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Rihanna's International Tour Hits Some Bumps, Report Those Onboard

A journalist streaks and reporters chant for access to the pop star during a seven day international tour

Mayday! It’s chaos on Rihanna ‘s VIP plane!

Rihanna’s 777 Tour, which kicked off Wednesday, took journalists and fans on a seven-day, seven-country tour in celebration of the release of her new album Unapologetic (out Nov. 19) – all on board a tricked-out Boeing 777. But the sky-high adventure has taken a slight nosedive, with passengers getting cranky – and a little crazy – according to various online reports and Tweets from passengers aboard the plane.

The 250 guests, including reporters from MTV, Fuse and VH1, have been keeping fans on the ground posted, and Rolling Stone ‘s Jeff Rosenthal is one of many keeping a diary of his experiences. “Def Jam’s ever-present staff has done its best to meet the needs of a too-large operation. The amount of money spent on this whole thing could sink a boat,” he reported .

But the pricey plane hasn’t made for the most comfortable trip, according to some reports, which document hunger, fatigue among passengers, as well as the pop star’s relative lack of engagement with the press on the flight.

A blogger for MTV wrote on Sunday night during an overnight flight from Berlin to London, where Rihanna is scheduled to perform on Nov. 19, “Long waits on tarmac and in buses, no sleep, and no sightings of her royal highness since our initial ascent into the skies has the denizens of the Rihanna plane feeling restless.”

“Crowd chanted ‘Just one quote!,’ ‘I need a headline!’ and ‘Occupy 777’ while Aussie journo stripped naked and ran around the plane,” journalist Jason Newman Tweeted , describing some of the onboard activity. (Video of the Australian reporter streaking on the flight has also surfaced online.)

Journalist Mary H.K. Choi also chimed in: “The Australian with the harmonica STREAKED the plane as the press corp chanted. #RIHANNAPLANE #WHEREHAVEYOUBEENALLTHISFLIGHT,” she Tweeted .

According to Fuse , a Def Jam publicist was asked whether Rihanna was aware of the chaos. The rep replied, “I don’t know,” before telling journalists, “Someday, before we die, I’ll tell you my version of the story.”

And the Huffington Post editor aboard for the tour dissects why Rihanna felt the need to host a week-long party in the sky. Quoting a fan may sum up best: “”Everyone wants to be liked.”

The excitement is set to come to an end when the tour wraps Nov. 20 in New York City.

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On Tour With Rihanna

By Ella Alexander

VOGUE cover girl Rihanna has unveiled details of her most ambitious tour to date - seven countries in seven days - and vogue.co.uk will be joining the star on her private plane for the ride. We'll be bringing you exclusive never-seen-before pictures, news snippets and all the action from what is set to be, as the singer describes herself, a true "adventure".

"I am so excited about the 777 Tour," said Rihanna in a statement. "We are turning this jumbo jet into our tour bus. We're practically living on this thing for a week: sleeping, partying, all together. Me, my fans, the press - it's going to be a wild ride. I wanted it to be a rock 'n' roll adventure, and I think when it's over it will be the coolest thing I've ever done. I'm that excited about it."

The trip starts today in Mexico, before stopping at Toronto, Stockholm, Paris, Berlin, London and finishing in New York on November 20. The tour - which celebrates the musician's forthcoming album, Unapologetic , due for release on November 19 - is sponsored by River Island , the high street store that has collaborated with the 24-year-old on a highly-anticipated fashion line. The collection is set to hit stores in spring 2013.

Be part of Rihanna's action-packed new tour and follow us on Twitter and Facebook for the latest updates.

Read more: Rihanna: Style File

By Emma Spedding

By Chioma Nnadi

By Ellie Pithers

By Emily Chan

By Kerry McDermott

By Alex Kessler

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Life in the air with Rihanna's 777 Tour

O n the back of an envelope, Rihanna's infamous 777 Tour must have felt like a publicity masterstroke. To mark the November release of Unapologetic , her seventh album in seven years, the singer flew 310 competition winners and journalists, representing 84 countries, around the world on a Boeing 777. Glorying in her tattooed, scantily clad, naughty-lyrics perv-pop pomp, Rihanna likes to go that bit further than her peers. In every sense.

