Rihanna's Diamonds 2013 U.S. tour dates -- St. Paul in March

See Also:
Lady Gaga plots Born This Way Ball 2013 tour -- St. Paul in February
Rihanna and Cee Lo Green at the Target Center, 6/16/11, Slideshow
Live-Blogging The 2012 Video Music Awards: We Are Never Ever Ever Gonna Use Tonight As A Bellwether

So while many Americans were caught up in Thursday's political theater of the Democratic Party, the MTV Video Music Awards were also happening. AKA R&B princess Rihanna (see above) was happening, and there are eight references to be found in our sibling blog Sound of the City's documenting of the event. Not only did Rih-Rih take home Video of the Year for "We Found Love," she employed dozens of dancers and a crew of gifted stage technicians (and A$AP Rocky) to bring a performance of "Cockiness"/"We Found Love" to exuberant life.

And you can bet that it's no accident that she had a slate of North American tour dates ready to go for this morning. This'll bring Rihanna across the country, and back to the Twin Cities, in 2013 for her Diamonds World Tour.

Just to give a sense of what the VMAs and Rihanna have turned into, you can watch her full performance from the evening. Note: There was actually a feature to turn a piece of this into a .GIF! We are living in the future in the present.

You may recall that the last time Rihanna came to town, she was overshadowed by the careless and bigoted remarks by Cee Lo Green after Gimme Noise's Andrea Swensson didn't take to his wooden performance.

Swensson did say this: "Rihanna is such a confident performer and naturally talented singer that everything else was just window dressing -- very neon and flamboyant window dressing that lived up to the name of the tour: Loud."

And, yeah:

Photo by Erik Hess

More photos here.

Rihanna is coming back to Xcel Energy Center on March 24.

DATE          CITY               VENUE       ON-SALE
Mar. 8         Buffalo, NY      First Niagara Center Sept. 21
Mar. 10       Boston, MA     TD Garden Sept. 14
Mar. 12       Baltimore, MD 1st Mariner Arena Sept. 14
Mar. 14       Philadelphia, PA Wells Fargo Center Sept. 15
Mar. 15       Hartford, CT XL Center Sept. 21
Mar. 17       Montreal, QC Bell Centre Sept. 15
Mar. 18       Toronto, ON Air Canada Centre Sept. 17
Mar. 21       Detroit, MI Joe Louis Arena Sept. 21
Mar. 22      Chicago, IL United Center Sept. 14
Mar. 24      St. Paul, MN Xcel Energy Center Sept. 21
Mar. 25      Winnipeg, MB MTS Centre Sept. 14
Mar. 27      Edmonton, AB Rexall Place Sept. 15
Mar. 30      Calgary, AB Scotiabank Saddledome Sept. 14

Apr. 1         Vancouver, BC Rogers Arena Sept. 15
Apr. 3         Seattle, WA Key Arena Sept. 21
Apr. 6         San Jose, CA HP Pavilion Sept. 14
Apr. 8         Los Angeles, CA Staples Center Sept. 14
Apr. 11       San Diego, CA Valley View Casino Center Sept. 21
Apr. 12       Las Vegas, NV Mandalay Bay Sept. 14
Apr. 15       Houston, TX Toyota Center Sept. 21
Apr. 16       Dallas, TX American Airlines Center Sept. 21
Apr. 19       Tampa, FL Tampa Bay Times Forum Sept. 21
Apr. 20       Ft. Lauderdale, FL BankAtlantic Center Sept. 21
Apr. 22       Atlanta, GA Philips Arena Sept. 21
Apr. 29       Washington, D.C Verizon Center Sept. 14

May 2        Ottawa, ON Scotiabank Place Sept. 17
May 4        Brooklyn, NY Barclays Center Sept. 21