She has attained fourteen Billboard Hot 100 number ones thus far and is the second Barbadian artist to win a Grammy Award. She is also a cultural ambassador for Barbados. In 2021 Rihanna was named a "National Hero" in her home country, earning her the title "The Right Excellent."
Rihanna was born in Saint Michael, Barbados to Ronald Fenty, a warehouse supervisor, and Monica Fenty, an accountant. Her mother, a native of Guyana, is Afro-Guyanese and her father is Bajan and Irish. She is the oldest of three siblings; two younger brothers, Rorrey and Rajad Fenty. She began singing at around the age of seven. Her childhood was deeply affected by her father's addiction to crack cocaine and parent's rocky marriage, which ended when she was fourteen years old. Rihanna attended Charles F. Broome Memorial School, a primary school in Barbados, and then the Combermere School, where she formed a musical trio with two of her classmates at the age of fifteen. In 2004 she won the Miss Combermere Beauty Pageant. She was an army cadet in a sub-military programme that trained with the military of Barbados and Shontelle was her drill sergeant.
At the age of 15, she formed a girl group with two of her classmates. In 2003, friends introduced Rihanna and her two bandmates to record producer Evan Rogers, who was vacationing in Barbados with his wife. The group auditioned for Rogers, who said that "the minute Rihanna walked into the room, it was like the other two girls didn't exist." While auditioning for Rogers, Rihanna sang Destiny's Child's cover of "Emotion". Over the next year, Rihanna and her mom shuttled back and forth to Rogers home in Stamford, Connecticut. Then, shortly after turning 16, she relocated in the United States and moved in with Rogers and his wife. Carl Sturken helped Rihanna record a four-song demo, which included the ballad "The Last Time," a cover of Whitney Houston’s hit "For the Love of You" and what would become her first hit, "Pon de Replay" to send to various recording companies. It took a year to record the demos, because she was going to school and would only record during summer and Christmas school breaks. Rihanna's demo made its way to Def Jam, which invited her to audition for the label's then-president, Jay-Z, who quickly signed her.
Rihanna broke into the recording industry in 2005 with the release of her debut album Music of the Sun, which features the number 2 hit single "Pon de Replay". Less than a year later, Rihanna released album artist=Rihanna]A Girl Like Me and earned her first number-one single, "SOS, which sampled the popular 80s track "Tainted Love". "Unfaithful" was also released and was fairly successful.
Rihanna released her third album Good Girl Gone Bad in June 2007. Prior to the release of the album, she spent the week of the Grammys writing songs for the album with Ne-Yo. She adopted a more sexual image while recording the album, eventually dying her hair black and cutting it short. Rihanna worked with Timbaland and Christopher "Tricky" Stewart, as well as previous musical collaborators such as Stargate, Carl Sturken and Evan Rogers to re-imagine her album compositions with uptempo dance tracks. Rihanna commented, "I want to keep people dancing but still be soulful at the same time. You feel different every album, and [at] this stage I feel like I want to do a lot of uptempo [songs]."
The album topped the charts in countries like the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, Brazil, Russia and Ireland, and peaked at number two in the United States and Australia. Unlike previous work, the album featured a more dance-pop sound instead of the dancehall, reggae and ballad styles. The album received positive reviews by critics, becoming her most critically acclaimed album at that time compared to her previous efforts.
It yielded eight hit singles - "Umbrella" "Shut Up and Drive", "Don't Stop The Music" "Hate That I Love You" "Rehab" "Disturbia" "Take A Bow" "If I Never See Your Face Again" - all singles reaching the top twenty on the Billboard Hot 100 — including the worldwide number-one hit "Umbrella," featuring Jay-Z.
In addition to reaching number one in various countries, "Umbrella" was the number one single in the United Kingdom for ten consecutive weeks, making it the longest-running number-one single since Wet Wet Wet's single "Love Is All Around" spent fifteen weeks at the top in 1994. The song is listed number three on the 100 Best Songs of 2007 published by Rolling Stone magazine. In 2008, "Umbrella" earned Rihanna and Jay-Z a Grammy Award for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration in addition to receiving nominations for Record of the Year and Song of the Year. It managed to stay at number one in the United Kingdom for 10 weeks, the longest time spent by a female and in the 21st century, on this chart.
"Umbrella" has also been recognised in various forms of accolades by the music press. The song is listed number three on the 100 Best Songs of 2007, published by the music magazine Rolling Stone. Time magazine also listed the song number three on their Top 10 Songs of 2007. The song is listed number one on Entertainment Weekly magazine's list of the 10 Best Singles of 2007, while topping the magazine's poll for the best single of 2007. Blender magazine awarded the song Song of the Year in their Readers' Poll 2007. The music press has considered "Umbrella" as 2007's Song of the Summer, while The New York Times writer Kelefa Sanneh regarded it as "arguably 2007's signature slow jam".