So, seven shows in seven countries in seven days, embedded mile-high with a hit-making diva queen. Livin' the dream, right? Well, kinda. If the dream involves fatigued men and women reduced to bleary-eyed blobs, mass chanting from desperate onboard media ("Save our jobs!" "Just one quote!" "We have weed!"), mid-air nudity and much dancing and singing to a string of ineffably brilliant electro-R&B belters.

Everything ran late, all the time. Sleep was a luxury, as was fresh air. The promised daily press-conference interaction with the 24-year-old controversy magnet – the most downloaded artist in history – never materialised, although at one point she did pour us glasses of $400 Ace of Spades champagne from a gold bottle.

Did I meet her? No. Didn't even speak to her across a crowded fuselage. Still, in the week's sum total of 10 minutes that she spent at the back of the plane talking to her captive (very captive) audience, I did overhear her saying that ordinarily she'd have been hanging with us, "partying my balls off". But she was saving her voice for the shows. Which is funny, as she often seemed to be saving her voice on the stage as well. Her backing singers were kept very busy.

All that said, I have never laughed so much in my life, bonding intensely – and alcoholically – with the other embattled travellers.

Would I do it again? In a heartbeat. Maybe not with Rihanna though.

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Rihanna ‘777’ tour survivor calls documentary ‘watered-down propaganda’.

Music writer Emily Zemler shares her story with THR, and says the TV doc of the seven-day trek glosses over the harrowing experience of the journalists along for the ride.

By Emily Zemler

Emily Zemler

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The singer, accompanied by numerous backup dancers for the majority of the two-hour set, performed pop hit after pop hit, revealing her sizable catalogue of tunes.

“She was on the plane.” That’s what people have murmured in hushed, sometimes terrified, tones since November, seemingly in reference to a horrible crash or actual hostage situation. Everyone’s interested in recounting my experience on the  Rihanna 777 Tour last fall, a seven-day trek through seven countries to watch the pop star perform seven abridged promo shows in an effort to – well, I’m not sure anyone was ever really clear on its purpose. In many ways, the 150 global journalists on board the chartered Delta 777 felt like hostages, albeit willing ones. The reports that filtered out that week, referencing long hours spent on runways, on buses that didn’t move, without real food or bathroom, are verifiable. That week was tedious and exhausting, rarely involving sleep, water or the necessary Internet access to file stories. There was a riot onboard the plane between Berlin and London, a stretch marked by 36 hours without sleep, and the entire journey, in many ways, felt like a social experiment.

A documentary crew was also on the plane, following the journalists and contest-winning fans around closely (and, obnoxiously, filming people’s open-mouthed faces on the rare occasion they did sleep). For a once in a lifetime event, one the general public followed – and still follows – with rapt interested, the eventual documentary, titled Rihanna 777 , that the crew has released is basically watered-down propaganda. An hour-long version of the documentary aired last night on FOX and is accompanied by a slightly longer version on DVD today. Instead of revealing the entertaining tumult that characterized the 777 Tour, the documentary crew has chastened the experience in the editing room, glossing over the rioting incident and the long hours spent waiting around for Rihanna to finish lingerie shopping in Paris.

PHOTOS: Rihanna’s ‘Diamonds’ World Tour in Pictures

In some regard, that’s understandable. Rihanna already garnered significant amounts of negative press and criticism during the tour (Gawker referred to the event as “RihaArgo” and reported the tour as if it were a real hostage incident). But the pop star doesn’t really come out of the terse documentary looking like gold. The filmmakers are repeatedly forced to blur out her nipples or a blunt shoved behind her ear, and in one of the more interesting scenes, Rihanna, clearly stoned, unintelligibly blabbers about her role in pop music. Of course this documentary has far more of Rihanna than any of us saw that week while on tour with her. One of the greatest notes of criticism was that the singer invited us all onboard and then vanished, citing fatigue and later feigning to Rolling Stone in a cover story that she knew nothing of the near-mutiny.

