Songbook: The Ultimate Guide To Rihanna's Reign, From Her Record-Breaking Hits To Unforgettable Collabs

In addition to her film roles, Rihanna made notable television appearances, including recurring parts in the psychological thriller series «Bates Motel» in 2017. This hit catapulted her to international fame, earning her first Grammy Award and redefined her image as a confident and edgy artist. Rihanna, born Robyn Rihanna Fenty on February 20, 1988, in Barbados, swiftly ascended to global stardom after signing with Def Jam Records at just 16.
Adopting a more mature image, Rihanna rose to stardom and transitioned to dance-pop and R&B with the album Good Girl Gone Bad (2007) and its reissue, subtitled Reloaded (2008). Known for her artistic reinventions, she is an influential figure in both music and fashion. She’s closing a chapter of her life — saying goodbye to the heartbreaks, pleading and scrutiny — and embracing a new, well, era that was quietly created during the behind-the-scenes of The Eras Tour. At its heart, The Life of a Showgirl goes beyond the fame, accolades, praise, and anything else Swift has been awarded in her 20-year career. Swift herself has long embodied independence through redefining over and over what it means to be a pop star for over two decades.
Rihanna has released numerous hits, including «Umbrella,» «Diamonds,» «We Found Love,» and «Disturbia.» Rihanna began her music career at the age of 16 when she signed with Def Jam records. In addition to her chart-topping hits, Rihanna has capitalized on her fame with lucrative endorsement deals and her own successful brands, including Fenty Beauty, which revolutionized the beauty industry with its inclusive products. As a pioneer of the music industry, her earnings from album sales, touring, and streaming have consistently placed her among the top earners in entertainment. As an expectant mother, Rihanna continues to inspire her fans, demonstrating a balance between her music career and her personal life.
No longer was she the girl writing songs like «Fifteen» in her bedroom — now she was working through becoming a highly publicized figure. Although Swift’s eponymous debut is underappreciated now — even lacking its own set on Swift’s Eras Tour — Taylor Swift’s forthcoming rerecording is arguably the most anticipated by fans, who are eager to hear the songs with the singer’s current and more refined vocals. The album’s lead single, «Tim McGraw,» an acoustic country ballad inspired by Swift knowing her relationship was going to end, represents an intricate part of Swift’s songwriting process; meticulously picking apart her emotions to better understand them. As a songwriter, Taylor Swift set the tone for what would be expected of her future recordings — all songs were written by her, some solely and others with one or two co-writers.
Her musical career has been marked by experimentation, and she has stated that her goal was «to make music that could be heard in parts of the world that I’d never been to». She began vocal training during the recording of Good Girl Gone Bad (2007) under the guidance of Ne-Yo, who taught her breathing techniques and vocal delivery. The song earned her nominations for the Golden Globe and Academy Award for Best Original Song. Alongside Donald Glover, she starred in the film Guava Island (2019), in which she played his character’s love interest.
Only eight months later, in August 2005, she released her first single, “Pon de Replay,” a reggae-influenced club track that reached No. 2 on the Billboard singles chart and announced Rihanna as the next up-and-coming pop star. Rihanna soon followed with the album A Girl Like Me (2006), featuring the up-tempo club-oriented “S.O.S.” The song, which was built around a sample of Soft Cell’s 1981 new-wave hit “Tainted Love,” became Rihanna’s first to top the Billboard singles chart. Rihanna has fourteen number-one singles on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, placing her third for the most chart-topping songs in its history. The songs «Man Down», «California King Bed», and «Cheers (Drink to That)» were released as singles from Loud in 2011. The project yielded a string of successful songs, including the US number-one singles «Umbrella», «Take a Bow», and «Disturbia».
Her work has influenced artists such as Lorde, Sam Smith, Billie Eilish, Selena Gomez, Ed Sheeran, Ellie Goulding, Kim Petras, Marilyn Manson, Jessie J, SZA, Ayra Starr, and Demi Lovato. In July 2015, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) announced that Rihanna had surpassed 100 million gold and platinum song certifications. In 2012, she set a Guinness World Record as the best-selling digital artist in the US.
Her first hit single was «Pon de Replay,» which peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard singles chart betista casino in 2005. This pivotal move allowed her to focus on honing her vocal talents and recording a demo album that would ultimately pave the way for her music career. Her third album, «Good Girl Gone Bad,» marked a significant turning point in her career, showcasing her growth as an artist and solidifying her image as a bold and edgy figure in music. The record also featured popular single “Where Have You Been,” as well as “You da One,” and title track “Talk That Talk.” “We Found Love” later won Best Short Form Music Video at the 2013 Grammys. The upbeat pop record featured her first radio hit, the club anthem “Pon de Replay,” which debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Since then, the singer has released seven more albums, which are all platinum or multi-platinum, making her one of the best-selling artists in the world.

