Through her fashion ventures, Rihanna has become one of the wealthiest musicians; in 2021, she became the richest female musician at the time, with a net worth of $1.7 billion. Around the time of her second album A Girl Like Me (2006), critics often compared her style and sound to that of Beyoncé. She credits that song with sparking her passion for music and partly attributes her presence in the industry to Houston. She also mentioned that one of the earliest songs she developed an affection for was Houston’s rendition of «I Will Always Love You» (1992). 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». She deemed him one of her all-time favourite artists, crediting him with «paving the way for every other artist out of the Caribbean».
In turn, Swift hasn’t just become one of the biggest artists of all time — she’s changed pop music altogether. 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. Furthermore, the deluxe edition consists of 16 tracks, half of which topped the Dance Club Songs chart — smashing the record (previously held by Katy Perry’s Teenage Dream) for the most No. 1s from a single album. «Same Ol’ Mistakes» is a cover of psychedelic rock band Tame Impala’s «New Person, Same Old Mistakes» — her first time remaking another artist’s song for her own album since «You Don’t Love Me (No, No, No)» on Music of the Sun. The album feels like one big celebration of life, as evidenced by Rihanna’s fire-engine red hair and No. 1 singles «Only Girl (In the World)» and «What’s My Name?» (the latter of which was Rih’s first collaboration with Drake). Despite being Good Girl Gone Bad’s lowest-charting single, Timberlake heralded the song as «the bridge for her to be accepted as an adult in the music industry.»
Rihanna, who has not released a full album since 2016’s «Anti,» voices Smurfette in the film. The songstress herself shared a sweet note on Friday, Aug. 29, thanking her fans and those who «gave me a chance over the years.» To celebrate her success in the music business and beyond, Rihanna is releasing «R20» merch and a vinyl album boxed set, which are available for pre-order on her official online store.
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.»
She recalled performing Carey’s 1993 song «Hero» at her high school talent show. Rihanna praised Madonna’s ability to change her fashion and music repeatedly, while remaining a «real force in entertainment». On Talk That Talk (2011), Rihanna expanded on her dance-pop style while adopting a more overtly sexual persona and incorporating elements of R&B, hip-hop, dancehall, and dubstep. Aiming for artistic growth, A Girl Like Me expresses personal experiences that typical young adult women undergo, with ballads that were described as elegant and mature. Rihanna’s early dancehall roots are evident on her first two albums, Music of the Sun (2005) and A Girl Like Me (2006). In Barbados, Rihanna drew early inspiration from reggae, soca, and hip-hop, and after relocating to the US, she was introduced to a wider variety of genres, including rock.
And on Aug. 13, she opened up about the concept and creation of the record on her now-fiancé Travis Kelce’s podcast, «New Heights.» To help explain this chapter of her life, Swift brings together a myriad of collaborators — from Stevie Nicks as fellow poetess, to duets with Florence Welch and Post Malone — and leans on real and fictional characters, like Clara Bow, Peter Pan («Peter»), and Patti Smith. It pokes fun at so-called fans who overstep with her personal life («But Daddy I Love Him»), says goodbye to a city that gave her a home («So Long London»), and muses on how her own celebrity has stunted her growth («Who’s Afraid Of Little Old Me?»). As a result, there had arguably never been more excitement for a Taylor Swift album than for The Tortured Poets Department — especially because the announcement came on the heels of her lucky 13th GRAMMY win in February.
«And, baby, that’s show business for you,» Taylor Swift declared after announcing her 12th full-length album, The Life of a Showgirl. But with The Life of a Showgirl, it’s clear she’s closing the chapter — or should we say era — of her life that was the catalyst to the new one she’s stepping into. Yes, she is still the same artist who wrote the fairytale-tinged record Fearless, crafted the indie pandemic escape that was folklore, and dove into the depths of her sadness on The Tortured Poets Department. After the muted sonic tones of The Tortured Poets Department, The Life of a Showgirl is possibly Swift’s most jubilant album yet.
«Wood» and «Honey» capture the playfulness of true love, while songs like «WI$HLI$T» and «Elizabeth Taylor» see love not as a distraction from her life’s work but as the very thing that makes it feel meaningful. Many of the love songs on Swift’s more recent albums are brimming with anxiety, from Lover’s «Cornelia Street» («I hope I never lose you, hope it never ends») to folklore’s «Peace» («The rain is always gonna come if you’re standing with me»). One of the biggest takes by critics — that borderlines on sexist at times — is that Swift won’t be able to write good, reflective music that cuts deep like the songs that orbit around heartache and pain.