Of course one of the universal issues with documentaries is their arguable failure to accurately represent reality, a problem written about extensively by film scholars in an effort to understand whether non-narrative filmmaking can reveal truth. Rihanna 777 does, in some regard, reveal truths of the experience. A narrative, although a notably shortened one, takes the viewer across seven countries, showcasing (some of) the hours spent waiting around and the unfortunate arrival into every city during their rush hour. Rihanna is shown performing one song in each city – and her real vocals are used on the track. The Australian shock jock who unwittingly initiated the riot between Berlin and London is actually shown streaking through the plane’s aisles, although his appearance is edited out of order in the sequence of real events that evening. What isn’t shown? A lot, but it’s mostly stuff you wouldn’t want to watch on TV anyway because it was tedious and exhausting and, ultimately, kind of dull.

STORY: Rihanna Tour: How The Disastrous PR Stunt Spawned Album Sales

I watched the documentary last night with two of Fuse crew members who were also on the plane (as well as a bottle of Jameson, procured as a means to ease the very real and apparently lingering sense of PTSD). We agreed, after watching it, that no one can ever really know what happened on that plane. You can read the reports, you can watch this documentary, but the experience of the 777 Tour isn’t exactly something easily conveyed. There truly was a sense of being taken hostage, of grappling with Stockholm Syndrome, of being involved in something akin to the Stanford Prison Experiment. But there was also an overwhelming sense of camaraderie and collective survival. It’s offered us a bragging point as our friends and colleagues fervently tell others that we were on the plane .

Rihanna 777 is a marketing product under the guise of a documentary, one that gives her fans a glossed=over look at an event now famous both in and outside of the music industry. There’s no revelation in the end and nothing is learned from it, but Rihanna’s fans will likely gravitate toward the DVD as a means of seeing more from the pop star. The “journalist” who drives the film, one Mike Ruffino , was clearly being paid to be a talking head. (Who is he? Apparently a writer for Playboy but none of us ever saw any of his dispatches from the tour and Google offers little else.) If you accept Rihanna 777 for what it really is, a way for Rihanna to sell DVDs to her extensive fan base, then it generally works.

One of the Fuse crew members suggested last evening that we should now leave the 777 Tour in the past, that this documentary should close the chapter on that experience. And while we’ll always want to tell the story of this fateful week that’s probably the reality of it, particularly since we can’t harp on it forever. But I may never be able to go back to Berlin for reasons this documentary crew largely left on the editing room floor and unless a found footage film of the 777 Tour eventually emerges there may never be an accurate reflection of our reality last November. 

Twitter: @THRMusic

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We're Flying Air Rihanna's Boeing 777! And We're Stoked, Scared, And GOING BANANAS!

 7 countries, 7 days, 7 shows, 1 really sweet hand-written letter from Rihanna.

So, I don't know what flavor of internet you consume on a daily basis (like, if you're EXCLUSIVELY reading up on CIA dalliances and whatnot. In that case: #zzzzzz) but if you're anything like me, you've been reading up on Rihanna's "777 tour." Starting TODAY, Rihanna is embarking on a seven-country tour on a Boeing 777 and playing seven shows in seven days to promote the release of her Unapologetic album . Needless to say, it's going to be bonkers. Um. And not to bury the lead or, whatever, BUT the bodacious Barbados babe also asked a crew of journalists and fans to accompany her on her plane, and me and Maud Deitch (we're both usually over at MTV Style ) were among those invited.

We are 75 percent STOKED, 10 percent scared and 15 percent hungry.

Get more from inside Rihanna's "777" tour plane after the jump!

It's going to get super interesting, and we'll both be writing for you guys over the week with updates on MTV Buzzworthy, MTV Style and MTV News . ANYWAY, the crazy thing is, we haven't been given a ton of information. We know that we're getting our passports stamped in Mexico City, Toronto, Stockholm, Paris, Berlin, and London before returning to New York for the final show but that's it. Like, we hope RiRi will rear her pretty head at some point to descend upon the unwashed, adoring herds and say something meaningful, but essentially our only basis for comparison is the press corps as exemplified in the White House peeps in "The West Wing," so maybe we won't get to see her outside of shows at all. To wit: IDK anything.

Mostly, we're curious about which fans were invited. We know that the Rihanna Navy is a bajillionmillionsquillion strong and are crazy passionate so we can't wait to watch them freak out. We just grabbed our press credentials and are super excited to get intimately acquainted with this tour plane that’s swagged out a weird number of humans mouth-breathing all over each other during flu season. It’s ALL GOING TO BE AMAZING. Rihanna forever.

