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Rihanna Addresses Beyoncé Rivalry In ‘Vogue’ Interview Amid Claims Bey Sabotaged ‘Anti’ Tour

By Maurice Cassidy
Published on: 05:13 PST, Mar 17, 2016

Rihanna has openly shared her thoughts on the supposed Beyoncé rivalry following the 34-year-old’s announcement she was set to embark on a world tour that would evidently clash with Rihanna’s own voyage.

Many fans had gotten the impression that Beyoncé was purposely trying to sabotage Rihanna’s career with the unexpected decision to head back on the road, supposedly well aware that the announcement of her Formation tour would jeopardize Rihanna’s chances of selling out stadiums, which turned out to be true.

Dozens of shows from Rihanna’s Anti tour had reportedly changed from stadiums (with the capacity of 90,000 people) down to arenas that could only hold 20,000 ticket holders.

It was also alleged that the multiple concerts the singer had unexpectedly postponed last month weren’t down to production issues, as claimed by her team. Instead, several sources revealed that the tickets weren’t selling as well as promoters had hoped, consequently leaving them no other choice but to push the dates back in hopes that the interest will eventually pick up.

Speaking out for the very first time regarding her supposed beef with Beyoncé, Rihanna told Vogue, “Here’s the deal. They just get so excited to feast on something that’s negative.”

She continues by adding that she doesn’t pay attention to the negative comments she is often bombarded with, adding that nobody can do what she does but her.

“Something that’s competitive. Something that’s, you know, a rivalry. And that’s just not what I wake up to. Because I can only do me. And nobody else is going to be able to do that.”

Ouch. While Rihanna stresses that she doesn’t feed into the negativity, it was just two weeks ago when she liked a fan’s tweet that was indirectly dissing the subtle success of Beyoncé’s latest single, “Formation.”

One of her dedicated fans had argued that the 28-year-old’s “Desperado” song had charted higher than a track that had been performed on a global stage, causing the utmost outrage among the Beyhive, who instantly took the comment as a shady remark aimed at Beyoncé.

While Rihanna tends to deny any sort of feud between her and Queen Bey, her decision to speak out about the supposed beef comes just months after several credible outlets alleged that Jay-Z had a secret affair with his protégé, which evidently led to his one-year separation from his famous wife.

“Beyoncé didn’t know what to make of this, and it actually ended up breaking them up for a time,” J Randy Taraborrelli writes in the 2015 unauthorized book titled Becoming Beyoncé: The Untold Story. “They spent maybe a year apart from each other because Beyoncé just wasn’t sure of what to make of the situation with Rihanna.”

In the midst of her conflicted relationship with Beyoncé, it is also said that Rihanna’s latest studio effort, Anti, has gone down in history for having had one of worst marketing strategies in the history of album releases. Poor execution, confusing teasers, no specific release date, and multiple changes in the record’s direction ultimately affected the overall album sales.

Excluding the one million copies that had been bought by Samsung, Anti has only sold 450,000 copies worldwide, making it the worst-selling album by the Bajan beauty.

[Photo by Luca Teuchmann and Ronald Martinez/Getty Images]

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