In August 2009, Rihanna collaborated with Jay-Z and Kanye West on "Run This Town." The song peaked at number two on Billboard Hot 100 and also reached the top ten in five other countries. She appeared on the cover of Vogue Italia for the September 2009 Issue. The shoot was influenced by Rihanna's hair, which she had cut for the shoot into a mohawk-like style. The style of the shoot was Extreme Couture and very dark, and in one shot she appeared semi-nude. Rihanna performed "Run This Town" along with Jay-Z and West for the "Answer the Call" concert at Madison Square Garden in September 2009, making it her first musical performance since the altercation with Brown. The trio also performed "Run This Town," on the premiere of The Jay Leno Show on September 14, 2009.
In November of 2009, Rated R was released in the wake of a physical altercation with romantic interest Chris Brown, who pled guilty to felony assault. The album's lead single, "Russian Roulette" -- written with Ne-Yo - was one of the year's most controversial singles. The album also includes collaborations with Tricky, The-Dream, Stargate, and SRP.
One year later, Rihanna released her fifth studio album called Loud. It's lead single, "Only Girl (In the World)", reached number one in more than ten countries. The song also won a Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording.
Talk That Talk was released one year after Loud. With the song "We Found Love", Rihanna became the fastest solo artist in the chart's history to achieve twenty Hot 100 top-ten singles, breaking the previous record set by Madonna. The song later became her eleventh number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100. "You Da One" became the second single from the album but was not as successful as "We Found Love". The third single from the album, "Talk That Talk" featuring Jay-Z, was announced on Rihanna's Twitter. The fourth single, "Where Have You Been", peaked at number five on the Billboard Hot 100.
On February 20, 2012, Rihanna and Chris Brown released 2 remixes, one featuring the "Talk That Talk" album track "Birthday Cake" and the other featuring Chris Brown's "Turn Up The Music"
In April 2012, the singer appeared in the movie "Battleship", which is based on the game of the same name.
Rihanna's seventh album Unapologetic was released on November 19, 2012; it was preceded by the lead single Diamonds, which reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 becoming Rihanna's twelfth number one single on the chart and tying her with Madonna and The Supremes for the fourth-most number ones in the chart's history.
On January 28, 2016, Rihanna released her eighth studio album ANTI exclusively through streaming service Tidal. The album peaked at number one on the US Billboard 200, becoming Rihanna's second number one and eighth top ten album on the chart. The album was supported by the release of four singles including the lead single "Work" featuring Drake, which topped the Billboard Hot 100. Further platinum singles "Needed Me" and "Love on the Brain" both peaked inside the top ten of the Hot 100. In 2016, Rihanna was featured on several singles. The first collaboration was Calvin Harris' "This Is What You Came For," which reached number three on the Billboard Hot 100 and number two in the United Kingdom. Rihanna was also featured on Drake's "Too Good" from his album Views and Mike Will Made It's single, "Nothing Is Promised". On June 27, 2016, Rihanna released "Sledgehammer", the lead single from the Star Trek Beyond soundtrack. On August 28, Rihanna was honored with the MTV Video Vanguard Award at the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards. Rihanna was elected artist of the decade of 2010 by Pitchfork, Insider, Lofficiel among other major music magazines.
In October 2022, Rihanna released "Lift Me Up" from the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, marking her first solo single since 2016's "Love On The Brain". It reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #3 in the UK. The song was nominated for a Golden Globe and Academy Award, making it Rihanna's first nomination in both awards. On February 12, 2023, she performed at the Apple Music Super Bowl Halftime Show, marking her first performance since the 2018 Grammy Awards. Her Halftime show became the second most watched Halftime show of all time with 118.7 million viewers, just after Lady Gaga’s (117.5 million), but behind Katy Perry’s (121 million).
Close To You
Rihanna Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Watching you pretend you're unaffected
You're pulling our connections, expecting me to let you go
But I won't
I know you don't need my protection
But I'm in love, can't blame me for checking
I love your direction, hoping that the message goes
Somewhere close to you
Close to you
Like so close if they hurt you, you wouldn't find out
Just say now, I'm coming right now, to be close to you
Said you let it go, you kept it
Working hard to perfect it
And now your fear is reckless, and it's out of your control
Would you let it go?
I know you don't need my protection
But I'm in love, can't blame me for checking
I love your direction, hoping that the message goes
Somewhere close to you
Close to you
Like so close if they hurt you, you wouldn't find out
If you let me, I'd be there by now
Close to you
In Rihanna's song "Close To You," the lyrics present a story of unrequited love. The opening lines talk about the singer's heartbreak. They're having nothing but tears for breakfast, watching the person they love pretending to be unaffected only to pull away from their connections, expecting them to let go. However, the singer refuses to let go of their love. They know that the person they love does not need their protection, but they can't help but check in and love them in their direction, hoping that the message gets through.