Photo credit: Mary H.K. Choi & Maud Deitch/ MTV Style; Rihanna's Instagram

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Rihanna’s ‘777’ Tour, Day 1: Mexico City, We Barely Made It!

By Jeff Rosenthal

Jeff Rosenthal

To promote her new album, Unapologetic , Rihanna has set off on an ambitious globetrotting tour that will hit seven countries in seven days. Rolling Stone contributor Jeff Rosenthal is on the plane with a small army of fans and assistants, and an extravagant amount of champagne. 

Rihanna’s been on board for less than 15 minutes, and already everything is out of wack. She’s inspected the plane, walking from nose to tail between cameras of all shapes and sizes, laughing, calling the experience some “presidential shit.” Immediately after, she commandeers the PA system and insists everyone get “muthafuckin’ crunk.”

At the moment, Rihanna is walking from seat to seat, pouring Ace of Spades champagne. It doesn’t take long for her to find me, by which point she’s already missing the cups altogether, creating and adding to a puddle between seats 39C and D. “There ya go!” she says, smiling.

Now she hoists a bottle of D’usse, another of Jay-Z’s brands, and says, “If you really want to black out, here’s some cognac.” Rihanna’s current role exists somewhere closer to bad influence than flight attendant, a one-woman party rolling up and down the aisles. The conversation is less forced than one would reasonably expect, because Rihanna doesn’t really converse: she throws words in one’s direction and keeps walking, a lifetime of lessons learned from dealing with paparazzi. There are moments of realness, though, like when she finds herself tangled in someone’s iPhone power cord, or when she threatens to stage a Zoolander -style walk-off against a particularly brassy girl.

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It’s a crazy thing to try and explain. Over the course of seven days, Rihanna (and, really, some hard-working Def Jam handlers) will shuttle a plane filled with 200 writers, fans and hangers-on through seven countries, where she’ll play seven shows. (It’s the 7-7-7 tour; we and Rihanna are all sharing a Boeing 777.) It is a trip bursting with pampered hyperbole – MTV Cribs set in the sky, the likes of which most never see: five-star hotels, VIP passes, the dignity of keeping your belt on at airport security. There are supposedly 70 bottles of champagne on board.

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And the trip is a frantic scribble across the globe: Los Angeles, Mexico City, Toronto, Stockholm, Paris, Berlin, London and – finally – New York, a trek of 14,000 miles in seven days. It is a glamorous escape from reality, a chance to see the world, a rock & roll fantasy camp with Rihanna as our troop leader.

Or at least that’s the plan. One delay begets three; time is an impossible master to please for us. Our planned arrival at El Plaza Condesa in Mexico City was scheduled for 5:00 p.m.; instead, we walked in over three hours later. Rihanna, onstage last night, noted the long wait: “I want to apologize for being late. Our bags were late. This is our first time bringing around a group this big.” Leaving for Toronto, same thing. Unfortunately, there just isn’t much time for sightseeing when you’re not actually anywhere. It’s no wonder that big-time touring musicians often say they don’t know what city they’re in. We watched Mexico City through bus windows. It looked dark.

When in Mexico, Rihanna did as the Mexicans do. Getting ready for “Fresh Off the Runway,” the intro track to her upcoming LP, she looked offstage. “Jennifer,” she said, “I need my hat, boo.” She held a beat before continuing, “. . . por favor.” The crowd went nuts, just as they did with every mention of Mexico City (of which there seemed to be 777). They also particularly enjoyed the Soca interpolation that her backing band threw into the middle of “What’s My Name,” far more than the “Rack City”-type instrumental they’d included moments earlier, maybe because some West Indians made their way across the water and into the crowd.

