woman at this point in her career.

"She was very, very picky [with this album]," Garrett told MTV News. "She was going through a lot, so I think her emotions were leaning to things that were closer to her heart as opposed to closer to the radio, to be real honest. And that's the sign of a real, true artist."

The atmosphere remained festive both inside and outside the venue.

Jay-Z, a longtime Rihanna advocate and supporter, arrived with Diddy in a black Maybach. Tyson Beckford, Rick Ross, DJ Clue, DJ Envy and New York Jets star Thomas Jones were also in attendance.

Monday's Rated R release came on the heels of a media blitz that began with some very personal interviews with ABC's Diane Sawyer, Glamour magazine, Hot 97 and MTV News. The media appearances were her first since her assault as she broke her silence and explained in detail the attack and her desire to move on. She told MTV News that her album is the summation of her emotions in the aftermath of that fateful night.

"This album is an expression of all those feelings that I went through in the last eight months, just different emotions," she explained. "All of it isn't angry, all of it isn't dark and sad, 'cause I didn't go through that the whole time. That was part of it. It was really a roller-coaster, and you get that when you're listening to the album."

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Adam Lambert performs on the American Music Awards on Sunday
Photo: Michael Caulfield/ Getty Images

Thanks to talked-about performances from Adam Lambert, Lady Gaga and Rihanna and wins by the late Michael Jackson and country superstar Taylor Swift, the American Music Awards drew its strongest audience in seven years.

According to Nielsen estimates, the awards show drew 14.2 million viewers, which is 2 million more than last year's program and represents the best showing by the AMAs since 2002.

Though NBC still won the night with "Sunday Night Football," ABC pulled ahead during the 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. hours. The strong numbers for the show were boosted, no doubt, by the promise of more than 20 performances from some of music's biggest acts, including Jay-Z, Green Day, Carrie Underwood, Kelly Clarkson, Eminem with 50 Cent, Janet Jackson and Whitney Houston.

	2009 AMA Performances

In the end, though, it was Lambert who made the biggest headlines, with his aggressively pansexual performance of the title track from his major-label debut, For Your Entertainment. In addition to drawing more than 1,500 complaints from viewers who took issue with the man-on-man kissing, girl dragging and S&M play, Lambert's awards-show coming-out party lost him at least one gig when ABC's "Good Morning America" announced Tuesday (November 24) that it had canceled his planned appearance due to the controversy kicked up by the AMAs.

Lambert took it all in stride, though, telling "American Idol" host Ryan Seacrest on his radio show on Tuesday that he respects the "GMA" decision. "They gotta do what they gotta do," Lambert said. "It's too bad. I think there were a lot of fans who were excited to come see me. They probably had a lot of pressure coming at them from certain people who weren't happy about it. I respect their decision. I don't necessarily agree with it, but they need to do what they need to do."

Lambert, who lamented what he perceives as a double standard when it comes to risqué performances by men and women in music, said he felt no need to apologize for his AMA debut. "I don't feel I owe anyone an apology for anything," he said. "I performed, it was late-night TV, I did something that female performers have been doing for years, no different. It's just the fact that I'm me and it's a little different for people. It's really not that big of a deal. I'm not a babysitter, I'm a performer."

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Rihanna is interviewed by MTV News for the first time in October, 2005
Photo: MTV News

Back in the fall of 2005, Rihanna was an up-and-coming pop and R&B singer who had just released her first single, "Pon De Replay." The fresh-faced artist from Barbados hadn't even released a video for the song but seemed poised for the superstardom she would later find with hits like "Umbrella," "Disturbia" and her new album, Rated R.

Rihanna said her music was a reflection of her life, even when the singer was decidedly less high-profile. "It's just imagination, being creative; that's what my music is composed with," she said in her first interview with MTV News. "Being creative and thinking of situations, whether situations I went through or situations I've observed people going through."

Just four years ago, the singer said she couldn't predict what her future would look like, but she was aiming high. "I can't tell you where I'll see myself in five years, but I can tell you I will work my best to be the most successful artist that I can be in five years," she said.

Although she's probably a long way off from thinking of retirement, Rihanna did have a concrete idea of what she wanted her legacy to be. "Remembered as Rihanna. Remembered as being the artist from the Caribbean who came here and made it internationally," she said. "Just remembered as me, 'cause I'm true to my music, and I just want people to realize that and appreciate me for that."

• Rihanna

Rihanna performs on "Good Morning America" Tuesday morning
Photo: ABC

The wait is over. After rocking the American Music Awards stage on Sunday night, Rihanna made her much-anticipated appearance on "Good Morning America" Tuesday (November 24), where she performed two songs from her new album, Rated R, plus one older fan favorite.

Looking fierce in a white sequined blazer with a little black shirt underneath and stilettos, Rihanna took the stage smiling. She kicked off her performance with her single "Wait Your Turn," surrounded by her band and backup dancers, who were dressed all in black. The Times Square stage was set with old-fashioned TVs.

