Rihanna Wikipedia

«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.
In December, Nancy will headline a celebration of her career featuring female artists including Renée Neufville. In August, she released a new Mad Professor-produced album, Armageddon — her first LP in over 20 years. Rihanna comes out of left field with the Prince-inspired «Kiss It Better,» the album’s second single, which sees the superstar falling back on addictive sex that «feels like crack» to justify a destructive relationship. The black-and-white, red paint-splattered album cover signals a rebirth, featuring a real-life image of Rihanna as a child. Released four years after Unapologetic — her longest gap between albums at the time — ANTI illustrated Rihanna’s greater desire for quality over quantity. With 13 No. 1s and twice as many top 10 hits under her belt, Rihanna set out to create timeless music instead of chasing a radio-friendly formula with her 2016 magnum opus, ANTI.
But if you want to add a bit of prestige to your supernatural soundtrack, there’s another list of Halloween-friendly songs to check out — one that highlights another celebrated annual occasion. With Halloween celebrations in full swing this Oct. 31, revisit some eerie or ghoulishly titled songs that have been awarded golden gramophones, from the ‘Exorcist’ theme to Eminem and Rihanna’s «The Monster.» More than 40 years later, she’s still happy to discuss and play that single she recorded back in Kingston as a young woman.
She formed a girl group with two classmates; when they were 15 years old, they scored an audition with music producer Evan Rodgers, who was visiting the island with his Barbadian wife. She is also a businesswoman who owns multiple ventures, including the popular cosmetics line Fenty Beauty and the lingerie brand Savage X Fenty. For her work on the single, Rihanna received her first Academy Award nomination, for best original song. Rihanna began working on a new record, but the project was delayed as she took a break from music.

Who is Rihanna?

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.

Loud

Rihanna became the youngest and fastest solo artist in Billboard Hot 100 history to accumulate ten number-one singles. In late 2008, she 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.

• 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.
• The reissue of Good Girl Gone Bad, subtitled Reloaded, was released on June 2; selling 63,000 copies in its first week, it helped the original album rise to number seven in the US.
• 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.
• On «The Life of a Showgirl,» she declares with her fellow showgirl that she isn’t handing over the baton just yet.
• It also marked Rihanna’s first time veering away from her «girl next door» image, as the song’s subject matter deals with infidelity.
• From becoming the first woman and only artist to win a GRAMMY for Album Of The Year four times, to dealing with heightened media scrutiny, to breaking records with her Eras Tour, no one understands the highs and lows of being a showgirl like Swift.
• 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».

Rihanna debuts new baby bump at Met Gala

• Writing the entire album herself, Swift used Speak Now to prove her songwriting prowess to those who questioned her capabilities.
• For her, finding a balance between her career and love, and realizing that they can coexist, makes this album one of Swift’s most — if not the most — romantic to date.
• «And, baby, that’s show business for you,» Taylor Swift declared after announcing her 12th full-length album, The Life of a Showgirl.
• «People love what I stand for. I always give the audience something they can think about,» Sister Nancy tells GRAMMY.com, Zooming in from a car in Midtown Manhattan.
• Known for her unique style and chart-topping hits, she has influenced music and fashion worldwide.
• She worked remotely with two producers — again working with her right-hand man Jack Antonoff, and first-time collaborator Aaron Dessner from The National.

In 2014, Shakira featured Rihanna on her single «Can’t Remember to Forget You». In December 2013, she topped both the Billboard Hot 100 and UK Singles Chart with a feature on Eminem’s song «The Monster». Rihanna made a cameo in the comedy film This Is the End (2013), and later collaborated with rapper Wale on his remix of the single «Bad». To promote the album, Rihanna embarked on the 777 Tour, performing seven shows in seven countries over the course of seven days. In September 2012, the music video for «We Found Love» won Video of the Year at the MTV Video Music Awards, making Rihanna the first woman to receive the honour more than once. In March, Rihanna and Brown released two remixes—her track «Birthday Cake» and his «Turn Up the Music»—which were criticized due to their history of domestic violence.
No matter what genre Rihanna touches or what artist she links up with, she brings her full self to each session whilst completely immersing herself into the music — taking on different personas to make the collab well worth it. Amid smash collabs, Rihanna and Coldplay’s intricate «Princess of China» number gets lost in the shuffle, but it speaks to her charm as it’s the band’s first album (2011’s Mylo Xyloto) to feature another artist. The one-off single is so quintessentially Rihanna that it notably kicked off her Super Bowl halftime show.

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

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.
And yet, she has still come out the other side, sparkling, self-assured and ready to revel in a career built on resilience and reinvention — something only a true showgirl could achieve. When she announced the album, she declared, «And baby, that’s showbiz for you.» No one knows that better than someone who has been through the ringer in the industry like Swift has. What is most apparent on the album, though, is just how much Swift embraces every aspect of who she is.