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Rihanna, live and in concert, doesn’t sing much. Her hits are so big she doesn’t really need to, but – tellingly – she often puts the microphone by her crotch. (She relies heavily on her two slithering backup singers, who sometimes come in to push songs over the finish line. To her credit, she does do the brunt of the work on less-demanding songs: she belts “Wait Is Over” and giggles her way through “Take a Bow.”) During “Cake,” she pats her thighs, as if slapping cheese on them. Dressed in a Rock-n-Jock-style leather baseball jersey, micro-bra and biker shorts, Rihanna winds and wiggles; she’ll stick her ass out and look around the backside, as if posing for a Coppertone ad. Somehow, she makes the Stanky Legg seem appealing, as she does during “Where Have You Been.” An entire swath of the audience – several rows of people, every single one of them with cameras held high – moves as one while watching her, as if being swept away by water. It looks dangerous, even violent, though strangely beautiful: a mosh-pit in which all parties move in the same direction. I’ve never seen anything like it.

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THINGS I SAW: A man juggling fire at a red light, while an endless line of cars waited in front of him; an audience member holding up a creepy doll that sort of resembled Rihanna, which moved closer to the stage as the show went on until she said “That’s love,” unconvincingly. Also, a Def Jam publicist, smiling over a cup of coffee after yet another delay. “Pretty ambitious, isn’t it?” he said.

THINGS I DIDN’T SEE: Mexico City

Set list: “Cockiness” “Cake” “Talk That Talk” “Wait is Over” “Man Down” “Only Girl in the World” “Disturbia” “S&M” “Fresh Off the Runway” “Unfaithful” “Take a Bow” “Can’t Let You Know” “Take Care” (Interlude) “Where Have You Been” “What’s My Name” “Run This Town” “Live Ya Life” “All of the Lights” “Diamonds” “Umbrella” “We Fell In Love”

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Rihanna’s 777 Tour Diary: Day Six, London

Rihanna comes out from hiding as the plane descends to its final destination: New York.

By Erika Ramirez

Erika Ramirez

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Billboard is along for the ride on Rihanna ‘s 777 Tour, a dizzying seven-day trip around the globe that will bring the “Diamonds” hit-maker to smaller-than-usual venues in Mexico City (Nov. 14th) , Toronto (Nov. 15) , Stockholm (Nov. 16) , Paris (Nov. 17) , Berlin (Nov. 18) , London (Nov. 19), and NYC (Nov. 20). Follow the trip with The Juice editor Erika Ramirez (@ 3rika and @ Billboard ) and check out her diary below.

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Lenny Kravitz

DAY SIX » 11.19.12 » LONDON

“I had to pay attention to myself,” Rihanna said as the plane was making its final stop.

Trending on Billboard

As we arrived into Newark Liberty International Airport Tuesday afternoon (Nov. 20), Rihanna came out from the darkness of first class and answered media questions during her second and last public appearance on the 777 Tour plane.

“Usually I go, go, and go. And this time I had to sleep,” she continued. “Usually I would be back here partying my balls off for ya’ll but I really had to pay attention and take care of my health because I’m on the plane all the time.”

The cameras stayed focused on Rihanna and not those that sucked their teeth and sat back in their seats. We couldn’t help it. Apologetic? Ironically yes, but it felt a little too late and predictable. And also, we were just so excited to exit the 7-day flight.

“You’re free,” a flight attendant said as we deplaned.

Although chants of “Fans! Fans!” did not entice Rihanna to venture to the rear of the plane where contest winners were seated, the sighting did have a plus side: It proved to skeptical passengers that the star had had actually been on the plane (for this flight, at least).

During her visit in London the previous day, most members of the media kept calm. It could have been because we had slept more than four hours (a first on the tour). It could have been that we were fighting between feelings of defeat and acceptance following the early morning’s act of mutiny.

“Why’d you stop? You should have forced her out,” a label rep told us. “I heard she was thinking of getting up, out of curiosity.” Had we heard that a day before, there’s no doubt that those words would have inspired hope in us. The hope to somehow figure out what all of this even was. The hope to know a bit more about the artist we were following around for a span of time I can’t even remember.

Four hours after Rihanna switched the Christmas lights on at the Westfield Stratford City, a majority of the passengers headed towards the venue, the Forum. Some, including myself, stayed under the covers and watched the livestream courtesy of Jay-Z ‘s YouTube channel. The dynamic between her and her London fans could be felt through the screen. Every song was followed by screams that, according to those in attendance, left the venue vibrating.