After singing the single from Rated R, which hits stores this week, she revealed to "GMA" host Robin Roberts that she had intended to wear something else entirely for the show. "My dress ... I guess I'm a little too fat right now ... the zip busted. They wanted to stitch it up but I couldn't," she joked about her wardrobe malfunction.

She also talked a bit about her new album album, saying, "It came very natural only because it was my place of peace, being the studio just venting. It was the one place I didn't feel judged or criticized. Every emotion went into that album."

She then sang another Rated R single, "Russian Roulette," before closing out the show with her fan-favorite smash hit "Umbrella," off her 2007 album Good Girl Gone Bad.

• Rihanna

Rihanna's <i>Rated R</i>
Photo: Def Jam

With Rated R now in stores, fans will most likely be trying to decipher which songs are about Rihanna's relationship with Chris Brown. While there are tracks about her ex-boyfriend, Rihanna wanted to make sure fans knew that she's more than just that one relationship.

"Today, I am strong, very fearless, brave," Rihanna told MTV News. "I love taking risks. I'm not afraid of the unknown."

The album, which had Rihanna hitting the studio with collaborators like Justin Timberlake, Tricky Stewart and Ne-Yo, was one of those risks. It deviates from her club-banging pop songs to a harder-edge hip-hop/pop sound.

"This album is an expression of all those feelings that I went through in the last eight months, just different emotions," she said of the aftermath of Brown's assault. "All of it isn't angry, all of it isn't dark and sad, 'cause I didn't go through that the whole time. That was part of it. It was really a roller coaster, and you get that when you're listening to the album."

As for the songs that touch on her tumultuous relationship with Brown, listeners will get an intimate look into her world. "The feelings that I went through and exactly what was going through my mind and how I felt," she said of what she addresses on the album. "I really vented on this album, and as I said before, all of it isn't about that specific relationship or what I went through, 'cause that's not who I am. That's not all of who I am."

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Rihanna performs at Sunday's AMAs
Photo: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images

It's been more than 10 months since Rihanna missed her scheduled performance at February's Grammy Awards due to her assault at the hands of then boyfriend Chris Brown. But on Sunday night (November 22) at the American Music Awards, the singer stormed back in style, working out two of the singles from her new album, Rated R, which hits stores on Monday.

In keeping with the dark vibe of the photos and videos she's released from the album so far, Rihanna's performance led off with a sci-fi themed clip featuring an ominous voiceover that intoned, "Ladies and gentlemen, for those of you who are easily frightened, we suggest you turn away now. To those of you who think they can take it, we say: Welcome to the madhouse," a seeming homage to Vincent Price's cackling narration of Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video. The opening video sequence featured images of a woman strapped to a medical table with shiny instruments covering her privates, as a team of blue ghost figures implanted a series of computer chips into her body while she sprang to life, Frankenstein style.

With a silver mask removed, the figure was revealed to be Rihanna and the camera panned to the stage, where the singer was strapped into a X-shaped rigging, her arms and legs splayed as the thrum of her single "Wait Your Turn" filled the air. The lights came up and Rihanna sang the deadpan first line, "I pitch with a grenade," with one hand freed from her S&M-like device. Also in keeping with the fetish-style outfits she's been wearing lately, Rihanna was decked out in a neck-to-ankles, skintight white catsuit bisected by cut-out lines that revealed horizontal bits of flesh across her body, and topped off with spiked shoulder pads, white studded cuffs and a barbed-wire bracelet snaking up her right forearm.

As dancers with white shotguns swirled around and a nest of TV sets behind her displayed static, Rihanna stepped down from the cross and strutted amid towers of flames shooting up from the stage. Backed by an industrial rock group that resembled a Nine Inch Nails tribute band and holding a Freddie Mercury-style half-microphone stand, she burned into her Young Jeezy collabo, "Hard," dropping the line "the hottest sh-- in heels right here," while putting her high-heeled white vinyl boots up on a vintage TV prop as proof.

With lasers searching the air, the lights dimmed and red tracer beams shot out of the studs on her shoulder pads and the song ended with a group of backup dancers wearing plexiglass boxes on their heads over gas masks and wielding the aforementioned firearms took aim while Rihanna raised her arms in triumph and a voice warned: "Rihanna's reign ain't gonna let up."

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Rihanna
Photo: Jason Merritt/Getty Images

There was a wide variety of looks on the American Music Awards red carpet, but there was one overriding theme: black and sparkles, be it sequins or jewels.

Selena Gomez wore a little sparkly dress cinched with a belt, while Keri Hilson funked up her short, long-sleeved black dress with lots of sequins. Kelly Clarkson also went with classic black, in a dress with shimmering silver-sequin detailing. Alicia Keys broke all the color rules in her corseted tie-dye dress with sequins.

