Rihanna's new music video for her single "What Now" has been getting a ton of buzz since its release on Friday morning. Never failing to surprise fans, Rihanna boldly chose to frame the video around a self-exorcism. Where did the popstar come up with this idea? Her childhood in Barbados may have served as an inspiration.
According to Yahoo Music, the video was shot over a 22-hour period when Rihanna was on tour in Thailand.
RiRi explained her dynamic for the video in a 'making of' preview clip (see below); "It's gonna be kinda eerie, very creepy, because 'What Now' is one of those songs that could get very boring with the video, almost expected," she said. "Everyone's probably expecting a narrative type of video or a love story of some sorts, or something really soft and pretty … but it's really a little demented."
It has been suggested that the exorcism in the video represents Rihanna cleansing herself of ex Chris Brown, but the singer has neither confirmed nor denied this point.
Back in 2010, RiRi talked about her experiences with the spirit world in an interview with DJ JoJo Wright. When asked if she'd seen an exorcism, she responded, "Yes. A couple of different times actually. We would go to church and sometimes it would happen in church … In the middle of a ceremony, somebody would just get up screaming and spinning out of control … It's really like … you can't control it, night and day … They'd speak in a different voice." She went on to describe a particularly chilling occurrence, "Yeah, like you know these people. And actually it happened in a house before. They were praying all around this table, and we were young though … but my aunt, you know, she's really involved in church. So, it was like a few of them, they were praying, and one of the girls got up and she just started SCREAMING, and I remember they locked us in the bedroom because they didn't want kids to see that … but she was screaming, and just like throwing herself around and every time that they would pray she'd just start screaming 'No, no, no,' like in the weirdest voice, I swear to you … It's funny now, but I swear at the time, I was like, sh-tting myself."
Way to put those scary stories to good use, RiRi! You took us right back to "Disturbia" with this one.
"Making Of" Video:
Official Music Video:
Photo: Wikimedia Commons