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Good Girl Gone Bad Live (2008)

Where the lyrics of Good Girl Gone Bad Live take you, and where it was really made.

The concert on this DVD was filmed in Manchester in December 2007, but the Blu-ray only reached the United States in late 2009.

Key places

Manchester Arena show, December 2007 (2007)

Live show Manchester Arena — The concert was filmed at the Manchester Arena on 6 December 2007, during the Good Girl Gone Bad Tour. The show became this DVD and Blu-ray release. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Venue for the December 2007 recording (2007)

Recording site AO Arena — This candidate location is linked to the 6 December 2007 concert that was filmed for the DVD. Its marker is city-level, so it should not be read as the exact building. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Good Girl Gone Bad Live: first live long-form video by Barbadian singer Rihanna
• Released June 9, 2008 by Def Jam Recordings
• Filmed at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, United Kingdom, on December 6, 2007
• Part of the Good Girl Gone Bad Tour (2007—2009)
• DVD and Blu-ray release; set list drawn mostly from the album Good Girl Gone Bad (2007)
• Also includes songs from Music of the Sun (2005) and A Girl like Me (2006)
• Contains a Documentary Feature in which Rihanna discusses her tour experiences

Background

• Good Girl Gone Bad released June 4, 2007
• Lead single "Umbrella" earned Rihanna a Grammy for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration
• Good Girl Gone Bad Tour: 80 concert shows across Europe, North America, Oceania, Asia and Africa
• DVD released June 9 and June 13, 2008 in the UK and Germany through Mercury Records and Universal Music respectively
• Digital release via iTunes on June 16, 2008 in several countries
• Universal Music Canada and Def Jam Recordings released the DVD in Canada and the US on November 4, 2008
• Blu-ray released in France on November 24, 2008; in late 2009 also released in the US and Germany

Recording

• Directed by Paul Caslin
• Captured with a 14-camera High Definition shoot
• Blu-ray: 1.78:1 aspect ratio, MPEG-4 AVC encoding, 1080i transfer
• Two audio tracks: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and LPCM 2.0
• Running time over 90 minutes; five subtitles: English, French, Spanish, Portuguese and German

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Career beginnings

• Robyn Rihanna Fenty, born February 20, 1988 in Saint Michael, Barbados
• Signed with Def Jam Recordings in 2005 after an audition for Jay-Z and Antonio "L.A." Reid
• Debut album Music of the Sun (2005) and A Girl Like Me (2006) both reached the US Billboard 200 top ten
• "SOS" became her first US Billboard Hot 100 number-one single

Peak pop era

• Good Girl Gone Bad (2007) marked a shift to dance-pop and R&B and is her best-selling album, with about nine million copies sold
• "Umbrella", "Take a Bow" and "Disturbia" each topped the Billboard Hot 100
• Rated R (2009), Loud (2010), Talk That Talk (2011) and Unapologetic (2012) followed
• Unapologetic was her first US Billboard 200 number-one album

Later career

• Moved from Def Jam to Roc Nation; Anti (2016) became her second US number-one album
• Headlined the Super Bowl LVII halftime show in February 2023, the most-watched halftime show in history
• Has released sporadic singles since 2016 and acted in films including Battleship (2012), Ocean's 8 (2018) and Smurfs (2025)
• Sales estimated above 250 million records

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Critics were divided on the video
• Praised: the show, the dancers, Rihanna's vocals and the video's contrast levels
• Criticized: some technicalities, including the close-up frames
• MusicOMH: Azeem Ahmad gave the video four stars and wrote that it is unlikely to win over new fans but would not disappoint existing ones
• Ahmad found the songs infectiously upbeat, but more grown-up than the album versions
• Ahmad praised the vocal strength on Rehab and called the interlude Scratch impressive
• Blu-ray.com reviewer: the transfer has no serious technical flaws, but the video does not match Live from the Royal Albert Hall (2009) by The Killers
• Blu-ray.com reviewer noted soft close-ups, motion judder ranging from mild to strong, and some dark close-ups, while contrast levels were good
• Blu-ray.com reviewer concluded that consistency is an issue across the show

Records

• Debuted at number six on the US Billboard Music DVD chart, issue dated August 2, 2008
• Stayed on the US Billboard Music DVD chart for 23 weeks in total
• Re-entered the US chart at number 11 on November 22, 2008, after the US DVD release
• Reached the top ten in nine countries, including number one in Austria and Switzerland
• Certified gold by the RIAA, denoting shipments of over 25,000 copies
• Certified platinum by ARIA in Australia
• Nominated for Best Long Form Music Video at the 51st Annual Grammy Awards, losing to Runnin' Down a Dream (2007)

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• The concert opens with Rihanna rising from a portable floor behind a giant curtain as she begins her debut single "Pon de Replay".
• The documentary says Rihanna described "Question Existing" as a very personal song that Ne-Yo wrote on behalf of entertainers.
• In the documentary Rihanna talks about visiting places she had never heard of, including Ischgl and Sofia, and shows a snowball fight with her team in Ischgl.
• The encore consists of "Question Existing" and "Umbrella".
• Before "Umbrella", Rihanna told the audience she would perform her biggest record so far all over the world.
• The video debuted at number one on the Austrian Music DVD Chart on July 4, 2008.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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