Singer plays by the rules

Jan 7, 2009 15:42 GMT  ·  By
Rihanna will dress more appropriately for her upcoming performance in Malaysia, it has been announced
   Rihanna will dress more appropriately for her upcoming performance in Malaysia, it has been announced

“Good girl gone bad” is the tagline that sold her most recent album so well but, when she really has to, Rihanna too knows how to be a good girl. The Associated Press is reporting that, in order to still be able to hold the February 13 gig in Malaysia, the singer has decided to obey the official rules and dress up to be allowed on stage.

Government guidelines in Malaysia have it that, so as to not be held in violation of decency regulation, any female performer must be covered in clothes from “the top of her chest, including her shoulders, to her knees,” the AP says. And, by all accounts, it seems that Rihanna will succeed where others like Avril Lavigne and the Pussycat Dolls have failed, since she has already agreed to tone down her onstage attire a bit.

“Rihanna's management is aware of the country's regulations and the difficulties of doing a show,” Razman Razali, managing director of Pineapple Concerts, the Malaysian organizers, is quoted by the Associated Press as saying. Consequently, unlike other starlets before her, she and the organizers will do their best to make sure no regulation or stipulation will be violated during her performance.

Despite the songbird’s efforts, a branch of the opposition Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party, which also lashed out against Avril Lavigne last year, saying her dance moves were far too provocative to be allowed on stage, said that Rihanna was to be deemed even more “dangerous,” both because of her moves and dress code.

It could be that, in the end, the organizers’ hope that the Grammy-winning artist’s performance would not be “marred” by protests does not come to materialize. Ironically enough, despite the muffled protests so far, the AP reports that tickets for the event (to be held in a Kuala Lumpur stadium with a capacity of 16,000) have been selling surprisingly well, only hours after the announcement was made.