It’s been just over 11 years since a Barbados-born teenager named Robyn Rihanna Fenty walked into Def Jam’s midtown Manhattan headquarters for the first time and left with a six-album deal. She made such an impression on kingmakers Jay Z and LA Reid that they didn’t allow her to leave the building until fleshing out terms that same day, or so the legend goes.  Since then she’s more than delivered on that initial promise: when her latest dancehall-flecked smash Work topped the charts earlier this month, it marked the singer’s 14th US No 1 – one better than Michael Jackson’s 13 and more than any act but Mariah Carey (18) and the Beatles (20).  Related: Why I love... Rihanna  Which is to say the bulk of Sunday night’s performance at Amalie Arena – the second gig of marathon tour spanning 71 shows in 18 countries in support of her long-delayed eighth album Anti – relies on a singles collection as robust as anyone in the game today.  Rihanna has always compensated with showmanship and arresting charisma for shortcomings in technical vocal ability, but she’s charted improvement in that area and showed it in the few numbers performed without a backing track. She opened Sunday’s gig with the maudlin piano ballad Stay, emerging hooded like a prizefighter from a tunnel at the rear of the floor before slowly climbing on to a stage above the soundboard before about 12,000 shrieking fans, who turned the home of the NHL’s Tampa Bay Lightning into a starscape of camera-phone flashes.  After being transported to the main stage on a moving bridge suspended above the floor, Rihanna delivered a rapid-fire blend of tracks from Anti (Woo, Consideration) and old favorites (Pour It Up, Man Down). Bitch Better Have My Money – the trap fever dream penned last year by then-20-year-old Berlin native Bibi Bourelly – saw Riri flanked by six of her 17 dancers in full-blooded empowerment mode.  There were nods to her formidable body of hip-hop features: a medley of her soaring hooks from TI’s Live Your Life, Kanye West’s All of the Lights and Jay Z’s Run This Town. She stalked the stage from end to end for Umbrella, the 2007 smash that launched her star.  Related: Brit awards red carpet: from Adele to Rihanna, the hits and misses - in pictures  The dancehall-ragamuffin mashup Rude Boy reaffirmed that no one in pop’s heavyweight division sings about sex more convincingly, while a cover of Tame Impala’s Same Ol’ Mistakes – one of Anti’s hidden treasures – saw her reach out for broader influences. All of it was underscored by impeccable choreography, heavy strobes and predictably on-point wardrobe choices (Giuseppe Zanotti, Manolo Blahnik) by stylist Mel Ottenberg.  So much has been written and speculated regarding Rihanna’s personal life that it suffices to say she remains simultaneously transparent and mysterious – the glamour and runway-ready beauty with hints of self-laceration and shadow that make her relatable. Yet as the self-styled shot-caller embarks on an tour underwritten by a reported $25m sponsorship deal with Samsung, at front and center is a hit-maker at the peak of her powers, if not her prolificacy.
The star is on a two-leg, 18-country tour that sees her rattle off her big hits with on-point choreography, shades of trap and maudlin piano ballads