The lead single, „Work“, topped the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, with the third and fourth singles, „Needed Me“ and „Love on the Brain“, peaking within the top ten. With an eclectic blend of genres such as pop, dancehall, and psychedelic soul, Anti peaked at number one on the Billboard 200, marking her second chart-topping record in the US. It spent ten non-consecutive weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, making it both Rihanna’s longest-running chart-topping single and the longest-running number one song in the US in 2011. To support the album, Rihanna launched the Loud Tour in June 2011, which included a record-breaking ten sold-out shows at The O2 Arena in London—the most by a female artist in the venue’s history.
Armageddon —her first full-length since 2001’s Sister Nancy Meets Fireproof — was released this summer, seven years after it was recorded with Mad Professor in the U.K. In 2016, Sister Nancy received 10 years of back royalties as well as royalties going forward, which allowed her to retire from the bank and pursue music full time. Like many artists of her era who either had bad contracts or no contract at all, Sister Nancy did not benefit from the popularity of „Bam Bam“ for the majority of her career. „And remember, I had songs before that like ‚One, Two‘ and ‚Transport Connection‘; they were playing, but I didn’t hear ‚Bam Bam‘ until I come to the U.S.“ Yet the song made its way to the States, where it found popularity in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut’s Caribbean diaspora and caught the ear of hip-hop innovators of the ’80s. She recorded the early dancehall anthem in 1982 when she was just 20 years old as a last-minute addition to her debut album, One, Two.
Retrospective and reflective, Speak Now is an album about the speeches she could’ve, would’ve and should’ve said. The album’s title track pulled from the saying, „Speak now or forever hold your peace,“ inspired by a friend’s ex-boyfriend getting engaged; meanwhile, „Mean“ was everything Swift wanted to say to a critic who was continuously harsh about her vocals. Along with having more eyes on her, Swift also felt pressured to maintain her persona as a perfect young female role model amid a time when her peers like Miley Cyrus and Demi Lovato were attempting to rebrand to be more mature and sexier. But this meant that she faced more publicity and criticism, from naysayers who nitpicked her songwriting and vocals to the infamous Kanye West incident at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards.
Rolling Stone included her single „Umbrella“ in its list of the „500 Greatest Songs of All Time“ and her album Anti amongst the „500 Greatest Albums of All Time“. She is the UK’s third best-selling female artist of the 21st century, having sold seven million albums. In August 2018, Billboard ranked Rihanna as the tenth-most successful Hot 100 artist of all time and it also named her the top Hot 100 artist of the 2010s. She has accumulated numerous awards and honours, including nine Grammy Awards, twelve Billboard Music Awards, and thirteen American Music Awards.
„SOS“ became her first song to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100, while „Unfaithful“ was a top-ten single worldwide. The song was released on May 25, 2005, and became a commercial success, reaching number two on both the US Billboard Hot 100 and the UK Singles Chart. Departing from Def Jam in favour of Jay-Z’s label, Roc Nation, she released the eclectic Anti (2016)—her second number-one album.
Songs Taylor Swift Wrote About Being A Showgirl
In contrast to the fairytale motifs and happy endings of Fearless, evermore saw Swift become fixated on „unhappy“ endings — stories of failed marriages („happiness“), lifeless relationships („tolerate it“), and one-time flings („‚tis the damn season“). Like its (literally) folklorian sister, evermore was a surprise release at the end of 2020, marking the first time Swift didn’t have distinct „eras“ between albums. It was exciting enough for Swifties to experience one surprise album drop from Swift, an artist who typically has an entire album campaign calculated. At the 2021 GRAMMYs, folklore took home Album Of The Year, making her the fourth artist in history to win three times in the Category. After its release, folklore became the best-selling album of 2020 after selling 1.2 million records. Lover became Swift’s sixth No. 1 album in America, making her the first female artist to achieve the feat.
In 2016, it was confirmed that Rihanna would release her music through her own label, Westbury Road Entertainment, founded in 2005 and named after her childhood home in Barbados. Including Beyoncé and Jay-Z, 16 artist stakeholders co-own Tidal, most of whom own a 3% equity stake. He highlighted her multifaceted career, „from her business achievements through Fenty to her tremendous record as an activist and philanthropist“.