London Set List :

1. “Cockiness” 2. “Birthday Cake (Remix)” 3. “Talk That Talk” 4. “Wait Your Turn” 5. “Man Down” 6. “Only Girl in the World” 7. “Don’t Stop the Music” 8. “S&M” 9. “Stay” 10. “Unfaithful” 11. “Take A Bow” 12. “Hate That I Love You” 13. “Take Care” snippet, “Where Have You Been” 14. “What’s My Name?” 15. “Run This Town” 16. “Live Your Life” 17. “All of the Lights” 18. “Diamonds” 19. “Umbrella” 20. “We Found Love”

The London navy didn’t seem fazed when Rihanna stopped a track to scold her band for the sound. “What the fuck is this? Why is the track off from the band?” Rihanna said. “This is the bullshit we have to deal with when we’re doing a random rock & roll tour with no rehearsals and shit.”

Rihanna kept the show going, ending her 20-song set with “We Found Love,” much like previous nights. “Haters are liars,” Rihanna said, as she walked backstage when closing concert No. 6. Did the happenings aboard the plane take a toll on anyone in First Class?

Who knows. When asked if she would do such tour again, she responded, “I’d fucking do this again.” (Hey, we’re all in state of bewilderment.)

After waiting six hours at the London airport, the flight took off for its last stop, Newark. During our final minutes in the air — before she herself walked appeared — Rihanna’s bassist ( Adam Blackstone ), guitarist (Nuno Bettencourt, formerly of Extreme) and DJ Reflex got up from there seats to perform an acoustic set. They grabbed some attention from the assembled media and fans by covering Beyoncé ‘s “Crazy in Love,” Lenny Kravitz ‘s “Fly Away” and two other songs. A request to hear Extreme’s “More Than Words” was not appreciated.

But most sat back and counted down the minutes before landing.

PREVIOUS STOPS: NEW YORK | LONDON | BERLIN | PARIS | STOCKHOLM | TORONTO | MEXICO CITY

Rihanna's 777 Tour: Photo Highlights

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The 777 Tour was a promotional tour consisting of seven dates in seven countries to support Rihanna's upcoming seventh studio album Unapologetic . The tour started in Mexico City and ended in New York City. After the tour ended and the album was released, Rihanna announced the Diamonds World Tour .

• 1 Background
• 3 Tour dates
• 4 References

Background [ ]

Rihanna announced she would be embarking on a seven day promotional tour for her upcoming seventh studio album. The tour visited seven countries around the world, both in North America and Europe. Rihanna invited 150 journalists representing 82 countries and a selected group of her fans to join her on the road. To add to the theme of the tour, Rihanna flew on a private Boeing 777 to each date. [1]

Setlist [ ]

Rihanna performing in London during the tour

• " Cockiness (Love It) "
• " Birthday Cake "
• " Talk That Talk "
• " Wait Your Turn "
• " Man Down "
• " Only Girl (In the World) "
• " Don't Stop the Music "
• " S&M "
• " Unfaithful "
• " Take a Bow "
• " Hate That I Love You "
• " Where Have You Been "
• " What's My Name "
• "Run This Town"
• "Live Your Life"
• "All of the Lights"
• " Diamonds "
• " Umbrella "
• " We Found Love "
• This setlist is representative of the performance in London. [2]

Tour dates [ ]

References [ ].

• ↑ http://www.entertainmentwise.com/news/92922/Rihanna-Announces-777-Tour-In-Seven-Countries-Over-Seven-Days
• ↑ http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/the-juice/474067/rihannas-777-tour-diary-day-six-london
• 1 Monica Braithwaite
• 2 Rihanna's tattoos
• 3 Discography

Inside The Journalists' Drama On Rihanna's Crazy 777 Tour

It turns out not everyone can handle the pressure.

Instead of a star-studded red carpet flight with Rihanna, reporters from E!, HuffPost , Billboard, MTV, and more have offered that the trip isn't the dream they imagined. 

They claim to have experienced sleepless nights and a lack of food mixed with too much booze. They say they haven't even seen the hostess herself since day one. 

By day five of the week event, their restlessness has led to all-out insanity, with reporters referring to their time on the plane as #occupy777 . (One reporter even took to streaking.)

