You know you did something very right when Rihanna herself is impressed with your Rihanna costume.
Just ask Emily Graily, a fan of the singer's whose clever ensemble caught Rihanna's attention and earned her a backstage invite to her Hartford, Conn., show on Saturday. Emily, who documented her incredible Anti tour experience on Instagram, wore a homemade a mask version of Rihanna's cartoon Rhenna meme alter-ego paired with a rendition of her 2015 Grammys dress—and clearly, it caught everyone's attention.
"During the concert, [Rihanna] came from behind the arena and she did her whole catwalk to the front of the stage," Emily recalled during an interview with MTV News. "As soon as she got to the middle, she pointed me out and winked at me, and I was like, OK, it's going down."
"Yeah, so after the show, when she was doing her bows, I mouthed, 'I love you, you're the best,'" continued Emily. "And she mouthed, 'I love you too, I love all of this,' referring to my costume—and then she was like, 'I got you.' And then she just left."
Emily waited but no one came to take her backstage. Eventually, she was told by security it was time to leave, and with great disappointment she began to make her way to the exit. Fortunately, though, a member of Rihanna's team spotted and stopped her!
"So I was sad, walking up the stairs, and her hairstylist stopped me and was like, 'Whoa, whoa, stop stop. Let me get a few pictures of you,'" Emily told MTV News. "So he takes some photos and he's like, 'I've got to show this to Rihanna. She wants to meet you backstage.' So he goes and gets me again and is like, 'OK, yeah, come with me.'"
It was then that Emily got to meet Rihanna. "She comes out and greets people she knew and then she comes and hugs me and is like, 'Oh my gosh, I love this. This is so creative. I can't believe you even thought of doing this. How did you even make this?'" said Emily. "So I told her if you turn the Rhenna mask around, you see it's just cardboard attached to sunglasses, and she was so amused."
Naturally, the ladies took a slew of photos together. Rihanna was quite the fan of Emily's creativity, too! "She kept complimenting me—she was so nice!—even after a whole show, and she smelled amazing," said Emily. "She looked airbrushed. It was incredible."