And  She’s a Fan of Chris Brown’s Music?

Hard to deny that Rihanna’s sexy.  To Esquire magazine, though, she’s not just sexy — she’s the Sexiest Woman Alive for 2011.

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The magazine bestowed the title on Rihanna on Tuesday, but according to the singer herself, she’s not so sure it applies.  “At the end of a concert,  I don’t feel I’ve been this sexy thing.  Really, I don’t even think about it,” she tells Esquire.  “Unless it’s for a song that really calls for it, like ‘Skin’ or ‘S&M’ or when I cover [ Prince's] ‘Darling Nikki.’” Rihanna says there’s a specific sequence in her concert called “Sex,” and, she says, “that’s the only part that’s deliberate.”  Speaking about her concerts as a whole, she adds, “Honestly, even if it comes across sexual…it’s never deliberate in the rest of the show…I could see ‘What’s My Name?’ — the dancing is pretty sexy.  ‘Rude Boy.’  But I don’t know. I guess people find different things sexy.”

In her interview with Esquire, Rihanna also discusses her relationship with her ex-boyfriend Chris Brown, and  speaks about him in surprisingly warm terms.  “It’s incredible to see how he pulled out of it the way he did,” she says of the bad publicity that came in the wake of the incident in which he assaulted her.  “Even when the world seemed like it was against him, you know?  I really like the music he’s putting out. I’m a fan of his stuff. I’ve always been a fan.”  Rihanna says she’s put any “resentment” she had toward Chris “behind me,” nothing, “It was taking up too much of my time. It was too much anger. I’m really excited to see the breakthrough he’s had in his career. I would never wish anything horrible for him. Never. I never have.”