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).
Disturbia
Rihanna Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Bum-bum-be-dum-bum-bum-be-dum-bum (why do I feel like this?)
Bum-bum-be-dum-bum-bum-be-dum-bum (I'm going crazy now)
Bum-bum-be-dum-bum-bum-be-dum-bum
No more gas in the rig
Can't even get it started
Nothing heard, nothing said
Out my life, out my head
Don't want to think about it
Feels like I'm going insane, yeah
It's a thief in the night to come and grab you (uh-huh)
It can creep up inside you and consume you (uh-huh)
A disease of the mind, it can control you (uh-huh)
It's too close for comfort, ohh
Put on your break lights
We're in the city of wonder
Ain't gonna play nice
Watch out, you might just go under
Better think twice
Your train of thought will be altered
So if you must falter be wise
Your mind's in disturbia
It's like the darkness is the light
Disturbia
Am I scaring you tonight?
Your mind is in disturbia
Ain't used to what you like
Disturbia
Disturbia
Bum-bum-be-dum-bum-bum-be-dum-bum
Bum-bum-be-dum-bum-bum-be-dum-bum
Bum-bum-be-dum-bum-bum-be-dum-bum
Bum-bum-be-dum-bum-bum-be-dum-bum
Faded pictures on the wall
It's like they talkin' to me
Disconnectin' all calls
Your phone don't even ring
I gotta get out
Or figure this shh out
It's too close for comfort, oh-ohh
It's a thief in the night to come and grab you (uh-huh)
It can creep up inside you and consume you (uh-huh)
A disease of the mind, it can control you (uh-huh)
I feel like a monster, ohh
Put on your break lights
We're in the city of wonder (city of lights)
Ain't gonna play nice
Watch out (ohh), you might just go under
Better think twice (think twice)
Your train of thought will be altered
So if you must falter be wise (be wise)
Your mind's in disturbia
It's like the darkness is the light
Disturbia
Am I scaring you (oh) tonight?
Your mind's in disturbia (oh)
Ain't used to what you like
Disturbia (what you like)
Disturbia
Bum-bum-be-dum-bum-bum-be-dum-bum (ba-da-da-da-dee-da)
Bum-bum-be-dum-bum-bum-be-dum-bum (ba-da-da-da-dee-da)
Bum-bum-be-dum-bum-bum-be-dum-bum (disturbia)
Bum-bum-be-dum-bum-bum-be-dum-bum (oh, oh)
Release me from this curse I'm in
Trying to maintain but I'm struggling
If you can't go
I think I'm going to oh, oh, oh, oh-ohh
Put on your break lights
We're in the city of wonder (woo)
Ain't gonna play nice
Watch out, you might just go under
Better think twice
Your train of thought will be altered
So if you must falter be wise
Your mind's in disturbia
It's like the darkness is the light
Disturbia
Am I scaring you tonight?
Your mind's in disturbia
Ain't (distubria) used to what you like
Disturbia
Disturbia
Bum-bum-be-dum-bum-bum-be-dum-bum (ba-da-da-da-dee-da)
Bum-bum-be-dum-bum-bum-be-dum-bum (ba-da-da-da-dee-da)
Bum-bum-be-dum-bum-bum-be-dum-bum
Bum-bum-be-dum-bum-bum-be-dum-bum (ohh-ohh)
The song "Disturbia" by Rihanna is centered on the feeling of being trapped inside one's own mind in a state of madness. The song starts with Rihanna questioning herself on what's wrong with her and why she feels the way she does. She feels like she is losing her mind as something is messing with her head, and she cannot stop it. It seems like she is talking about mental illness or a personal demon that has been in her head for a long time. The song's main theme is the darkness that lies within the mind, and how it can take control of the human soul. It's like a disease that can infect the mind and ultimately control it, and it's too close for comfort because it can happen to anyone.
The second verse reinforces this idea further, with Rihanna's phone disconnecting calls, and she can't figure out her situation. She wants to get out of it and needs to escape to try and maintain her sanity. The song's chorus repeats the word Disturbia, which is a term Rihanna uses to describe the state of her mind's chaos. In the second chorus, she also asks if her state of mind is scaring the listener. The song ends on an eerie note with the line, "If you can't go, I'll think I'm going to."
Line by Line Meaning
Bum-bum-be-dum-bum-bum-be-dum-bum (what's wrong with me?)
The singer is acknowledging that something is not right with her, but she is not sure what it is.
Bum-bum-be-dum-bum-bum-be-dum-bum (why do I feel like this?)
The singer is questioning why she feels the way she does and is seeking an explanation for her emotions.