On November 14, more than 200 journalists fittingly accompanied Rihanna on a 777 plane to take part in her #777 tour.

Here's the letter you received if you were one of the lucky few to join the singer.

It all seemed to start out like a fantasy with everyone freaking out to see Rihanna aboard the 777 ... and with reason.

Passengers received goodie bags filled with T-Shirts, socks, bracelets, the singer's new fragrance, and headphones ...

Journalists were treated to first class meals ...

... and Rihanna served Ace of Spades champagne and cognac to get the party started.

She made sure people had their fill of alcohol ...

... and made everyone welcome.

Here's a list of some of those aboard the plane. Rihanna has a huge crew including a massage therapist.

First stop Mexico City: the last time journalists claim to have seen her, except for each nightly performance.

( The Hollywood Reporter )

However, some were able to catch sight of Brooklyn Decker in Toronto.

And, that's when exhaustion began to set in for many.

Rolling Stone 's Jeff Rosenthal :

"Being awake for what feels like forever and following a schedule that is largely the same feels a lot like  Groundhog Day . But with so many people from so many different countries all thrown together, we're constantly meeting new people, having new conversations."

Sleep became the trending topic among journalists.

Nov. 16,  Sugarscape : 

"So that's where we are now, fairly delirious and sleep deprived with no sightings of Rihanna off-stage for a while"

... And, lack of Rihanna.

Billboard magazine : 

Most of us have been sleeping with one eye open throughout the 777 Tour, in case Rihanna walks through the aisles as she did on Wednesday (Nov. 14). This was the case with our eight-hour fight from Toronto to Stockholm, Sweden, yesterday.

Idolator : 

“Where Have You Been” is not just a hit Rihanna   song, it’s a question  the fatigued writers , photographers and TV production crews who’ve been packed onto the  777 Tour  jet since last Wednesday (November 14) have been asking about the singer herself."

There was also trouble finding luggage ...

... and, complaints of more alcoholic beverages than food.

From MTV : 

"As frequently as they don’t feed us, they keep plying us with alcohol. Some of us may have been on a tear since yesterday. And it's been another all-nighter."

Day three Rihanna came out for her Stockholm performance more than two hours late.

And, the biggest excitement came from some rumors of a Kanye appearance and a braless Rihanna after the concert.

By day four in Paris, Journalists are beginning to go stir-crazy. due to delays and claiming to not have seen the sun in what feels like forever.

Spin magazine :  

"We've traveled through Paris and Berlin, and thanks to extensive delays, haven't seen daylight in days. When we return, our eyes will have shrunken into tiny slots and we will forage on the ground for centipedes and other high-protein foods we can feel with our hands. We will also be chained to Rihanna like Michonne's zombies."

Their account goes on to say how the general attitudes on the plane range from "madness" to "murderousness" after no more appearances from Rihanna. 

Others, are starting to question whether the trip was worth it.

"We're no longer asking, "What's going on?" as we did on day one, but "What is this?" asks Billboard . "I ... mistakenly assuming that we'd get a feel for Rihanna's day-to-day; seeing all sides of the singer that keeps us intrigued (rebellious, feisty, and playful) both off and on stage. It's now more than halfway into the tour and the one and only thing we're sure of is what it's not."

Finally, with no Rihanna and fatigue more than set in, the group lost it at 4 a.m. Nov. 19. resorting to a staged mid-air protest.

According to Billboard , Fuse's video team began chanting "B-roll" which ignited the group of journalists to begin repeating "Save. My. Job!" and "We need headlines!"

It also led to Australian NOVA jockey, Tim Dormer, streaking through the plane.

None of them were able to capture Rihanna's attention from the front of the plane, though.

There's still more than 24 hours left in the 777 tour ...

Now, check out the craziest moments from where Rihanna wasn't ... the American Music Awards >

• Main content

A Brief History of Rihanna's Party Plane

Rihanna's "777 Tour"  began as a publicity stunt , wherein she invited 150 journalists on her plane. But nearly a week and several thousand airborne tweets later, reports now indicate that it may have been less of a stunt and more of an intense social experiment.

