Rihanna canceled her Grammys performance due to “bronchitis,” but sources exclusively tell Page Six it was just a ploy to get her out of the awards show at the eleventh hour, because she feared giving a lackluster performance.
“She felt like her performance couldn’t compare [to some of the other artists’], and she was trying to avoid the embarrassment because she knew it wasn’t the right comeback performance,” said an insider. “She said, ‘I’m not doing this.’”
Sources said RiRi rehearsed her tune “Kiss It Better” twice, but then got cold feet after seeing Kendrick Lamar and others rehearse.
Another source who saw the pop star’s rehearsals told us, “It was underwhelming. The performance was like a throwback to an ’80s talk show. James Corden was going to introduce her, and she was supposed to walk over, talk to him, then gyrate on the mike.”
Our source continued: “People were watching like, ‘Oh, is that it?’ She was singing parts of the song live, but it had a lot of recorded vocals [in rehearsal]. We were surprised when she rehearsed the ballad [all the way through], because we thought she was going to kill it and come back with [her more upbeat single] ‘Work.’ It didn’t seem like Rihanna.”
Producers then powwowed with her team. “It was an intense conversation. It didn’t seem like they were discussing a doctor’s note,” we’re told.
But another source said the singer “looked upset after rehearsals and a doctor came to see her . . . after the doctor talked to her and told her the diagnosis, she was forced to pull out.”
On nights before the Grammys, Rihanna performed in a Lionel Richie tribute and partied at Up&Down in New York with Naomi Campbell for RiRi’s Fenty x Puma fashion show. The “Anti” hitmaker also seems to have had a speedy recovery after the awards — she was back at Up&Down celebrating her 28th birthday days later.
And on Monday, she released two videos for “Work,” then reportedly partied in London till 5 a.m. with Drake. The duo’s expected to perform the song at the Brit Awards on Wednesday.