Bum-bum-be-dum-bum-bum-be-dum-bum (I'm going crazy now)
The singer is expressing that her emotions are getting out of control and she feels like she is losing her mind.
No more gas in the rig
Metaphorically speaking, the singer has run out of gas or energy and is unable to keep going as usual.
Can't even get it started
The singer is unable to start moving forward or making progress.
Nothing heard, nothing said
The singer feels like her situation is hopeless and that she is alone in dealing with it, with no support or communication from others.
Can't even speak about it
The singer is unable or unwilling to share what is troubling her with others.
Out my life, out my head
The singer wants to get rid of this problem that is consuming her thoughts and affecting her life.
Don't want to think about it
The singer is trying to avoid thinking about her problems, perhaps because it is too painful or overwhelming for her.
Feels like I'm going insane, yeah
The singer expresses that her emotions are making her feel like she is losing touch with reality.
It's a thief in the night to come and grab you (uh-huh)
The singer is comparing her emotional struggles to a thief who sneaks up on you when you least expect it.
It can creep up inside you and consume you (uh-huh)
The singer is saying that these emotional struggles can slowly take over and control you.
A disease of the mind, it can control you (uh-huh)
The singer is equating her emotional turmoil to a disease that can take over and control your thoughts and actions.
It's too close for comfort, ohh
The singer is acknowledging that her problem is too close to home and is causing her discomfort.
Put on your break lights
The singer is suggesting that others need to slow down and be cautious in facing their problems, as if they were driving a car and had to put on the brakes.
We're in the city of wonder
The singer is referring to the world as a place of wonder, full of new experiences and opportunities.
Ain't gonna play nice
The singer is admitting that she is not always going to be nice or easy to deal with, especially when she is struggling with her emotions.
Watch out, you might just go under
The singer is warning others that if they are not careful and do not deal with their problems properly, they may be overcome by them.
Better think twice
The singer is suggesting that others need to be cautious and thoughtful in their actions and decisions.
Your train of thought will be altered
The singer is warning that if you do not take care of your mental health, your thoughts and beliefs may change for the worse.
So if you must falter be wise
The singer is acknowledging that it is okay to make mistakes, but suggests that people need to be smart and learn from them.
Your mind's in disturbia
The singer is saying that others are also struggling with their emotions, and are in a state of mental confusion or turmoil.
It's like the darkness is the light
The singer is suggesting that while people are struggling with their emotions, it feels like the world is upside down and the usual guiding lights are absent.
Am I scaring you tonight?
The singer is asking if her experience is relatable and if it is making others feel scared or uneasy.
Ain't used to what you like
The singer is admitting that people may not be used to dealing with or addressing their emotional struggles in a healthy way.
Disturbia
The singer is referring to a state of mental disturbance or confusion in which people are struggling to navigate their emotions and thoughts.
Faded pictures on the wall
The singer is referring to old memories or past experiences that used to be meaningful to her but are now faded or less important.
It's like they talkin' to me
The singer feels like these old memories are communicating with her in some way, perhaps reminding her of happier times or offering guidance.
Disconnectin' all calls
The singer is cutting herself off from all communication and shutting herself away from the world and its problems.
Your phone don't even ring
The singer feels completely alone and isolated, with no one reaching out to connect with her.
I gotta get out
The singer feels trapped and needs to escape her current situation and negative thoughts.
Or figure this shh out
The singer is saying she needs to figure out what is wrong and address it, but does not want to use explicit language to say so.
I feel like a monster, ohh
The singer is feeling like her emotions are making her into a scary, uncontrollable person.
Release me from this curse I'm in
The singer is asking for help and support to break free from her negative thoughts and feelings.
Trying to maintain but I'm struggling
The singer is doing her best to keep going and maintain a positive outlook, but it is difficult for her in her current state.
If you can't go
The singer is suggesting that if someone is not able to accompany her on her journey and help her address her emotional struggles, she will have to do it alone.
I think I'm going to oh, oh, oh, oh-ohh
The singer is saying that she will have to find a way to deal with her emotional struggles on her own and is realizing how hard it will be.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: Brian Kennedy Seals, Christopher Maurice Brown, Andre Darrell Merritt, Robert L. Allen
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@LAHWF
iconic
@meomi3050
Ikr
@jakeola10
hey andrew
@Gameboy-2007-yt
Yes, iconix
@Gameboy-2007-yt
Iconic*
@sharnarobinson9533
@@Gameboy-2007-yt❤
@odurs
Its February 2024, let’s see how many legends are listening to this masterpiece❤
@ellie6827
hereee never stopped since i was like 7 😭
@FungeGotAPC
hayllo
@bakashabajoel1703
Rihanna has been in the game for over 18 years but she still sounds fresh in her music