← Hit Parade | Music History and Music Trivia
Hit Parade | Music History and Music Trivia
Only Girl in the World Edition Part 2
00:58:10
Rihanna was the most prolific 21st century chart-topper before bowing out of the game.
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- [00:01]
Megan
Hi, I'm Megan and I've got a new podcast I think you're going to love. It's called Confessions of a Female Founder, a show where I chat with female entrepreneurs and friends about the sleepless nights, the lessons learned, and the laser focus that got them to where they are today. And through it all, I'm building a business of my own and getting all sorts of practical advice along the way that I'm so excited to share with you. Confessions of a Female Founder is out now. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.
- [00:35]
Food Network Announcer
24 chefs 24 culinary showdowns for 24 hours straight. Which chef will out cook outpace, outlast the competition?
- [00:50]
Rihanna
No chef escapes the clock.
- [00:53]
Food Network Announcer
Season premiere 24 and 24 Last Chef Standing Sunday, April 27 at 8 see it first on Food Network stream next.
- [00:59]
Chris Melanfy
Day on Max a quick heads up. This part of our episode includes descriptions of violence and assault welcome back to Hit Parade, a podcast of pop chart history from Slate Magazine about the hits from coast to coast. I'm Chris Melanfy, chart analyst, pop critic and writer of Slate's why Is this Song Number One series. On our last episode we covered the origin story of Rihanna, how she emerged as a teen from Barbados, first with island flavored pop jams and eventually an eclectic blend of styles culminating in chart topping smashes like SOS Umbrella and Disturbia. The secret to her success Volume Rihanna was the most prolific pop star of her era, issuing albums at twice the pace of her pop peers. However, as the aughts draw to a close, Rihanna is going to endure her first headline grabbing setback, but she will not allow it to slow her rise as the quintessential pop star of her era. Chris Brown was not the only R B or rap star Rihanna was collaborating with in the late aughts. She was rapidly emerging as the go to melodic hook deployer on top tier rap songs. In the fall of 2008, Atlanta rapper T.I. featured Rihanna on Live youe Life, a glossy jam built out of a sample of a Moldova pop song that had gone viral on YouTube. They called it the numa numa kid video. Long story. Feel free to google this Mid Aughts interwebs lore for yourself. Rihanna's vocal helped push Live youe Life to number one in October 2008. A few months later, she sang the hook on an even higher profile hit, Jay Z's Run this Town, a three artist team up between himself, Rihanna and Kanye West. Jay even gave re billing over Yay. It peaked at number two and featured Rihanna's vocals so prominently she may as well have been the lead artist. But Rihanna's interactions with Chris Brown were more more personal. They'd been friends since 2005, when both were new pop stars on the promotional circuit of radio stations and award shows. In addition to his behind the scenes help providing the hit Disturbia, Brown and Rihanna had collaborated on stage. He even shared the spotlight with her at the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards performing a medley of their respective hits.
- [05:07]
Rihanna
You Had My Heart and We'll Never Be World Apart. Maybe in magazines, but are you still beating star?
- [05:17]
Chris Melanfy
After years of Brown and Rihanna claiming they were just friends, by 2008, the press affirmed rumors that they were dating. But things turned dark in February 2009, the night before the Grammy Awards. Both Rihanna and Brown were nominated for Grammys that year and both were originally scheduled to perform. But the night before the ceremony, Brown and Rihanna got into a fight after attending Clive Davis's famed annual pre Grammys party. According to police reports, Rihanna confronted Brown about a text message from another woman on his phone. Brown assaulted her and when she tried to call the police, he choked her, among other acts of violence. Brown fled the scene and eventually turned himself in to police. Later on, Brown was charged with assault. A judge eventually sentenced him to probation and community service. The real shocker was how the world learned of why Brown and Rihanna had canceled their Grammys appearances. In the days after the assault, a graphic police photo of Rihanna bloodied and battered by Brown was leaked to the press. It was the sort of explicit evidence of abuse between celebrities that rarely became visible to the public. The Chris Brown and Rihanna story is dark, harrowing, dispiriting and nuanced. Years later, Rihanna would forgive Brown and seemingly in defiance of the popular narrative around his transgressions, even recorded with him again. But back in 2009, in the immediate aftermath of the assault, she did not want to play a public victim. She was especially contemptuous of whoever leaked her assault photo, telling Diane Sawyer in a televised interview she was, quote, embarrassed and humiliated over the leak. Quote. Who likes seeing their face like that? Re asked. I get angry all over again every time I see it. Unquote. As for her music, Rihanna took more time off between albums than usual. It had been more than two years since the original Good Girl Gone Bad album and about a year since the Reloaded reboot. She was determined to get back to releasing music before 2009 was over. She knew the music had to reflect the darkness of the Chris Brown incident and yet not let it weigh down her art the result, released that fall.
