Rihanna concert falls flat in Tel Aviv

Her late arrival, scornful attitude and shortened concert featuring off-key singing, playbacks, a small stage, modest production values, a small number of dancers, and amateurish video clips were just some of the complaints leveled at pop star Rihanna over her performance in Israel on Tuesday.

The concert also received worldwide media attention after Haaretz's English website falsely reported that Rihanna had changed the lyrics of her song "Pour it Up" to include the words "All I see is Palestine" in place of “All I see is signs / All I see is dollar signs." Video footage of the show proved that Rihanna had not changed the lyrics, and Haaretz issued a retraction of its report on Thursday.

"Video footage shows #Rihanna 'All I see is Palestine' lyric change was mistaken," the Haaretz English website's Twitter account said on Thursday, linking to a corrected version of the report.

Rihanna performed on Tuesday night in Tel Aviv's Hayarkon Park before more than 50,000 people. Most of those interviewed were disappointed. Minutes after the performance was over there was a barrage of status updates and tweets about the singer and her performance.

"No one was more disappointed than me," said Efrat Wachtel, 30, from Tel Aviv, who had bought a ticket on the grass. "I am a huge Rihanna fan. I am also a dancer and I love her style, so I waited a long time for this concert. I came to see a performance and it just wasn't that. When I come to a Rihanna concert, what I really want to see are costume changes. I want it to dazzle me, hold my interest, and none of that happened.

"I expected to see rain falling on her, or see her descend on a swing, or to get tied up in chains, or open an umbrella and start dancing. But in fact, aside from changing shoes, she did nothing. She definitely knows how to move, but that gets old after one song. She didn't even present the people who were with her on stage. The audience could sense and smell the scorn."

"I have been to many concerts and even to a Rihanna concert in New York," says Ilanit Hazan, 30, from Tel Aviv, who received a ticket as a gift.

"Even when I sat far away I could see the screens very well. But those standing on the grass had trouble seeing. At Madonna's last concert there was a 180-degree stage. If I had paid for my own ticket, I would have been seriously disappointed. Even the line-up was weird. Songs I was waiting for didn't get sung, There were entire parts of the concert where I felt I was watching a DVD."

"In a single word: shame," Karina Gruper wrote on Facebook. "Mega concerts should be performed by real stars. I have been to every single possible concert in the last 20 years and this was the worst."

The one point of light in Rihanna's performance was the DJ duo GTA, who performed the warm-up act and managed to bring the audience to their feet.

Bluestone Productions, the producers of the show, issued a statement in response: "We thank Rihanna, the world's most popular international pop star, for adding Israel to her world tour and coming here for a full show, and disregarding calls to boycott Israel.

"We would like to point out that in terms of the Israeli production of Rihanna's performance, we gave the best possible service to the Israeli public: security, parking, directions, the stage, the sound, and everything that the Israeli production team was responsible for was superb.

"Unfortunately, the international singer was late for her performance. We are sorry about this, but the Israeli production team has nothing to do with this lateness. We would like to stress that despite the lateness, 50,000 Israelis got a show the likes of which hasn't been seen in Israel. We understand that some people were not satisfied, but in our opinion the overwhelming majority of the audience enjoyed themselves very much."

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