Kanye West Brings Rihanna On Stage At FYF Music Festival
Kanye West gave fans a pleasant surprise during his FYFT Fest performance in Los Angeles Sunday night by bringing out Rihanna for a surprise duet.
While performing “FourFiveSeconds,” a song Kanye co-wrote and co-produced with Beatles icon Paul McCartney, the FYFT headliner appeared to have just spotted Rihanna in the audience and then decided to hand her the microphone, according to New York Daily News. Seemingly surprised by the gesture, the “Diamonds” singer responded in kind by belting out the chorus to the track, drawing loud cheers of approval from the audience.
“Make some noise for Rihanna in the crowd,” Kanye West shouted afterwards.
https://twitter.com/GotThatHipHop/status/635423750389952512
With Kanye West’s time on stage about to wind down, he said, “I’ve got like 10 minutes and I’ve got like 10 years of hits for y’all.” And right on cue, Kanye West treated fans to a 10-minute performance that highlighted some of his biggest hits including “Jesus Walks,” “Touch the Sky,” “Gold Digger,” and “Good Life.” Rapper and producer Travis Scott made a short appearance to perform with West shortened versions of “Upper Echelon” and “Antidote” in the discographical performance.
It was a night full of surprises as Rihanna joined West again onstage moments later to perform the My Beautiful Twisted Dark Fantasy single “All of the Lights.” Crowd reaction went through the roof.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5NDiYK57bE
West then capped his performance with a minimalist rendition of “Only One,” a song he wrote for his daughter with Kim Kardashian, North West.
Kim Kardashian, who was at the concert during the entire performance, shared a photo of his husband Kanye performing on stage via this tweet:
Yeezus pic.twitter.com/XlHzZsUqVA
— Kim Kardashian (@KimKardashian) August 23, 2015
Whether Rihanna’s participation from the crowd was staged or not is anybody’s guess. If it was staged, the Barbadian singer sure did an exemplary acting job, as she was visibly flustered when Kanye West handed her the mic. One can also consider the fact that Kanye didn’t have much in the way of preparation. As Entertainment Weekly noted, West was the last-minute replacement for Frank Ocean.
“We’re really sorry that due to a scheduling conflict beyond our control, Frank Ocean is not going to be able to appear at FYF Festival as planned,” Ocean’s publicist said in a statement days before the festival. “Frank had really been looking forward to the performance and to seeing all of his fans, so it is with great regret that we announce this cancellation.”
As a nod to Ocean, Kanye West opened up his performance with their 2011 collaboration “No Church in the Wild.”
[Photo by Larry Busacca, Getty Images.]