- [08:21]
Rihanna
Was the Rihanna Album Rated Rihanna never.
- [08:41]
Chris Melanfy
Sings directly about her ex, boyfriend and abuser on Rated R. She doesn't have to. Thematically, it's mostly an album about strength amid adversity and determination to overcome confrontation and even violence. You can hear it in the album's first single, Russian Roulette, which was co written by frequent collaborator Ne yo to channel Rihanna's backstory. The song, which even climaxed with the sound of gunshots, peaked at number nine low for Rihanna, but remarkably high for such a chilling radio unfriendly track. For the second single, Rihanna went with more of a banger, but still with an edge. Hard, a song she wrote with the Umbrella team featuring rapper Jeezy, then the king of trap music, Hard, reached number eight and got Rihanna back into major radio rotation. As well received as these edgy tracks were, the public didn't seem to want Rihanna to dwell on the darkness in her life either. What wound up being the biggest hit on Rated R was a percolating banger about Rihanna getting her freak on with a well endowed boy toy. Rude Boy was the album's most atypical track, a mix of Jamaican patois, dance hall iconography and shimmering electro pop. Promoted as rated R's third US single in February 2010, almost exactly a year after the Grammys incident, Rude Boy rose all the way to number one and stayed there for five weeks. Rihanna was back like 2009 had been a bad dream. As critically acclaimed as rated R was, it wasn't a place either Rihanna or her audience wanted her to dwell. Perhaps ironically, in the summer of 2010 when Rihanna was between albums, she scored one more massive hit, alluding to her 2009 abuse. But it wasn't her hit.
- [11:40]
Rihanna
Just gonna stand there and watch me burn well that's alright because I like the way it hurts Just gonna stand there and hear me cry well that's all right because I love the way.
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Chris Melanfy
Love the Way youy Lie was a ballad plus banger from rapper Eminem, taken from his acclaimed album Recovery with a very prominent sung hook by Rihanna. Though it was not directly autobiographical, the song's themes traded on both artists notoriety. Eminem was coming off a period of highly public rehabilitation after a painkiller addiction, to say nothing of his well chronicled anger management issues. And of course Rihanna was just a year past past Chris Brown. Perhaps it was cathartic to hear them both confront their demons because Love the way you, you Lie turned into a smash spending seven weeks at number one in the late summer of 2010, it would be the last time Rihanna addressed her abuse even obliquely. She was eager to get back to her prolific pace of albums and singles, and after the surprise success of Rude Boy, the most ebullient track on the Rated R album, she was going to keep the movie light. She came to party in November 2010, less than a year after Rated R, Rihanna returned with Loud. On the COVID of the cd, Ree sported a new cherry red hairstyle, a good indication of what the whole disc sounded like. Rihanna was reading the room While she'd been wallowing in the doldrums of Russian roulette and Love the Way youy Lie, the charts had pivoted away from hip hop toward Eurodance, electro and EDM. The pop sound of the early tens came from Lady Gaga, Katy Perry and.
- [14:27]
Rihanna
Ke$cause yo, Gilla is my drug.
