Music
Rihanna's 10 best tracks
We trace the Barbados-born pop queen's history with a run down of her best songs – bad girls really do do it well.
There’s a Rihanna song for every season; every mood; every party; every break-up; every position of the karma sutra. Like the Meryl Streep of pop, she’s a shape-shifter, inhabiting every role with utter conviction. For someone so ridiculously bombastically untouchably iconic, she’s surprisingly relatable. But all whilst remaining unmistakably RiRi.
Last year Rihanna turned 30 and celebrated over 200 million records sold, nine Grammys on her mantelpiece and most streamed artist of all time status. She is Queen of the Single, equalling The Beatles with over 40 Top 10 hits to her name. And that’s just the music. We’ll leave it to the others to ponder on the wonders of her fashion, film and make up industry prowess.
Time was, with each passing year you could rely on the arrival of a new Rihanna album – generally an all killer no filler charts-focussed affair. But 2017’s Anti signalled a departure – the songs took their time and RiRi had clearly decided to do the same. With no promised date for new material RiRi fans will have to satisfy ourselves with the epic back catalogue. Here are 10 tunes that make Rihanna the idiosyncratic superstar we adore.
1. Pon De Replay (2005)
Rihanna wasn’t nearly the outsized pop star she’d grow to be after Pon De Replay broke her out back in 2005. But the newbie’s command of the perfect dancehall-lite pop beat – Jay-Z had expressed concern that it could be “too big for her” – allowed it to become her launch pad, not her defining moment. You know how it goes… “It goes one by one/even two by two…”
2. Umbrella (2007)
If this The Dream-penned ode to friendship had been released in 2019 it would have spawned a million memes. Something about the bombastic air guitars ballad absolutely besotted the public consciousness back in the summer of 2007. It was partly the the incongruity of a song about rain when the sun was trying to shine; partly the unrelenting insistence of that chorus; and absolutely the nuanced brilliance that Rihanna’s steely cool vocal brought to a track on the verge of being a nursery rhyme.
3. Rude Boy (2009)
This 2009 Rated R joint is possibly the best of Rihanna’s more ragga-influenced offerings. Rude Boy makes its money on a worldliness that most of her compatriots simply can’t muster. When it landed it introduced us to a newly and exhilaratingly lawless Rihanna - the give-no-fucks model we know and love today. And that video – always an essential medium in Rihanna’s output – in which she simultaneously stakes her claim as Queen of the Tootsie Roll and dethrones Bianca Jagger as most glamorous rider of horses.
4. What’s My Name? ft Drake (2010)
The Rihanna/Drake crush burnt twice as bright, but only half as long, which is a shame. However, it did give us What’s My Name?, a silly, sexy meme of a song that will be repeated between knowing lovers for years to come. Honestly, what’s better than pretending you’re Rihanna for a few minutes?
5. We Found Love ft Calvin Harris (2011)
Nobody would ever accuse Rihanna of kitchen sink realism. But that’s what she nailed in the iconic video for this pop-era-defining Calvin Harris EDM juggernaut. Say what you like about the Scottish producer, but the man knows how to create euphoria. The track spawned dozens of copycat eardrum killers, but on its release back in 2011 it sounded refreshing and new. Pop music is a sanitised craft, but the pain here is strong enough to crack through the facade.
6. Stay ft Mikky Ekko (2012)
Never let it never be said that Rihanna can’t sing. When the mood takes her she is ready and able for any ballad. And what a beautiful ballad this is. Stay – the second single from 2012’s Unapologetic – is a song about a very peaceful love. And RiRi comes at it with a time-taking confidence that allows her vocal to soar, swirling around Mikky Ekko’s beautiful piano. And yeah, we all melt for that “something in the way you move…” line.
7. Diamonds (2012)
There’s a heart-shattering moment at the centre of Celine Sciamma’s Bande de Filles where the mood switches from kitchen sink realism to pure gloss. Four girls from the Paris hood pool their cash, rent a faceless hotel room, get drunk and lip sync to Diamonds. It is cinematic perfection; an homage to the transportive power of a RiRi big chorus. This Sia-penned belter was released from 2012 album Unapologetic and topped the charts in over 20 countries.
8. Bitch Better Have My Money (2016)
She’s Bad Gal RiRi for a reason. Unhinged Rihanna is peak Rihanna, and you have to love her directness here. No sex, no subtlety, just pure rage. This was the precursor to eighth album, Anti. It followed up her McCartney moment, unequivocally allaying any fears that she was about to release some sort of unplugged LP. With Yeezy and Travis Scott on the production team, it brought an unapologetic trap sound to the pop sphere.
9. Work ft Drake (2016)
If Rihanna’s played many characters across her oeuvre, Work is so wonderfully her it could make a stan cry. It encapsulates her energy by being so effortless that critics didn’t quite know what to do with it when it was released as lead Anti single back in 2017. It feels like the sort of track that the suits would’ve vetoed at an earlier point in her career – the chorus isn’t classically big; Caribbean-tinged is replaced by pure patois; Boi-1da’s unassuming beat slinks into your ears and has you attempting a dutty wine before you even realise there’s a track playing. By 2017 nobody would’ve dreamt of telling Rihanna what to do.
10. Kendrick Lamar ft Rihanna – LOYALTY. (2017)
As dream guests go there are likely few who appear at more imaginary dinner parties than Ms Fenty. Same goes for her pop collabs. But artists beware, it takes a strong presence not to be out-shone on record by her wunder-force. The star quality could probably be seen all the way from space on the day that Ye, Jigga and RiRi came together to record Run This Town. But top guesting shouts still go to this 2017 team-up with Kendrick. Their talent feels so perfectly in sync and on equal-pegging. And when RiRi intones “it’s so hard to be humble”, we can believe it.