Press

15.02.2010 - New York, New York

Rihanna Returns to the Spotlight with Sennheiser

15.02.2010 - New York, New York

Rihanna Returns to the Spotlight with Sennheiser

In just four years since first bursting onto the music scene, 22-year-old Rihanna has racked up over twelve million record sales worldwide and has collected one honor after another, including a Grammy Award in 2008 for her global smash hit, “Umbrella”. Rihanna is currently promoting her fourth album, Rated R, with high-profile live and televised performances in the United States and Europe, taking her longtime favorite combination Sennheiser SKM 5200 handheld microphone with dynamic MD 5235 capsule wherever she goes.
 

Rihanna performs on NBC’s Today Show in support of her new release, Rated R, with her Sennheiser SKM 5200/ MD 5235 and customized mic stand. (Photo Credit: © 2009 Film Magic)

Rihanna has been using the SKM 5200 since adopting it for her first headlining tour at the end of 2007. According to monitor engineer Brian Evans, on this tour her two background vocalists are also using the SKM 5200/ MD 5235 combination. The wireless vocal mics are being used together with Sennheiser’s EM 3732 twin receivers, he notes.   If a television production is unable to provide SKM 5200 RF wireless microphones for the background singers, Evans explains, he can usually rely on the ready availability of an alternate model of Sennheiser vocal mic along with G2 or G3 personal monitoring systems. Rihanna’s music has long had a rock sensibility, but the music on her new album Rated R and the current live band line-up really brings that harder edge to the fore. “It’s a serious bunch of players,” says Evans, “We have the all-time classic, Sennheiser MD 421 II on our lead guitarist, Nuno Bettancourt from Extreme, and drummer Chris Johnson, from Stevie Wonder’s live band, uses a Sennheiser e 901 boundary microphone and several e 902s on his kit.”

 
Rihanna’s schedule of television show promotional dates has included a live performance on NBC’s Today Show and Saturday Night Live, the X Factor in the U.K., and an appearance on The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien.
  
Evans, who has a long association with Journey and also handled monitor duties for both Mary J. Blige and Jay-Z on their joint headlining 2008 tour, comments, “I’m a big fan of the SKM 5200 mic. I like it a lot. I brought the 5200 into the Journey camp last year and used it on their lead singer. Everyone loved it.”
  

At the recent 52nd annual Grammy Awards held at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, Rihanna received two Grammy awards for her collaboration with Jay-Z and Kanye West on “Run This Town,” for Best Rap Song and Best Rap/Song Collaboration. She has previously been honored as Favorite Soul/R&B Female Artist and Favorite Pop/Rock Female Artist at the 2008 American Music Awards and World’s Best-Selling Pop Female Artist and Female Entertainer of the Year at the 2007 World Music Awards. Rihanna, who is also one of the honorary cultural ambassadors for Barbados, where she was born, holds the record for the most number one singles during the 2000s, a position she shares with Beyoncé Knowles, another longtime Sennheiser user.