Spotted: Rihanna goes all military on us in Vegas

Barbados-born beauty Rihanna seems to giving everyone’s favourite kook, Lady Gaga, a run for her money in the onstage stakes. Ri-Ri donned super-shoulders, a bright red mohawk and crotch-crunching high waisted knickers for her live show at the Mandalay Bay Hotel & Casino in Vegas, where she proceeded to put on a pretty fantastic show complete with backing dancers dressed as soldiers, holding neon pink rifles, and a giant, pink tank. Which she straddled a lot. There were female backing dancers wearing what appeared to be yellow, metal bustiers too. Cool.

Looking fierce in her aforementioned shoulderpad/mohawk combo, Rihanna then upped the drama with a quick costume change into a sweeping, Victoriana-style black gown complete with flashing LED lights. A little bit eighties, a lot futuristic, the girl seems to have got her look down to a fine art now.

Rihanna’s come such a long way from her initial rise to fame with “Pon de Replay”, where headscarves, long girl-next-door hair and R&B attire was the look of choice. Now she looks like a different creature entirely -more like a pop superhero than the standard pop fare. It’s refreshing to see female perfomers like Rihanna, Gaga and Katy Perry all getting more creative with their on-stage personas and performances; it’s a new era for female singers, where music is less concerned with sex appeal and more about having fun (well, a bit of both, really, but music videos are way more fun and inspired than they’ve been in ages). Ri-Ri’s had a pretty tough time of it in the last couple of years and it’s great to see her looking sexy, confident and doing what she does best. Check the gallery below to see images of her pretty sensational stage show.

All images courtesy of WENN.com.