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Chris Melanfy
Years later, in an interview about Rihanna's Loud album, Tor Eric Hermansen, one of the members of the Norwegian production duo Stargate, revealed the marching orders they were given at the time. Quote rihanna came to us before we started recording and said I feel great about myself. I want to go back to having fun, I want to make happy and up tempo records. The album release kicked off with Only Girl in the World, which was you euphoric dance pop done the Rihanna way. Fluttering synths, flirty lyrics, a house beat and an explosive chorus. The song jumped out to number three right away and seemed destined for the top. But before it could get there, another more sensual party track leaped ahead of it, right into the number one spot. And it was also by Rihanna plus a friend, what's My Name? A Caribbean flavored electro pop bop featured guest vocals from a rising rapper, singer from Toronto born Aubrey Graham, who called himself Drake. Rihanna and Drake had been the subject of rumors for years, even before they started appearing on each other's tracks. Though they never had a permanent romance, their rapport on wax was unmistakable. By 2010, Drake had been recording mixtapes for several years and scored a few early hits of his own, but what's My Name was the first time he received credit on a hot 100 number one, all thanks to Rihanna. The single was received as an event, a meeting of a would be couple with chemistry, and it shot to the top spot in just three weeks. Two weeks after that, Only Girl in the World, which had still been hovering in the top five, followed what's My Name to number one. Rihanna was as on fire as the color of her hair.
- [17:34]
Rihanna
Feel like I'm the only girl in.
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Chris Melanfy
The world Loud wound up generating three number one hits, all of them bangers. But Re had to work a little for the third one. In early 2011, she issued the freaky titillating S and M as a single. At the very least, Rihanna issuing a sex positive single just a couple of years after the Chris Brown incident was seen as life affirming and Devil may Care. At first, S and M seemed to be hitting a ceiling on the charts. It got stuck at number two behind another titillating song, Katy Perry's Alien Sex Curiosity, E.T. so Team Rihanna called in a favor. They dropped a remix featuring fellow pop deity Britney Spears. S and M, credited to Rihanna and Britney hit the top for one week, actually interrupting Perry's five week run with E.T. like Rihanna's Drake duet before it, the meeting of R.E. and Brit was received as an event that fans were happy to download at the peak of the itunes era, the Loud album turned out to be packed with hits. After its three chart toppers, Team RE pulled several more lower charting singles. The biggest was Cheers. Drink to that. A boozy anthem built out of an Avril Lavigne sample. It rose all the way to number seven by October 2011. And then, literally weeks after Cheers finished its run, it was time for another Rihanna album. She was keeping up her relentless pace and keeping up the tempo. Her next album would lead off with her biggest club smash of all. We'll be back momentarily.
- [20:29]
Food Network Announcer
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- [21:06]
Chris Melanfy
Prices vary based on how you buy.
- [21:10]
Food Network Announcer
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- [23:11]
Rihanna
It was acceptable in the 80s.
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Food Network Announcer
Harris started out singing on his tracks, but eventually he got big enough to invite established hit makers like Neo or.
- [23:28]
Chris Melanfy
Khalees to sing for him.
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Food Network Announcer
So it was while he was on tour with Rihanna that he presented her with an exultant club banger he'd written. Its eventual title, We Found Love.
- [23:59]
Chris Melanfy
Credited.
- [24:00]
Food Network Announcer
To Rihanna featuring Calvin Harris, We Found Love, the lead single of her 2011 album Talk, that Talk found Rihanna channeling both joy and pain in a banger that became an anthem at the peak of edm. Some critics carped that the song over repeated its titular phrase. Others retorted that the song was so euphoric, designed for the dance floor, not much more needed to be said. The lyric we found love in a hopeless place became a rallying cry for a millennial generation emerging from the Great Recess. While critics were debating its merits, We Found Love became a chart juggernaut. It spent 10 weeks at number one on the Hot 100 from November 2011 through January 2012, her longest running chart topper ever. It topped the charts not only in America but around the world, hitting number one in over two dozen countries. The surreal music video, directed by frequent Rihanna college collaborator Molina Matsukas, depicted a young couple in a toxic but exhilarating relationship fueled by drugs, fighting and sex. Several Rihanna fans interpreted it as a gloss on Reeves time with Chris Brown. It took Video of the year at the 2012 MTV VMAs, Rihanna's second clip to do so. Eventually, We Found Love was recognized as Rihanna's masterpiece. Rolling Stone, which gave the single a Poor review in 2011 seven years later, ranked it as Rihanna's greatest single. Talk that Talk, like its last two Rihanna album predecessors, arrived on schedule in mid November 2011. It was less hit packed than Loud had been. We Found Love overshadowed everything else on the disc, however. A second Calvin Harris produced single, where have youe Been, eventually cracked the top five in the summer of 2012. By 2012, Rihanna's fan base, which since the turn of the tens had called themselves the Navy after a lyric in a deep cut, had become large and devoted enough to make her album releases into events. The Navy developed the sort of parasocial fandom that led to deep interpretations of lyrics and her relationships with other stars. When RE duetted again with Drake, this time on the title track of his 2011 album Take Care, the fans went wild with speculation that they were an item. Again, take Care, the song was a number seven hit on the Hot 100 in March 2012.
