Rihanna Shooting Video for ‘Hard’

Rihanna’s much anticipated album, “Rated R,” bringing a change in sound and drawing inspiration from much stronger emotions than any other previous material from her, is already out in stores and is getting music critics quite ecstatic. To further promote it, the singer will be releasing a video for “Hard,” for which she will start shooting very soon, JustJared has learned.

Fans also got a taste of “Hard” during the American Music Awards 2009, where Rihanna’s performance also marked her return to the music scene since the February assault, when then-boyfriend Chris Brown lost his temper and attacked her, beating her until she lost consciousness. As of now, further details of the video shoot or, for that matter, the concept behind the clip, are not available.

“The 21-year-old Bajan babe will be shooting her ‘Hard’ music video within the next few days before flying off to New York City for her JetBlue concert and SNL performance. JustJared can exclusively report that Melina Matsoukas will be directing ‘Hard’ instead of Anthony Mandler, who has directed the last dozen of Rihanna’s vids,” JustJared reports, citing well-placed sources with the singer’s camp.

Currently, Rihanna is back in the States after performing on the British singing competition the X Factor. For this weekend’s gig, as we also reported the other day, the singer choose “Russian Roulette,” the first track to have emerged from the new “Rated R” album before the official release. Because the tone of the song is more serious, as also is beat slower, Rihanna did not put on a very elaborate show with complicated dance moves as is her habit.

Instead, she sat on a white armchair almost for the entire song, getting up only towards the end to walk to and fro on the stage. Dressed as she was in a figure-hugging dress with matching elbow-long gloves, it would have been close to impossible for her to do any proper dancing to start with, it has been pointed out. Things will reportedly be different with the “Hard” video, which will presumably play on the whole cyborg-theme she’s been so fond of as of late, reports say. Keep an eye on this space for updates.