Rihanna's New Wax Statue at Madame Tussauds Looks Nothing Like Her

(Image credit: Getty)

It’s hard to imagine anyone getting upset over anything that resembles Rihanna. But when Madame Tussauds gave RiRi’s wax figure a makeover for Christmas, the internet practically erupted in a fit of rage.

The Berlin outpost of Madame Tussauds originally presented Rihanna’s wax figure back in 2011, topped with the red bob the singer was rocking at the time. But the current holiday iteration of the statue is…not great. Aside from a very bad hairdo (those bangs!), the figure has been dressed in a revealing red suit and stockings and suddenly has a face that looks nothing like the nine-time Grammy winner.

At least they got the tattoos right.

Twitter user Fenty Headlines (@FentyHeadlines) posted two photos of the wax figure on December 15, with the innocuous caption, “Rihanna’s wax figure at the Madame Tussauds Museum in Berlin, Germany, got a new look for Christmas.” That was enough to send fans into a virtual tizzy.

Rihanna's wax figure at the Madame Tussauds Museum in Berlin, Germany, got a new look for Christmas. pic.twitter.com/M7n79Z0F6zDecember 15, 2021

The responses ranged from enraged to hilarious, with many people saying the statue looks more like Lily Allen than our Barbados queen. Here are some of the best reactions:

“Melt it. Now.” (@Milktmamii)

“Somebody go turn the heat up at madame tussaud’s right quick.” (@sirzeldin)

“Thats not rihanna thats her cousin rehaynna” (@folkeiry)

“This??? This is Rihanna??! Did they create her from memory or??” (@iamsylvia_a)

“Was just shown Rihanna’s wax figure and i have some notes” (@ryanbailey25)

“that wax figure of rihanna is a hate crime.” (@_BeeEv)

“The good Madame's Rihanna wax figure looks like a white person with a nose that got sunburned but is on the road to recovery.” (@NoThebaine)

This is not the first time a Madame Tussauds statue—specifically one depicting a Black female celebrity—has been the source of controversy. In 2019, the Beyoncé figure at the Midtown Manhattan outpost was heavily criticized for being way too light-skinned.

The Nicki Minaj statue at the Berlin museum was also publicly denounced in 2020 for looking nothing like the rapper, with one person tweeting, “Everyone involved in the making of this travesty deserves to be jailed.”

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Caitlin Morton is a freelance writer based in Kansas City, with more than eight years of experience covering travel, pop culture, and fashion. Her byline has appeared in Condé Nast Traveler, Vogue, Architectural Digest, AFAR, Real Simple, Thrillist, and many more publications.