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Rihanna
Cause if you let me here's what I'll do I'll take care of you.
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Food Network Announcer
Yet for all her success on the Hot 100, Rihanna had yet to score a number one album. That finally changed in the fall of 2012 when she dropped her seventh album, Unapologetic, its title an oblique reference to her personal life. Some fans were upset that Rihanna was involved with Chris Brown again. Unapologetic benefited from a combination of Ree's ongoing radio ubiquity and her fan base's over involvement. The album cover, which featured Rihanna naked, covered only by tattooed words like fearless and victory, also amped up the drama for the social media hordes. Unapologetic debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 with the highest first week sales of Rihanna's career, the culmination of years of her relentless musical output. Of course, it didn't hurt that Unapologetic led off with yet another massive chart topping Rihanna single, Shine Bright Like a Diamond.
- [29:15]
Rihanna
Shine Bright Like a Diamond.
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Food Network Announcer
One critic called Diamonds Quote Rihanna's version of a James Bond theme, and even though it was not in fact part of a soundtrack, it was indeed cinematic. With lyrics written by Australian pop star and songwriter Sia and production from Rio longtime collaborators Stargate Diamonds had the romance of a torch song and the grandiloquence of a hymn. It hit number one in over a dozen countries, including America, where it topped the hot 100 for three weeks.
- [30:09]
Rihanna
I too are so alive.
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Food Network Announcer
Though Unapologetic received mixed reviews, critics and fans were most impressed by the album's second single the quietest ballad Rihanna had ever issued. Stark ballads were having a moment on the charts at the time. One year before, in 2011, Adele had topped charts around the world with the spare Someone like youe, the first piano and vocal only song ever to top the Hot 100.
- [30:47]
Rihanna
Never mind I find someone like you I wish nothing but the best of you.
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Food Network Announcer
The Adele approach was an impressive vocal showcase, but it was merciless on singers who might otherwise rely on production, which is what made Stay, Rihanna's contribution to the stark piano ballad trend so remarkable. She was both vulnerable and commanding. Co written by Justin Parker, who'd previously worked with Lana Del Rey and recorded as a duet with new singer Mickey.
- [31:44]
Chris Melanfy
Echo, Stay was about a couple struggling.
- [31:48]
Food Network Announcer
To keep their relationship together. The affecting torch song reached number three on the Hot 100 and now ranks as one of Rihanna's most consumed songs, with lifetime streams higher than several of her number one hits.
- [32:19]
Rihanna
Me out the way I want you to stay.
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Food Network Announcer
In addition to being her first number one album, Unapologetic was another kind of.
- [32:33]
Chris Melanfy
Business milestone for Rihanna.
- [32:36]
Food Network Announcer
It fulfilled the original contract she'd signed with Def jam back in 2005. Seven album contracts were commonplace in the music industry, but for most artists issuing an LP every two or three years, such a deal would typically last well over a decade. Rihanna had blasted through her deal in just over seven years. So after the singles from her seventh album had run their course, Rihanna did two things. She switched labels, quietly signing to Jay Z's new venture Roc Nation. And she finally took a break. 2013 and 14 came and went with no new Rihanna album and precious little recording period. For the first time in her career, Rihanna had earned the time and space to consider exactly what she wanted to do, with no timetable. On occasion, she did continue to record guest features for other artists. A second team up with Eminem in 2013 on his single the Monster gave them Both another number one hit and a duet with Shakira in 2014 called Can't Remember to Forget yout brought the Latin pop megastar back to the pop top 20 for the first time in more than half a decade. The Rihanna Pixie dust worked its chart magic for Shakira, too.
