Three shows were dropped at very short notice from her current British tour, because of an unspecified illness. This was Rihanna, of course, not Amy Winehouse, so two of them (at Birmingham and Nottingham) have been rescheduled. But patience was wearing thin among the Wembley crowd when there was still no sign of the 19-year-old singer a full hour after the announcement that she would be on stage in five minutes. Subsequent announcements blandly referred to a “technical issue”.

With six Grammy nominations for her third album in the bag, perhaps the Barbadian star feels that she has earned the right to behave like a diva. The album is, after all, called Good Girl Gone Bad. Or perhaps she is simply being worked too hard.

Either way, she remained regally unapologetic when she finally did arrive on stage. “Thank you for being so patient. That is why I love you,” she told her fans, reassuring them several times that London was her favourite city and certainly the most important gig on the tour. She delivered these lines with a robotic lack of sincerity, which rather set the tone for the performance as a whole.

A vision of Ann Summers couture in thigh-high boots and a few scraps of black PVC, Rihanna strutted around a maze of steps and podiums as her four backing musicians struck up the insistent electronic dance beat of her first hit, Pon De Replay, at a pulverising, industrial volume. Squirming dancers and sexy backing singers shored up the performance as the band thundered into the heavy, rhythmic bustle of Break It Off and then, towards the end of Let Me, the guitarist and keyboard players staged a Van Halen-influenced instrumental duel.

Although frequently compared to Beyoncé, Rihanna was not in the same league either as a singer or a personality. If anything, she had more of the workhorse ethic and wardrobe aesthetic of Janet Jackson. Sitting on the steps, accompanied by acoustic guitar and her two backing singers, she attempted to conjure a more intimate mood with Good Girl Gone Bad and Hate That I Love You. But she was clearly more in her element striding around the stage in a bathing costume that thought it was an evening dress, brandishing a cat-o’-nine-tails, as she belted out the pneumatic chant of Sell Me Candy.

The show ended with Rihanna apparently suffering an attack of stomach cramps as she sang Question Existing while draped across a chaise longue suspended on a platform above the stage. She recovered sufficiently to perform Umbrella, the hit that kept her at No 1 for ten weeks this year, prompting a jolly dance routine on stage, and lots of umbrellas to pop up among the crowd.

Something to keep the rain off their parade, at least.

Tour continues: Tuesday 18 December, NEC, Birmingham; Wednesday 19, Cardiff International Arena; Thursday 20, Nottingham Arena

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