But for now, it's a Rihanna post. Her birthday (February 20) has already past, so I have no appropriate reason to publish a Rihanna career-overview article. However, as I write this, the current #1 song on the Billboard Hot 100 is Rude Boy by Rihanna, so I'm gonna give the excuse that I'm writing to commemorate Rihanna's success just five years!
Meet Rihanna. This is her when she's in her teens, I suppose. It's not fair to say she looks ugly, because everyone in this world looks less good-looking without makeup. Besides, which school photograph of you looks nice anyway? I'm sure you hate your face in the annual school yearbook.Rihanna was born on February 20, 1988 in Saint Michael's, Barbados.
At the age of 15, she was in an amateur girlband with two other girl friends. They attended an audition for Evan Rogers, a record producer, and she received the most attention by Rogers himself.
Soon Rogers made a four-song demo tape with Rihanna, and that demo tape was distributed and reached the hands of Def Jam records, which signed her and prepared her to become a star.
2005: Pon De Replay & Music of the SunRihanna took three months to work on her debut album, entitled Music of the Sun. She decided to release her first single, Pon De Replay, which proved successful.
The beat-driven dance/reggae song rose up the Billboard Hot 100 and peaked at #2, being blocked from #1 by We Belong Together by Mariah Carey. As We Belong Together was a gigantic hit which later became the Song of the Decade, it was a big achievement for Pon De Replay to have peaked at #2.
Rihanna released her album soon after. It went to #10 on the Billboard 200 and sold 500 000 copies in the US and another 1.5 million around the world totalling 2 million in worldwide sales.
To end the year, Rihanna's second single, If It's Lovin' That You Want, was promoted, and it was Top 40 hit, though performing poorer than its predecessing single. The overall vibe for Rihanna's first album was very reggae and Caribbean-based due to Rihanna's origins from Barbados.
2006: SOS & A Girl Like MeTo start off the second year in Rihanna's music career, she adopted a more modern, feminine, mainstream-pop feel. Rihanna worked on her second album and was prepared to release it merely 8 months after her first one.
The new album, A Girl Like Me, was led by the lead single, SOS, which is my favourite song of all-time. The 4-minute long track is a dance-pop song which samples the synth and bell hooks from Soft Cell's Tainted Love.
The song was a smash success and topped the Billboard Hot 100, giving Rihanna her first ever #1 song and thus being more successful than her debut single, Pon De Replay. SOS also was #1 on the United World Chart, accounting for music charts around the world. The song was Top 10 is numerous countries.
After SOS had worked its musical magic, Rihanna finally released A Girl Like Me. The album was better received than her first and went Platinum (selling twice of Music of the Sun) in the US. It charted at #5, five positions higher than Music of the Sun.
Rihanna followed up with Unfaithful, a piano ballad which is also the first Rihanna song that I ever heard. It became the singer's 3rd Top 10 hit when it rocketed to #6 in the US. The single was also successful in many other countries. However, the third single from the album, We Ride, was a commercial failure as it failed to chart in the Hot 100.
To complete the A Girl Like Me era, Break It Off, a collaboration with dancehall performer Sean Paul, was released. At a peak position of #9, it was Rihanna's fourth Top 10 hit.
2007: Umbrella & Good Girl Gone BadIn what would be known as Rihanna's first peak period in her career, Rihanna's third album, Good Girl Gone Bad, would experience phenomenal success. Rihanna explains the title as having broken out of her shell and ready to experience new things in life.
Rihanna changed her image, losing her long, brown hair for a short, urban black cut. Her Caribbean and reggae-influenced sounds were also converted into R&B and electro/dance anthems.
The 19-year old rising pop star unleashed her lead single, Umbrella, featuring a rap opening by Jay-Z, who was her mentor. Umbrella defined worldwide pop culture when it joined SOS as Rihanna's second #1 single, but overtook SOS as Rihanna's most successful song.
Umbrella was #1 in more than 10 countries and was Top 10 in every major country. It was #1 for 7 weeks in the US, tying with Beyonce's Irreplaceable for most weeks at #1 for that year, and was #1 in the UK for 10 weeks consecutively, making it the only song to do so in the whole decade of 2000 - 2009, and was the most successful chart-topper in the UK. The song topped several year-end charts.
After the success of Umbrella, Rihanna followed her style of releasing her album straight after her lead single. Good Girl Gone Bad debuted at #2 on the Billboard 200, becoming her highest-charting studio album. Subsequently, she released Shut Up And Drive, Don't Stop The Music and Hate That I Love You featuring Ne-yo.
Shut Up and Drive was #15, which did not match the incomparable success of Umbrella. However, Don't Stop The Music and Hate That I Love You were Top 10 hits, the former being a United World Chart-topper.
Rihanna was one of the most successful artists of 2007.
2008: Good Girl Gone Bad: Reloaded & DisturbiaThe success of her third studio album saw a re-release under the title, Good Girl Gone Bad: Reloaded.
The re-release would spawn two singles under Rihanna's name, and a third single under Maroon 5.
Maroon 5 collaborated with Rihanna on a remix of If I Never See Your Face Again. It did not reach the Top 50 in the US but did fairly better around the world.