- [34:43]
Chris Melanfy
Rihanna even brought about a chart comeback.
- [34:46]
Food Network Announcer
For a Beatle in early 2015. She and Kanye west recorded a jaunty acoustic single with Paul McCartney called Four 5 Seconds. McCartney played acoustic guitar but did not sing yet. All three artists were equally billed on the one off track.
- [35:12]
Rihanna
We Got 3 More Days Till Friday.
- [35:17]
Food Network Announcer
Four 5 Seconds, which included production and organ playing by Dave Longstreth of the indie band Dirty Projectors sounded unlike anything in the prior catalog of Rihanna, Kanye or McCartney, but it was treated as an event and.
- [35:36]
Chris Melanfy
Greeted as a hit.
- [35:38]
Food Network Announcer
The single reached number four on the Hot 100, giving Paul McCartney his first US top 10 hit in nearly 30 years. Through all of this activity, however, no reason Rihanna album was forthcoming, a strange turn of events for an artist whose prior release schedule was as predictable as the calendar in the background. Rihanna was woodshedding material for what fans, critics, and RI herself all agree is her best album.
- [36:23]
Chris Melanfy
But it would take nearly four years.
- [36:27]
Food Network Announcer
An eternity in Rihanna time time. We'll be right back.
- [36:32]
Chris Melanfy
This episode is brought to you by Discover if there's one thing to learn from the entertainment industry, it's just how easy it is to earn a reputation, even if it doesn't reflect who celebrities really are. For example, everybody thinks that Discover is a card that isn't widely accepted, but in reality, it's accepted at 99% of places that take credit cards nationwide. Yeah, 99%. So maybe now you'll think twice before judging a book by its cover. Unless it's a celebrity cookbook. In that case, judge away, based on the February 2024 Nielsen report. Learn more at discover.com credit card this episode is brought to you by Defender. Are you a trailblazer, a risk taker? Someone with countless tales of epic adventure? Then you won't want to miss Destination Defender, an epic weekend festival designed for Defender owners and enthusiasts. Taking place In Port Jervis, New York from May 16th through 18th, this unforgettable weekend includes inspiring talks, off road driving courses, chef tastings and live music. If you're ready for adventure, the Defender is too. It's a vehicle built for drivers, capable of great things, whether you're venturing into uncharted territory or just escaping for a weekend getaway. To learn more, please visit destinationdefenderusa.com this episode is brought to you by Defender. Are you a trailblazer, a risk taker? Someone with countless tales of epic adventure? Then you won't want to miss Destination Defender, an epic weekend festival designed for Defender owners and enthusiasts. Taking place In Port Jervis, New York from May 16th through 18th, this unforgettable weekend includes inspiring talks, off road driving courses, chef tastings and live music. If you're ready for adventure, the Defender is too. It's a vehicle built for drivers, capable of great things, whether you're venturing into uncharted territory or just escaping for a weekend getaway.
- [39:07]
Food Network Announcer
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- [39:15]
Chris Melanfy
The spring of 2015, Rihanna dropped her first completely solo new single in more than two years, with the explicit title Bitch Better have My Money. That was the least of its provocations. Its music video featured graphic violence and nudity, much of it involving Rihanna herself. Pitchfork, which later ranked the aggressive track among its top 100 songs of the decade, called it quote the music video that launched a thousand pearl clutching critiques, along with about as many think pieces about its radical significance. Rihanna nonchalantly threatening with a phrase often wielded by men, unquote. As for the song, though, it was only a modest pop hit, peaking at number 15 on the Hot 100 thanks mostly to sales, streams and video play. It topped both Billboard's Dance Club play chart and R B Hip Hop airplay chart, indicating that Rihanna's edgy experiment found its audience.
- [40:38]
Rihanna
Pay me what you wanted don't act like you forgot Better have My Money.