2017: Standalone releases and Anti
The doo-wop-infused ballad soared to No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 back in 2017, and its new certification helps Rihanna extend her record as the female artist with the most Diamond singles in RIAA history. In 2007, Rihanna transformed from a teen pop star into a serious artist with her groundbreaking album „Good Girl Gone Bad,“ which featured the iconic single „Umbrella,“ featuring Jay-Z. Notable songs from her early career, including „Pon de Replay,“ „Unfaithful,“ and „SOS,“ showcased her versatility and unique sound, quickly establishing her as a prominent figure in the music industry. Incorporating an assortment of genres, the record featured the singles “Pour It Up,” “Stay” with Mikky Ekko, and “Diamonds,” which topped Billboard’s Hot 100 chart for three weeks. Debuting at No. 3 on the Billboard 200, the pop and R&B album produced her longest-charting No. 1 hit, “We Found Love” with Calvin Harris, which topped the song chart for a whopping 10 weeks straight. The album, which mixed pop and electronic music, peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 chart.
Throughout The Life of a Showgirl, Swift, Martin and Shellback craft tracks that go beyond what they created with 1989 and reputation. Reuniting with her pop powerhouse collaborators Max Martin and Shellback, who worked on her biggest pop radio hits like „We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together,“ „Delicate,“ „Blank Space,“ and „Shake It Off,“ was a return to form after the fog of TTPD. („And all the headshots on the walls/ Of the dance hall are of the b—es/ Who wish I’d hurry up and die/ But I’m immortal now.“) On „The Life of a Showgirl,“ she declares with her fellow showgirl that she isn’t handing over the baton just yet. The showgirl is actually the one in charge („I was your father figure/ You pulled the wrong trigger/ This empire belongs to me“), alluding to her battle to retain her masters.
The album’s first half features strong 1980s betista casino pop influences, while the second half leans more toward traditional R&B. Rihanna’s music is primarily R&B and pop singer, and incorporates elements of various genres like dancehall, EDM, and adult contemporary. Rihanna became the first person to headline a Super Bowl halftime show while pregnant, revealing her pregnancy during the performance. The Super Bowl performance earned Rihanna five Primetime Emmy Award nominations, including one for Outstanding Variety Special (Live). In August, she was honoured with the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award at the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards, where she performed a series of medleys of her most successful songs. The album was released exclusively on the streaming service Tidal on January 28, 2016.
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- Rihanna has credited her mother as the earliest inspiration for her love of fashion, recalling how she admired her getting dressed as a child.
- „Same Ol‘ Mistakes“ is a cover of psychedelic rock band Tame Impala’s „New Person, Same Old Mistakes“ — her first time remaking another artist’s song for her own album since „You Don’t Love Me (No, No, No)“ on Music of the Sun.
- Released four years after Unapologetic — her longest gap between albums at the time — ANTI illustrated Rihanna’s greater desire for quality over quantity.
- She continues to release new music of her own, though she believes in letting projects simmer before embarking on something new.
- As a songwriter, Taylor Swift set the tone for what would be expected of her future recordings — all songs were written by her, some solely and others with one or two co-writers.
- Swift has become one of music’s most notable shapeshifters by refusing to limit herself to one genre, moving between country, pop, folk, and beyond.
Swift opted to lean more into radio-friendly hits, which resulted in songs like „Style,“ „Wildest Dreams,“ „Blank Space,“ and „Shake It Off,“ all of which became singles. Often mentioned as a record that inspired a generation of artists from Troye Sivan to Conan Gray, Swift’s confessional, soul-bearing authenticity set a new standard for straightforward pop music. Much like her previous two albums, Swift included songs that were both inspired by her own life and being a fly on the wall. During her NYU commencement speech in 2022, she reflected on this era of her life as one of intense fear that she could make a mistake and face lasting consequences, so the songs were masked in metaphors rather than directly addressing adult themes in her music. Serving as a snapshot of Swift’s life and teenhood, she avoided songwriting stereotypes typically found in country music.