Charts

This initial success paved the way for her subsequent albums and chart-topping singles, solidifying her status as a pop powerhouse. Just months later, Rihanna released her first single, «Pon de Replay,» which quickly climbed the charts and established her as a formidable newcomer in pop music. The pop star has an impressive 64 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, including 14 No. 1 hits and 32 tracks in the top 10.
Swift opted to lean more into radio-friendly hits, which resulted in songs like «Style,» «Wildest Dreams,» «Blank Space,» and «Shake It Off,» all of which became singles. Often mentioned as a record that inspired a generation of artists from Troye Sivan to Conan Gray, Swift’s confessional, soul-bearing authenticity set a new standard for straightforward pop music. Much like her previous two albums, Swift included songs that were both inspired by her own life and being a fly on the wall. During her NYU commencement speech in 2022, she reflected on this era of her life as one of intense fear that she could make a mistake and face lasting consequences, so the songs were masked in metaphors rather than directly addressing adult themes in her music. Serving as a snapshot of Swift’s life and teenhood, she avoided songwriting stereotypes typically found in country music.

2017: Standalone releases and Anti

Released on November 20, Rated R marked a shift away from the upbeat sound of Rihanna’s earlier albums, embracing a darker, more introspective tone with rock influences. The case garnered widespread media attention, particularly after TMZ published a leaked police photograph showing Rihanna with visible injuries. In 2008, she announced her romantic relationship with singer Chris Brown and topped the Hot 100 once again with a feature on rapper T.I.’s song «Live Your Life». Having sold nine million copies as of 2023, Good Girl Gone Bad is her best-selling album worldwide. In support of the album, Rihanna embarked on the worldwide Good Girl Gone Bad Tour in September 2007, performing 80 concerts across five continents.
Eventually, her bold move to the United States at 16 years old marked the beginning of her journey to stardom, as she pursued her passion for singing and songwriting with determination. Despite these difficulties, Rihanna showcased resilience and creativity from a young age, channeling her personal experiences and pain into music. She is the eldest of three siblings, navigating a childhood fraught with challenges, including her father’s struggles with substance abuse and her parents’ tumultuous marriage, which ultimately ended in divorce when she was just 14. Rihanna, born Robyn Rihanna Fenty on February 20, 1988, in St. Michael Parish, Barbados, is a globally renowned pop star, singer, and fashion icon.
The song’s success buoyed sales for her debut full-length recording, Music of the Sun (2005), on which conventional R&B ballads shared space with Caribbean-flavored dance-pop that showcased her melodious Barbadian lilt. About the same time, she started a girl group with two friends, and in 2004 she attracted the attention of Evan Rogers, an American record producer. In September 2008, Rihanna joined fifteen other female artists to record and perform the song «Just Stand Up!» during the Stand Up to Cancer television special. That year, she released a photo book documenting the Last Girl on Earth tour, serving as a companion to her album Rated R (2009). Rihanna has eight number-one singles on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, seven on the Airplay chart, and sixteen on the Rhythmic chart. Jocelyn Vena of MTV News observed that Rihanna often creates music videos that are thought-provoking and aligned with the themes of her songs.
Following the career-pivoting Rated R, 2010’s Loud offered a welcome return to the West Indian artist’s earlier sound. Rated R showcased Rihanna’s undeniable star power, and allowed her to shed her good-girl image once and for all. Badgal RiRi returned to her dancehall roots on her fifth No. 1 «Rude Boy,» which offsets the album’s harrowing motif. The singer had grown in leaps and bounds while taking musical risks, even penning nine of Rated R’s 13 tracks (she had no writing credits on Good Girl Gone Bad). Following three multi-platinum albums in a three-year span, Rihanna’s rebranding as a rebel at heart reached its apex.

From addressing the aforementioned VMA incident in the forgiving «Innocent» to a toxic relationship in «Dear John,» Speak Now also hinted that her rose-colored glasses were cracked, but Swift (and her songwriting) was only becoming stronger because of it.
Some songs, like «peace,» were recorded in just one take, capturing the essence and fragility in the song’s story, whereas the lyrics for the sun-drenched «august» were penned on the spot as Swift was in her makeshift home studio in Los Angeles.
An interpolation of Toots and the Maytals’ 1966 song of the same name, Sister Nancy’s in-studio freestyle was laid over sparse rub-a-dub production, allowing her declaration of ambition and skill to ring loud and clear.
Instead, she wanted to capture the years of her life while they still represented what she was going through, writing about what she was observing and experiencing, from love and friendship to feeling like an outsider.
Although Swift’s eponymous debut is underappreciated now — even lacking its own set on Swift’s Eras Tour — Taylor Swift’s forthcoming rerecording is arguably the most anticipated by fans, who are eager to hear the songs with the singer’s current and more refined vocals.
The Super Bowl performance earned Rihanna five Primetime Emmy Award nominations, including one for Outstanding Variety Special (Live).
As a child, she sang Whitney Houston songs and «A Whole New World» (1992) into her hairbrush so frequently that her neighbors started calling her «Robyn Redbreast».