Eminem feat. Rihanna — «The Monster»

After exploring pop-leaning sonics she first found with Red, Swift worked with Martin and Shellback again on most of 1989. 1989 was lauded by critics for its infectious synth-pop that was reminiscent of the 1980s, yet still had a contemporary sound. She plays with time — speeding it up in «Starlight,» dabbling in the past in «All Too Well,» and reframing it in «State of Grace» — to better understand her experiences. In her liner notes, she references Pablo Neruda’s poem «Tonight I Can Write,» stating that «Love is so short, forgetting is so long» is the overarching theme for the album. 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.
Her most conceptual album to date, Midnights charts 13 sleepless nights and explores five themes, from self-hatred and revenge to «what if» fantasies, falling in love, and falling apart. Sonically, evermore is a slight departure from its sister record; where folklore relies on more alt-leaning and indie-tinged sounds, evermore takes the sonics from all of Swift’s past records — from pop to country to indie rock — and features all of them on one album. 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. Swift described reputation as a bait-and-switch; at their core, the songs are about finding love in the darkest moments.
The singer/songwriter also picked up a Best Traditional Pop GRAMMY in 2024 for her second LP, an immaculate collection of jazz, pop and classical that bridged the gap between Gen-Z and the Great American Songbook. Still, as a love song dedicated to wife Amanda Shires — and the quiet acceptance that the Grim Reaper will inevitably end their story — it’s certainly no less emotional. Just four years after picking up five GRAMMY nominations for their transatlantic chart-topper «Love the Way You Lie,» unlikely dream team Eminem and Rihanna once again joined forces for another hip-pop masterclass. Traditional Appalachian folk song «O Death» had previously been recorded by the likes of gospel vocalist Bessie Jones, folklorist Mike Seeger and Californian rockers Camper Van Beethoven, just to name a few. The King of Pop picked up a whopping 11 nominations for his first blockbuster album, Thriller, and then converted seven of them into wins, including Album Of The Year. Considering how perfectly Mike Oldfield’s prog-rock epic Tubular Bells complements all-time classic horror flick The Exorcist, it’s remarkable to think that it was recorded before director William Friedkin came calling.

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 first gained prominence in 2005 with her debut album «Music of the Sun,» which quickly established her as a force in the music industry. Known for her unique style and chart-topping hits, she has influenced music and fashion worldwide. She told Winfrey that Brown may have been the love of her life and she has developed “a very close friendship” with him. The pair worked together on the song “Birthday Cake,” released that year.
Elizabeth Taylor has appeared as a character in Swift’s songs before, particularly in rep’s «Ready For It…?» where she compares herself to the famous actress and entertainer. Comparatively, «Eldest Daughter» — track five, a spot Swift notoriously reserves for the most emotional song — is a love song about the masks we wear and the selves we choose to reveal. Throughout the record, dynamic and layered pop soundscapes mimic the same energy Swift was feeling both on and off stage. «I thought who better to ask to be a part of this song than the ultimate showgirl Sabrina Carpenter.» Instead of writing songs akin betista casino to «I Can Do It With A Broken Heart,» a song about performing in the midst of heartbreak and grief, Swift opted to focus on what people don’t necessarily see when they buy a ticket to a show. Now that the curtain is up and The Life of a Showgirl is out, read on for five key essential insights from Taylor Swift’s new album.
The Western-themed «Desperado» lends itself particularly well to covers by country artists, while the Dido-sampling «Never Ending» conveys the uncertainty she feels about entering a new relationship. Subsequently, Rihanna held the No. 1 spots on the Billboard 200 and Hot 100 simultaneously, her second time achieving such an impressive feat. But the dancehall masterpiece is one of a kind for Rih’s refusal to water down the Jamaican patois (different from her native language of Bajan Creole) — proving that she is fully aware of her impact as one of the biggest Caribbean-born artists to make it in the U.S. ANTI lives up to its name in its first 40 seconds, via opening track «Consideration.» The minute she declares, «I got to do things my own way, darling,» it’s apparent that ANTI is not your average Rihanna album. But that shift began with 2015’s criminally underrated «American Oxygen.» Her most political statement at the time, the goosebump-inducing lyrics detail Rihanna’s journey as an immigrant, foreshadowing her then soon-to-be massive Fenty Beauty success.
Rihanna has delivered pop hit after pop hit since bursting onto the music scene in the mid-2000s. The album’s lead single, “Work,” featuring rapper Drake, spent nine weeks at No. 1 and earned two Grammy nominations. In January 2016, Rihanna released her eighth album, Anti, allowing Jay-Z’s online streaming site Tidal to exclusively feature the collection of tracks for a week. The album included “We Found Love,” a track with DJ Calvin Harris that won the 2013 Grammy Award for best short-form music video. Less than a year later, when Rihanna was only 16 years old, she left Barbados to move in with Rogers and his wife in Connecticut and work on recording a demo album.
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.
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.