True to her Carribean heritage, Rihanna’s dancehall-inspired debut single «Pon de Replay» earned the then 17-year-old Barbados native her first entry on the Hot 100 at an impressive No. 2. As the world eagerly awaits new music, celebrate 20 years of Rihanna with the monstrous hits, ambitious projects, brow-raising visuals, and iconic collabs that propelled her to international stardom — and why it’s all put her in a league of her own. Performing hit after hit while unveiling a baby bump, her 13-minute set became one of the most-watched halftime shows of all time with over 121 million viewers. Even her business ventures have been a massive success, as her Fenty Beauty brand is worth nearly $3 billion as of press time.
She’d see visceral images in her mind — from battleships to tree swings to mirrored disco balls — and turned them into stories, sometimes weaving in her own personal narrative throughout, or taking on a narrator role and speaking from the perspective of someone she had never met. Crafting a world with characters like the folklore love triangle between those in «betty» and «august,» as well as Rebekah Harkness from «the last great american dynasty» (who once lived in Swift’s Rhode Island mansion), was Swift’s way of venturing outside her typical autobiographical style of writing. Without exactly setting out to create an album, she began dreaming of fictional stories and characters with various narrative arcs, allowing her imagination to run free. But Lover was more than any accolades could reflect — it was Swift’s transitional album in many ways, notably marking the first album that she owned entirely herself following leaving Big Machine Records for Republic Records in 2018. This evolution is mentioned throughout Lover, particularly in a direct callback to 2012’s Red, «Daylight,» which sees her describe her love as «golden» rather than «burning red.»
It was a very vulnerable time in my life, and I refused to let that be the image. In addition to being a talented recording artist, Rihanna is a billionaire entrepreneur with multiple successful business ventures. Rihanna’s latest work, Anti, arrived in January 2016, topping the mainstream album chart for two weeks. In June 2007, Rihanna released her third album, Good Girl Gone Bad, to much fanfare. The album’s second single, “If It’s Lovin’ That You Want,” made it into the top 40. Rihanna released her debut album, Music of the Sun, in August 2005.
Redefining its titular term, the four-week chart-topper finds the husky-voiced T-Boz freely admitting to straying from an unaffectionate relationship, proving that the playa anthem wasn’t solely the reserve of their male counterparts. But the song itself did pip fellow superstars Prince, Billy Joel and Lionel Richie to the Best Male Pop Vocal Performance crown. Backed by some fast and furious fiddles, «The Devil Went Down to Georgia» tells the tale of a young musician named Johnny who bumps into Beelzebub himself during a jam session in the Peach State.
Lead single «We Found Love» is undeniably the biggest hit to stem from the Talk That Talk era, spending 10 consecutive weeks atop the Hot 100. Her longing continues in «Where Have You Been,» which flaunts Rihanna’s versatility, flipping Geoff Mack’s 1959 country song «I’ve Been Everywhere» into an infectious EDM banger. It was especially refreshing to see Rihanna emerge from one of the darkest periods of her life as exuberant as ever.
The thing that differentiated her from other writers — and still does to this day — is her songwriting. The world now knows Taylor Swift as a global pop superstar, but back in 2006, she was just a doe-eyed country prodigy. Despite its ghoulish title, artificial intelligence appears to be the object of terror in what many, including the GRAMMY voters who awarded it Best Pop Duo/Group Performance in 2024, regard as the highlight of SZA’s sophomore. But four years after the Team Edward vs Team Jacob saga wrapped up, folk hero Jason Isbell proved mythical bloodsuckers weren’t a barrier to awards success. David Bowie fans may well feel aggrieved that his post-punk classic «Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)» was entirely ignored by GRAMMY voters, while the bro-step banger it inspired was showered with awards. It’s a bold feminist act that helped power parent album CrazySexyCool to diamond status and was deservedly rewarded with Best R&B Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal at the 1996 GRAMMYS (where CrazySexyCool was also crowned Best R&B Album).
Rihanna also said that Carey’s «Vision of Love» (1990) was the song that inspired her to pursue a career in music. Vulnerability is explored on the pop and synth-pop record Unapologetic (2012), which Vulture described as an «act of defiance … to sort out her feelings about her … ex-boyfriend Brown and her public image». Rihanna’s rock-imbued record Rated R (2009), released after the assault by her then-boyfriend, Chris Brown, had a much darker tone and was filled with various emotions she experienced since then.
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.
«SOS» became her first song to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100, while «Unfaithful» was a top-ten single worldwide. The song was released on May 25, 2005, and became a commercial success, reaching number two on both the US Billboard Hot 100 and the UK Singles Chart. Departing from Def Jam in favour of Jay-Z’s label, Roc Nation, she released the eclectic Anti (2016)—her second number-one album.
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.
Rihanna became the youngest and fastest solo artist in Billboard Hot 100 history to accumulate ten number-one singles. In late 2008, she betista casino released «Rehab», the fifth and final single from Good Girl Gone Bad; it peaked within the top 20 of the charts in both the US and UK. The following singles, «Shut Up and Drive» and «Hate That I Love You», saw moderate success, while the album’s fourth single, «Don’t Stop the Music», peaked at number three in the US.
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.
