Rihanna landed in Shanghai on Tuesday night and got right down to business. She whipped up some Chinese pancakes, hung out with fans and local influencers, and hopped on three livestreams on Douyin, China’s version of TikTok.
The superstar songstress was in town to promote Fenty Beauty, which officially entered the mainland China market via Sephora in February. The brand is also available on Tmall, Douyin and sephora.com.
Her visit coincided with Fenty Beauty’s first mainland China pop-up, dubbed Fenty Beauty Alley.
The pop-up is taking place at Fotografiska Shanghai, which opened by the Suzhou Creek last fall. The immersive space features charming local elements such as a vintage street grocery store, a Mahjong room and a bubble tea stall that doubles as a shade finder.
Fenty Beauty Alley will be open to the public from Wednesday to Sunday free of charge, and the event was already fully booked on WeChat Mini Program at the time of publication.
When Rihanna appeared at the pop-up for a private event, she was quickly surrounded by fans and influencers, some of whom she has known for years on social media.
Known as Jian Bling Queen in China, Rihanna then rolled up her sleeves and served her fans Chinese Jian Bing, or pancakes, which turned into a viral moment on Chinese social media. She then cheered on a freestyled performance by local dance trope Voguing Shanghai.
Due to the sheer scale of her fame in the country, Rihanna’s surprise visit required strict security protocols, according to industry insiders. This also meant that she was not allowed to sneak out in between events and explore Shanghai.
“I didn’t get to see much, so I have to come back,” Rihanna said.
The following day, Rihanna appeared on three Douyin livestreaming channels, including Fenty Beauty’s official account, as well as Chinese influencers’ Late Night Teacher Xu and Qier Leo’s channels.
During her appearance on Fenty Beauty’s official livestreaming channel, Rihanna shared that her foundation number is between 300 to 360, and talked about why she touched up her makeup during her Super Bowl halftime performance last year.
“Usually that’s the time you would touch up makeup, so instead of doing it off camera, why don’t I just make it normal?” she said.
After the short interview, the livestreaming host taught Rihanna how to write her name in Chinese calligraphy. Rihanna’s appearance garnered more than 600,000 likes on the channel.
Rihanna was accompanied by her entourage and the New York-based stylist and Interview Magazine editor in chief Mel Ottenberg, who styled two looks for her.
For her first night out, Rihanna was seen in a Mark Gong total look that featured a power-shoulder leather jacket, a matching paperboy cap and jeans. For the second leg of the trip, she showed up in a red-hot Salvatore Ferragamo dress.