The chorus emphasizes how the singer wants to be closer to this person. They want to be so close that if anyone heard them, the person wouldn't find out, and the singer is coming right now to be close to them. The verse that follows suggests that the person the singer loves may have moved on from a past that caused them fear. The singer knows that their loved one has worked hard to perfect their life, but the fear has become reckless and out of control, and they wonder if this person would let it go. Even though the singer knows that their love does not need their protection, they still love in their direction.
In summary, Rihanna's "Close To You" talks about a narrator who is in love with someone who may not reciprocate their feelings. The lyrics express the singer's desire to be close to their loved one and their willingness to be there for them.
Line by Line Meaning
Nothing but a tear, that's all for breakfast
You are so affected by your feelings that you are crying even before starting your day
Watching you pretend you're unaffected
I can see through your facade of pretending to not care, and I know that you're not okay
You're pulling our connections, expecting me to let you go
You are trying to break our bond and pushing me away, hoping that I will give up on you
But I won't
However, I won't let you go that easily and will fight for our relationship
I know you don't need my protection
I'm aware that you are strong and capable of taking care of yourself
But I'm in love, can't blame me for checking
Regardless, my love for you drives me to keep checking on you and making sure you're doing okay
I love in your direction, hoping that the message goes
I am expressing my love for you and hoping that my feelings reach you
Somewhere close to you
I want to be physically close to you
Like so close if they heard you, you wouldn't find out
I want to be so close to you that if someone heard you, they wouldn't even realize you were talking to me
Just say now, I'm coming right now, to be close to you
I wish you would ask me to come over right away so I can be close to you
Said you let it go, you kept it
You claimed to have let go of your fears and worries, but in reality, you are still holding onto them
Working hard to perfect it
You have been putting in a lot of effort to keep up appearances and appear unaffected
And now your fear is reckless, and it's out of your control
However, your fear has grown out of proportion and is causing harm to you as you cannot control it anymore
Would you let it go?
I am asking you to release your fears and let go of your worries
If you let me, I'd be there by now
If you allowed me, I would already be physically there to support you through your fears
Close to you
My ultimate goal is to be physically and emotionally close to you
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Peermusic Publishing
Written by: Brian Kennedy Seals, Robyn Fenty, James Fauntleroy
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@candaceroberson2607
Lyrics
Nothing but a tear, that's all for breakfast
Watching you pretend you're unaffected
You're pulling our connections, expecting me to let you go
But I won't
No you don't need my protection
But I'm in love, can't blame me for checking
I love in your direction, hoping that the message goes
Somewhere close to you
Close to you
Like so close if they heard you, you wouldn't find out
Just say now, I'm coming right now, to be close to you
Said you let it go, you kept it
Working hard to perfect it
Now your fear is reckless, and it's out of your control
Would you let it go?
No you don't need my protection
But I'm in love, can't blame me for checking
I love in your direction, hoping that the message goes
Somewhere close to you
Close to you
Like so close if they heard you, you wouldn't find out
If you let me, I'd be there by now
Close to you
@fanimedusoleil
I really don´t get why people hated Anti... It only proves Rihanna slays in more genres than the plastic upbeat-radioready songs she´s supposed to do
@tommysandal6930
most of anti is just that, plastic upbeat and radio ready. but songs like this never ending and love on the brain, hell even higher are good, this one being the best one. i believe this is her best song, so heartfelt and true, unlike most of the shit like work on tis album
@tommysandal6930
***** I changed my mind. I'll give Rihanna credit on Anti, she says that she doesn't want to follow the radio so much as she had done previously and I really applaud her for that. She doesn't have to make every single song radio ready, plasticy poppy and upbeat. And honestly most of the album isn't, it's just a different style. Not a fan of some but there are def others that I like. Dancehall, I'll give her that you don't hear that a lot on radio. But still a very low effort song. Maybe unique. But the lyrics are awful and repeated like god
@VeryLittleReporter
because the word, 'ANTi' makes people hate it.
@pittworldwide
Totally. If you want to listen to generic Max Martin songs, go to Katy Perry. I'm here for real music. And this is it.
@DReed-rc3ov
fanimedusoleil I so agree this was just as good as any of her albums if ppl would take da time to actually listen yu couldn't hate this album.
@vinxpossu9865
in my opinion , it is one of the best songs ANTI , I adore
@luiisjhc2779
You're so right!
@lordaivonduntgivafak5678
Yes, among a few others.
@QuanRav3
Vinx possu It is.