	AMAs Red Carpet Photos

Demi Lovato looked hip in a blush-colored dress with a jeweled halter neck, and Carrie Underwood went for the blush tone as well in a Grecian-style gown. Leona Lewis went edgy in a leather minidress with a geometric neckline. "American Idol" winner Kris Allen looked dapper in his gray pinstripe suit with black piping, and fellow "Idol" alum Adam Lambert channeled his inner Elvis with his slicked-back hair and sleek suit.

Speaking of "Idol," Paula Abdul looked chic in a simple black strapless mermaid dress. Fergie also wore black, in the form of a shimmering leather gown that looked a lot like the one Shakira wore to the VMAs in September. The guys also embraced the black trend, with Drake and Keith Urban donning nearly identical black suits with black button-downs, with noticeably absent ties. Urban, however, accessorized his look with his glamorous wife, Nicole Kidman, who looked stunning in a taupe tiered Balenciaga gown with a bright pink stripe.

Speaking of pairings, 50 Cent, clad in a gray suit, showed up with Val Kilmer in his most formal cowboy outfit. Shakira bucked the trends in a short, bright yellow dress with a V-style corset. However, perhaps no one made a bigger statement than Rihanna who, despite wearing black and sequins, managed to stand out in her strapless dress with A-line hem and rose cutouts, making another uniquely glam appearance.

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Photo: ABC

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Chris Brown appears in court Thursday
Photo: Gina Ferrazi/ AP Images

Chris Brown appeared in a Los Angeles courtroom on Thursday (November 19) for a progress hearing on his probation — and in the eyes of officials, the singer/actor has earned an "extremely favorable" report.

Brown was in the courtroom again in connection with his June plea for attacking former girlfriend Rihanna earlier this year. Brown was ordered to give Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Patricia Schnegg an update on his compliance with the sentence given to the 20-year-old singer following his guilty plea to a felony assault charge in the case.

According to The Associated Press, Brown attorney Mark Geragos said in the courtroom that Brown has already completed 100 hours of community service in Richmond, Virginia. This time has included such hard labor as picking up trash alongside state highways. Brown has also completed seven of his 52 domestic-violence classes.

On August 25, Brown was sentenced to five years of probation and 180 days of community labor, which he has been serving in his native Virginia by picking up garbage by the roadside and removing graffiti. In exchange for the guilty plea and the avoidance of any jail time in the case, Brown was also sentenced to a 52-week domestic violence prevention class. Brown must also stay at least 100 yards away from Rihanna for the next five years.

After months of silence, Brown and Rihanna have begun giving interviews over the past few weeks discussing the assault. Brown apologized again to Rihanna in a recent sitdown with MTV News' Sway Calloway while Rihanna has talked with both ABC's Diane Sawyer and MTV News.

Schnegg has warned Brown that he could face jail time if he violates any of the probation terms. The singer is in the midst of his "Fan Appreciation" tour. The next step in Brown's legal proceedings was also scheduled on Thursday: a February 18 date in which he'll once again have to speak with the judge on where his court-ordered probation efforts stand.

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Rihanna
Photo: Joe Kohen/WireImage

Despite all that's gone on between them, Rihanna told a radio interviewer on Thursday (November 19) that she still misses ex-boyfriend Chris Brown and doesn't turn his music off when it comes on the radio.

When asked on Atlanta's Q100 if she misses Brown, Rihanna said, "Sometimes ... actually yes. There are a lot of reminders, like a lot of hotel rooms, a lot of places we've been to together, music. ... There are different things that come up that are reminders of your ex."

Brown, who was in court on Thursday for a status hearing tied to his probation for assaulting Rihanna in February, has spoken several times about how he still pines for Rihanna. He has said he wishes he could be with her, despite a court order to stay 100 yards away for the next five years.

"When [Chris' music] comes on on the radio, I don't snub or turn it off; I listen," said the singer, whose new album, Rated R, comes out on Monday. "I like his music."

Like with any breakup, Rihanna said there are things that make her think of Brown from time to time, and it's been hard to move on. "I've gotten over it," she said. "But there's definitely constant reminders, and a lot of it is listening to the radio and songs coming on, songs that were our favorite songs, or his songs."

Brown, who was sentenced to five years probation and 180 days of community labor when he pleaded guilty to felony assault in the case, told MTV News that he's not quite ready to date again. And Rihanna quickly shot down rumors that she is already moving on with alleged new beau "90210" star Tristan Wilds.

"I don't even have his number," Rihanna said. "I had a house party, this is funny, and you know how you have house parties, and people come over that you don't even know. He came by, which was fun for me, I appreciated the company. He brought a bunch of friends, and everybody's hanging out, but I don't even have his number, so I don't know how I could be dating him."

While admittedly a "very flirty girl," Rihanna said she's not dating now because she doesn't really have a lot of time, or energy, for a commitment. "A relationship really is another life, another career, really."

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Rihanna, Shakira, Kris Allen, Adam Lambert At The 2009 American Music Awards Red Carpet

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