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The two officially dated again for a time, with Rihanna maintaining in a Rolling Stone interview that Brown had changed and that any form of abuse would be unacceptable. In 2009, Rihanna was the center of a media firestorm after a domestic violence incident in which her then-boyfriend Chris Brown assaulted her before an awards show. Prior to that, she was in an on-again-off-again romance with longtime collaborator Drake for more than 7 years, starting in 2009. Most notably, she owns the popular cosmetics line Fenty Beauty, which she launched in 2017.

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And Eminem that appeared on albums of theirs; many felt her vocals on the latter’s “Love the Way You Lie” (2010) lent resonance to the song’s depiction of an abusive relationship. With the assistance of such high-profile collaborators as Timbaland and Justin Timberlake, she abandoned the tropical rhythms that had adorned her first two albums and recorded a collection of sleek R&B that presented her as a fiercely independent and rebellious woman. He helped Fenty record a demo that led to an audition with the rapper Jay-Z, who at the time headed the Def Jam record label, and he soon signed the budding vocalist. Rihanna exclusively uses her surname for ventures outside of music to keep her business and artistic identities separate. In November 2015, Rihanna partnered with Benoit Demouy to launch Fr8me, a Los Angeles-based beauty and stylist agency supporting artists with commercial bookings, photo shoots, campaigns, and red-carpet appearances. In March 2015, Rihanna was announced as a co-owner of the music streaming platform Tidal, alongside several other artists.

She never stopped performing, and while Sister Nancy traveled as far as Israel to sing, she was often relegated to multi-artist bills — and not in the largest text.
This wealth is a result of her multifaceted career, which extends beyond music to include ventures in fashion, beauty, and film.
Since then, she’s released 12 studio albums, re-recorded four as «Taylor’s Version,» and cultivated one of the most feverish fan bases in music.
With an eclectic blend of genres such as pop, dancehall, and psychedelic soul, Anti peaked at number one on the Billboard 200, marking her second chart-topping record in the US.
It topped the Billboard Hot 100 for seven consecutive weeks and peaked at number two in the UK; it was also the latter country’s best-selling song of 2010.
Rihanna’s romantic life has often made headlines, with notable relationships sparking both admiration and intrigue.

Anti

Off stage, though, she was falling in love again — this time with someone who championed her just as much as the fans did in the areas. It’s apt that she would turn to Max Martin and Shellback, her 1989 and reputation collaborators, to bring that same captivating pop soundscape to The Life of a Showgirl and to capture some of the energy Swift was experiencing. And after two decades in the business, the 14-time GRAMMY winner is giving everyone a glimpse of what she describes as «the most infectiously joyful, wild, dramatic» chapter of her life thus far.
Many of her music videos were shot as short films exploring issues such as love triangles, abuse and substance abuse romance, including «We Found Love» and «Man Down». The album’s lead single, «Diamonds», topped the US Billboard Hot 100, becoming Rihanna’s twelfth number-one song on the chart. A synth-pop record with EDM and hip-hop elements, Unapologetic debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 238,000 copies, becoming Rihanna’s first chart-topping album in the US. Rihanna is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, with estimated sales of over 250 million records. «She continued to make incredible art and so this is a love song kind of through the lens of the motif of what she had to go through in her life and sort of the parallels that I feel in my own life.»

The Life of a Showgirl: Offering A Peek Behind The Curtain

Her ability to captivate audiences across both music and film realms underscores her dynamic artistry and continued relevance in the entertainment industry. Her involvement in these projects demonstrated her ability to transition from pop music icon to a prominent figure in film. Her debut album, «Music of the Sun,» released in 2005, marked the beginning of her remarkable career, selling over two million copies worldwide. At the age of 15, she formed a girl group with school friends, which paved the way for her discovery by music producer Evan Rogers. With her distinct voice, groundbreaking style, and philanthropic contributions, Rihanna continues to leave an indelible mark on both the music industry and popular culture. Transitioning from a teen pop sensation to a mature artist, Rihanna’s work reflects her evolving artistic vision.