Meanwhile, Rihanna's existing two #1 singles were going to be joined by two more.
Rihanna's simple, piano-driven track, Take A Bow, was released as the first single from the re-release; fifth overall. It went to #1 for one week in the US and became her third #1 song.
As seen for the past three years, the very next single Rihanna releases after achieving a #1 hit will not perform better. However, Disturbia was different. It succeeded Take A Bow in Rihanna's singles chronology and was more successful than it, topping the Billboard Hot 100 for 2 weeks and entering the Top 5 in more countries than Take A Bow.
Disturbia was written by Chris Brown, a fellow singer Rihanna was dating. Intentions were for Chris Brown to perform Disturbia himself, although he realised it was more appropriate for a female to perform it and gave it to Rihanna.
The music video for the hit single saw a very different, dark side in Rihanna, contrasting her girly, virginal image from her earlier days. The video featured torture involving spiders, fire, sexual references with mannequins a Thriller-inspired dance, which sparked a new, dark persona and image which Rihanna would continue to use later in her career.
A collaboration with T.I. on the song, Live Your Life, would prove clever, as Rihanna gained her fifth #1 single on the Billboard Hot 100 when the song topped the chart for one week nearing the end of 2008.
Rihanna also embarked on her first personal headlining, Good Girl Gone Bad Tour, which went to several countries including Singapore. 2008 was also the year where Rihanna won her first Grammy Award - Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group for Umbrella.
2009: Assault incident involving Chris Brown & Rated RThe first half of 2009, or rather, the first three-quarters of 2009, was not Rihanna's best time.
In February 2009, Rihanna and Chris Brown attended a Grammy party, where they were photographed to be a happy couple. However, the very next night, Rihanna did not turn up for the actual Grammy event at a last-minute pull-out.
It was later revealed that Rihanna was involved in a domesic violence case, having been assaulted by Chris Brown while riding his car back home from the pre-Grammy party. Ironically, Rihanna was set to perform Disturbia at the Grammys, which was written by Chris Brown himself.
The case hit the media and paparazzi very powerfully, and conditions worsened when Rihanna was seen back together with Chris Brown shortly after the incident, and a photograph of an assaulted Rihanna was leaked out from a police station.
People around the world criticized Rihanna for setting a bad example for girls, having returned to her violent boyfriend after being hit by him. It was a media firestorm and even became a topic discussed by Oprah Winfrey on her talk show.
Rihanna finally broke up with Chris Bron as 2009 continued. She silently worked on her fourth album, its music influences being very different from her first three albums. Before promoting it, she appeared as a starring video model for Kanye West's Paranoid music video and collaborated with him and Jay-Z on Run This Town, which ascended to #2.
The album, Rated R, dropped on November 2009. Rihanna's first explicit album, Rated R sold the most number of copies in one week for a Rihanna album, and was the highest-rated Rihanna album on Allmusic.com. However, it debuted at #4 behind rising singers like Adam Lambert, failing to match the success of Good Girl Gone Bad.
The first single, Russian Roulette, was a Top 10 hit when it skyrocketed to #9 after a prominent interview between Rihanna and Diane Sawyer discussing the events of the Chris Brown violence case. However, it was Rihanna's weakest-performing lead single, as SOS and Umbrella were #1 and Pon De Replay was #2.
The music video for Russian Roulette was equally dark as Disturbia, if not darker. It featured guns, Rihanna being shot at the neck while underwater and undergoing physical and mental agony inside a room which resembles that of an asylum.
Hard was released as the second single when 2009 was ending.
Meanwhile, Chris Brown saw an all-time low in his career when he released his studio album one week after Rated R. It debuted at #7 and was negatively reviewed, becoming 2009's worst reviewed album on Allmusic.com. While Russian Roulette was a Top 10 hit, Chris Brown's lead single was only a Top 20 song even after recruiting help from featured guests.
2010: Rude Boy & Rated R TourThis year has brightened for Rihanna.
Hard, which features Young Jeezy, charted one position better than Russian Roulette, going to #8. Its music video was army-themed and saw Rihanna dancing in mud.
The third single from Rated R, Rude Boy, became the most successful single from that album when it topped the Billboard Hot 100 in March 2010, becoming the first Rihanna song to perform better than its lead single of the same album. Rude Boy goes back to Rihanna's roots and could easily blend into the track list of her first two albums.
Rihanna has won 2 more Grammys since due to her work on Run This Town.
2010 will see Rihanna embarking on her new, Rated R Tour. Rihanna is also rumoured to be working with British boyband, JLS, and comments have surfaced claiming Rihanna is working on her fifth album.
Now, Rihanna has successfully proven that she's back on top, as Rude Boy, being her sixth #1 single (joining SOS, Umbrella, Take A Bow, Disturbia and Live Your Life), makes her the female artist with the most #1 songs since the year 2000. That title is potentially threatened by fellow pop phenomenon, Beyonce, but Rihanna has bounced back from the darkness of 2009 and is definitely going to rule the charts and the music industry for another lengthy string of years!
Photo credits to RihannaDaily.com.
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