Rihanna arrived in the middle of an enormous schedule
The final archive episode of the first week returned to a 2010 Rihanna interview.
She had come in from New York and gone almost immediately into magazine shoots, including work for Q and Marie Claire.
The pace around her was already superstar-level.
Scott was meeting an artist moving from one major project to another with almost no gap between them.
Loud was meant to sound unmistakably like Rihanna
Rihanna was preparing her fifth album, Loud.
She explained that she wanted songs which felt specific to her rather than interchangeable dance-pop records that anybody could have sung.
The West Indian influence and her own identity mattered.
The visual era was changing too.
There was the red hair, red clothing and the imagery around Only Girl (In the World), including the striking outdoor photographs which accompanied the single.
Scott became Scott Scott
One of Scott’s first important questions was whether he was allowed to call her RiRi.
Rihanna gave permission.
She then answered by calling him Scott Scott.
It was exactly the sort of tiny exchange which Scott could turn into the centre of an interview.
Beccy also asked about the size of Rihanna’s styling operation, prompting jokes that the team could perhaps give the Radio 1 presenters some help too.
Battleship brought Hollywood into the conversation
Rihanna was also filming Battleship.
She played weapons officer Raikes and talked about joining a cast which included the likes of Liam Neeson, Taylor Kitsch, Alexander Skarsgård and Brooklyn Decker, with Peter Berg directing.
Scott’s response to a serious Hollywood action film was to pitch increasingly terrible alternatives in the spirit of low-budget television movies.
If Rihanna was now an actor, perhaps Rihanna versus a mega goldfish could be next.
She was also open to the idea of appearing in *Glee* if the right idea came along and was happy for her songs to be used.
Katy Perry’s hen party had been full Las Vegas
The richest story came from Katy Perry’s bachelorette party in Las Vegas before her marriage to Russell Brand.
Rihanna described a schedule involving the pool, a show, dinner, clubs, gaming and a short visit to a strip club.
She explained some of the difference between the American bachelorette tradition and the British idea of a hen night.
Then, because this was Rihanna’s life in 2010, she left the party and went back to work on the Only Girl video.
Scott wanted to know about Katy and Russell as a couple.
Rihanna thought their humour and personalities made sense together.
Eminem remained mysterious even to Rihanna
The interview also touched on Eminem.
Rihanna described him as laid-back and private.
She had plenty she would have liked to ask him, but his mystery was partly maintained because people respected the boundaries he put around himself.
That felt notable coming from another of the world’s biggest pop stars.
She was curious too.
Anonymous engagement rumours were not enough
Scott eventually raised the sort of celebrity-reporting story which claimed an unnamed source knew Rihanna was engaged.
She was not persuaded by a report built around an anonymous “source”.
The exchange neatly summed up the whole archive interview: Scott mixing genuinely useful questions about a huge album and film career with the gossip everybody else wanted to know.
And, by the end of it, he had at least secured one solid result.
He could call her RiRi.
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