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She didn’t want to be just „another girl singer“ and knew writing her own songs would be what set her apart. Every album era has seen Swift reinvent herself over and over, which has helped pave the way for artists to explore other musical avenues. A once-in-a-lifetime generational storyteller, one could argue that she is music’s modern-day maverick, constantly evolving both her music and the culture around her. Sadly not a tribute to the classic ’60s sitcom starring Elizabeth Montgomery, Bewitched is instead a self-described „love album“ that helped Laufey surpass Björk and Sigur Ros as Iceland’s most streamed artist.
- After hearing Nancy on Hot 97’s „Ebro In The Morning,“ Jay-Z flew the legend to Jamaica to sing and feature in his hybrid music video-documentary.
- In August, she released a new Mad Professor-produced album, Armageddon — her first LP in over 20 years.
- In the United States, it is currently more popular than Come and See but less popular than Shutter.
- In addition to her film roles, Rihanna made notable television appearances, including recurring parts in the psychological thriller series „Bates Motel“ in 2017.
- She scored another No. 1 hit with the single “Rude Boy,” while the tracks “Hard” and “Russian Roulette” landed squarely in the top 10.
- Midnights helped further solidify Swift’s larger-than-life status at the finale of the 2024 GRAMMYs, too, as she became the only artist in history to win Album Of The Year four times.
- As a child, she listened to Caribbean music, such as reggae, as well as American hip-hop and R&B.
If Taylor Swift was the soundtrack to navigating the early stages of teenhood, Fearless is Swift’s coming-of-age record. While her songwriting has developed and matured, feeling like an outsider and carving her own path is a theme she still writes about now, as seen on Midnights‘ „You’re On Your Own, Kid.“ On the track „A Place In This World,“ a song she wrote when she was just 13, Swift sings about not fitting in and trying to find her path.
Rihanna’s first studio album, Music of the Sun, was released in August 2005 to much intrigue. Her last No. 1 single, “Work” featuring Drake, topped the chart for nine weeks. Her first No. 1 song, “SOS,” topped the chart for three weeks in 2006, while her Grammy-winning Jay-Z collaboration “Umbrella” far surpassed that the following year, maintaining the lead spot for seven weeks.
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.
Content on this site does not reflect an endorsement or recommendation of any artist or music by the Recording Academy and its Affiliates. And with that tour having celebrated her life’s work up to now, The Life of a Showgirl feels like the exhale before a brand new beginning. „That always chokes me up because it transports me right back to that actual memory of standing on that stage for the last time on that tour that was so important to me, and the tour that really inspired this album. So it’s the last track of the album and a really special one to me.“ For a project about being a showgirl, introducing people to the concept of the album at the end was puzzling for some. 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. Yet these songs admit that she doesn’t want to carry it all alone; she wants partnership, to build something with someone else.
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The dance-pop and R&B heavy record, which debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 chart, featured several hit songs, including the singles “Don’t Stop the Music,” “Shut Up and Drive,” and “Hate That I Love You” with Ne-Yo. With its follow-up, „Our Song“ — which spent six consecutive weeks on the top of Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart — she became the youngest person to solely write and sing a No. 1 country single; she also became the first female solo artist in country music to write or co-write every song on an album. With the dance-pop set Loud (2010), she reflected on the fun she had while recording the album, incorporating ballads, party anthems, and empowering love songs.
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. Fans rejoiced at having songs to comfort them during difficult times, and artists like Maya Hawke, Gracie Abrams, and Sabrina Carpenter credit folklore for inspiring them to create and be even more emotionally honest in their songwriting. Other songs, including „Death By A Thousand Cuts“ and „Cornelia Street,“ are Swift at her most vulnerable, reflecting on a love lost and grappling with the extreme worry that comes when you could potentially lose someone. When Swift released the lead single „Look What You Made Me Do,“ a song she initially wrote as a poem about not trusting specific people, many assumed the album would center on vengeance and drama. The album also earned Swift several awards — including her second Album Of The Year GRAMMY, which made her the first female artist to ever win the award twice.
It’s a highlight on The Life of a Showgirl as it’s a testament that, regardless of how much time has passed or the fame that Swift has achieved, she still looks back on those who changed her life early on. Swift doesn’t want you to get it twisted, though — this is an album about the life of a showgirl, not an album about being a performer. She’s no longer anxious in love („Eldest Daughter,“ „Honey“) and for the first time, she owns all of her work and is in complete artistic control („Father Figure“).