Rihanna's "777 Tour" began as a publicity stunt , wherein she invited 150 journalists on her plane as she played seven shows in seven countries over seven days. But nearly a week and several thousand airborne tweets later, reports from those embedded with the singer now indicate that it may have been less of a stunt and more of what's  being described as  an intense social experiment: What happens when you trap reporters at 30,000 feet and barely feed them? Streaking, evidently. Indeed, over the weekend some Australian guy ran naked with a harmonica between Berlin and London. Still, was it all so bad to begin with? Let's go back in junket time, and look ahead to the last night aboard.

Toward the end here, Rihanna's passengers barely see her, but on November 14, which took the singer's Boeing 777 to Mexico City, she appeared—and with alcohol.

Landed in Mexico! Rihanna walked up and down the aisles serving champagne and cognac. Best air hostess ever. #777tour cc: @ popdust — Julieanne Smolinski (@BoobsRadley) November 14, 2012

Billboard's Erika Ramirez Instagrammed a picture of Rihanna  as she was pouring her "a glass of ace of spades during the flight."

Maud Deitch, an MTV correspondent, tweeted in disbelief:

I literally cannot believe this happened earlier today twitter.com/mauddeitch/sta… — Maud Deitch (@mauddeitch) November 15, 2012

Things started to go downhill quickly on November 15 and into November 16, which took the plane to Toronto. Jeff Rosenthal of  Rolling Stone began his recap by writing : "It's only the second day, and already exhaustion has set in." That said, Rihanna was a pop star of the people, and Ramirez pointed out that "she waited for her baggage with the rest of us passengers." But that day even Ri was feeling the fatigue:

Rih seems a baby bit tuckered. Or jet-lagged? #777tour — e. (@3rika) November 16, 2012

The next stop took our passengers to Stockholm, where, apparently, if nothing else, the candy was good.

The candy situation in Stockholm is so on point. #777tour — Maud Deitch (@mauddeitch) November 16, 2012

That would turn out to be good news as the food situation would turn dire quickly.

Rihanna performed a shorter show in Paris in order to leave time for her Diddy-attended party—though she did look pretty good:

RT @ mtvstyle : . @ rihanna 's Paris ensemble. A duchess satin tee. Over the thigh boots. Unbelievable moisturizer. twitter.com/MTVstyle/statu… — e. (@3rika) November 17, 2012

The next morning, per  Us Weekly's  Ian Drew , the plane was late taking off because of the singer, who promptly fell asleep as the plane took off. Sleep deprivation and madness was in the air. As for the food situation, Julianne Smolinski wrote at Popdust : "The lone meal we got en route from France was a mournful, crustless finger sandwich that one journalist likened to 'summer camp food, if instead of summer camp, we sent children to prison.'"

Days Five to Six

After the Paris fracas, Rihanna was  two hours late for her Berlin concert . Waiting is a trend on the Rihanna plane. Mary HK Choi chronicled her emotions while waiting for the plane to take off from Berlin to London :

God, I wish some of us WOULD eat something. I mean, for all the ribbing and good-natured complaining and the joshing about that one Australian guy with the harmonica that we’re cheerfully plotting to behead, some of us are the problem. As frequently as they don’t feed us, they keep plying us with alcohol. Some of us may have been on a tear since yesterday. And it's been another all-nighter. SOME OF US DON’T HAVE INSIDE VOICES. #ISITYOU. #PRETTYSUREITSYOU. I have had ear plugs in consistently for the last two days.

And then, once the plane did take off: streaking from the Australian guy with the harmonica (who Fuse identifies as DJ Tim Dormer) that everyone wanted to kill. Video per Fuse. Listen for chants of "Just one quote!" and "Ri-Ri:"

That thing where everyone starts screaming for Rihanna to leave her panic room on the plane and she doesn't come out but it's the best. — itsthereal (@itsthereal) November 19, 2012

Days Seven to Landing

So, what now? We see a couple of finalés: the tour could end with Rihanna redeeming herself, coming to the junketeers and making friends with the Australian streaker for a perfect meme opportunity. Or, Rihanna, now afraid of the rabid bunch stays hidden and incites their ire. Or there's this option:

Remember in that movie 2012 when they selected a bunch of people and put them on a plane and then the world ended? #777tour — Emily Zemler (@emilyzemler) November 18, 2012