Good Girl Gone Bad Live is the first live long-form video by Barbadian singer Rihanna. It was first released on June 9, 2008 by Def Jam Recordings. The DVD and Blu-ray release features Rihanna's concert at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, United Kingdom held on December 6, 2007, as part of her Good Girl Gone Bad Tour (2007—2009) which supported singer's third studio album Good Girl Gone Bad (2007). Most of the concert's set list originates from Good Girl Gone Bad, however, Rihanna also performed songs from her previous albums Music of the Sun (2005) and A Girl like Me (2006). It also contains a special Documentary Feature that presents Rihanna discussing her experiences during the tour.
Critics were divided on Good Girl Gone Bad Live; they praised the show, dancers, Rihanna's vocals and contrast levels of the video, however, there was criticism towards some technicalities including the close-up frames. At the 2009 Grammy Awards, the video album received a Grammy nomination for Best Long Form Music Video. Commercially, Good Girl Gone Bad Live peaked within the top-ten in nine countries, including at number one in Austria and Switzerland. On the US Billboard Music DVD Chart it peaked at number six and was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), denoting shipments of over 25,000 copies.
Background and release
Following the release of her two studio albums Music of the Sun (2005) and A Girl like Me (2006), in late 2006 Rihanna started working with songwriters and producers on her third studio album. She worked with some of the producers who were involved on her previous albums including Evan Rogers and Carl Sturken, Ne-Yo, J.R. Rotem, Sean Garrett and Norwegian duo Stargate. Rihanna also collaborated with new music producers on the album such as Timbaland and will.i.am. Most of the album tracks were recorded in Westlake Recording Studios in Los Angeles, California, parallel to the recording sessions of her second studio album, A Girl like Me. Rihanna began working on the album in late 2006 and was almost finished recording in late February 2007. On June 4, 2007 she released the album under the name Good Girl Gone Bad. During an interview with MTV News, Rihanna explained the meaning and reasoning behind the album's title:
Upon its release, Good Girl Gone Bad received generally positive reviews from most music critics and earned Rihanna a Grammy Award for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration for the lead single "Umbrella". It became a huge commercial success and spawned eight singles that attained chart success. To further promote the album, Rihanna embarked on her first worldwide and second overall tour entitled Good Girl Gone Bad Tour (2007—09). During the tour, Rihanna performed in Europe, North America, Oceania, Asia and Africa in a total of 80 concert shows. Good Girl Gone Bad Live was filmed at the Manchester Arena show in Manchester, United Kingdom; the show was part of the Good Girl Gone Bad Tour and held on December 6, 2007. The Good Girl Gone Bad Live DVD was released on June 9 and June 13, 2008 in the United Kingdom and Germany through Mercury Records and Universal Music respectively. It was digitally released via iTunes on June 16, 2008 in several countries including Australia, Austria, Brazil, France, Germany, the Republic of Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, Spain and the United Kingdom. Universal Music Canada and Def Jam Recordings released the DVD of the concert in Canada and the United States on November 4, 2008. A Blu-ray format of Good Girl Gone Bad Live was released in France on November 24, 2008. In late 2009, the same Blu-ray was also released in the United States and Germany.
Technicalities and synopsis
Good Girl Gone Bad Live was directed by Paul Caslin and captured with a 14-camera High Definition shoot. The Blu-ray edition of the video album is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and grants a 1080i transfer. Good Girl Gone Bad Live contains two audio tracks DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and LPCM 2.0. According to a reviewer of Blu-ray.com the LPCM 2.0 is very strong, but it is not as convincing as the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track. He stated that "The crowd noise, for example, is pushed back quite a bit when Rihanna sings, yet between the songs, it is as prominent as it is on the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track." It has a length of over 90 minutes and contains five subtitles: English, French, Spanish, Portuguese and German.