- [40:47]
Chris Melanfy
With hindsight, Better have My Money, which would not appear on Rihanna's next album, was nonetheless a trial balloon for the experimental sounds and imagery she was sampling. She finally announced the album in the fall of 2015, revealing that its cryptic title would be Anti, which she defined as doing the very antithesis of what the public expects. The album cover was part of that defiance of expectation, an artist's rendering of an old photo of Rihanna as a child taken on her first day of daycare in Barbados. She is holding a black balloon with a gold crown covering her eyes and a splash of red paint. If the COVID art was a callback to Rihanna's roots, so was the album's first single, which landed just after the new year. In 2016, work returned Rihanna to the Caribbean sounds that launched her career, but now with a very different aura and RI herself in charge. She chants and slurs the song title in a syncopated island patois and the track burbles and bumps To Rihanna, Work has a double meaning the work that a lover has to put in to impress her and the work she herself commits to in her career. And on the recording, she had a co worker or maybe an employee. For the second time in the 2010s, Rihanna invited her friend Drake to add vocals. Come over, we just need to slow the motion don't get out of wall as with What's My Name six years earlier, the Rihanna Drake combination generated a number one hit work shot to the top of the Hot 100 in under a month, giving Drake his second chart topper. As of that date, he still hadn't gone to number one as a lead artist and Rihanna her record 14th number one, breaking her out of a tie with Michael Jackson, who'd scored 13 number one hits. Work spent nine weeks atop the Hot 100, Rihanna's second longest run on top after We Found Love. To date, it remains Rihanna's last number one hit. Work aptly described Rihanna's effort behind the album. Throughout 2015, she had canceled public appearances and personal commitments to finish Anti, and she was more intimately involved in song selection than ever before. By mid February, Anti had climbed to number one on the Billboard 200. In a way, though, the most remarkable thing about Anti was what it did in the months and years after its release. It was consumed as an album to a degree no prior Rihanna release had. Deep cuts like Kiss It Better were as acclaimed as the hit singles, and the hits were Long Distance Runners, Consider.
- [45:05]
Rihanna
Needed Me, you Need.
- [45:17]
Chris Melanfy
A chilly electro dub song produced by famed trap producer DJ Mustard with savage lyrics by Rihanna eviscerating a trifling man. Needed Me was the sleeper hit of Antonio, though it only peaked at number seven in the summer of 2016, Needed Me became Rhee's longest running single, riding the Hot 100 for nearly a year and eventually going diamond. Another slow burner on the album, the soulful Old School Love on the Brain spent more than half a year riding the chart as well.
- [45:59]
Rihanna
Must be up on the brain that's got me feeling this way.
- [46:09]
Chris Melanfy
Basically, Rihanna was testing the limits of the mainstream pop audience she'd built over the prior decade and they rewarded her. It was an album built for the streaming era, a mood, a vibe. As of 2025, Anti has been on the billboard 200 more than 450 weeks. In other words, it has mostly never left the chart, fueled by fans non stop consumption on streaming services. It's also the only Rihanna album to make Rolling Stones ranking of the top 500 albums of all time, the magazine wrote On Anti, Rihanna recast pop as her own hazy playground. In short, by 2016 Rihanna was still a pop star. But she was more than a pop star. She no longer needed to prove herself her fans. And maybe Rihanna herself couldn't have foreseen that she would walk away from her music career entirely. And at first, she didn't. Over the summer of 2016, Rihanna sang on another Calvin Harris track, a one off single with a funny backstory. It was written by none other than Taylor Swift, Harris's then girlfriend under the pseudo Scandinavian pseudonym Nils Stroberg. The Stroberg penned track this is what you came for Credited to Calvin Harris featuring Rihanna turned out to be a big hit, reaching number three. The following year, Rihanna was back as a guest on two more high profile tracks for rapper Kendrick Lamar. She supplied the melody on loyalty, a number 14 hit from his acclaimed album Damn. And that summer, Ree took on hook singing duties for DJ Khaled on his interpolation of Santana's classic Maria Maria, a Latin pop jam that Khaled called Wild Thoughts. It hit number two in July 2017, and then the music from Rihanna largely stopped. Other than a couple of very brief guest appearances on tracks by the R B rock band Nerd and the Canadian singer Party Next Door, Rihanna recorded nothing for about half a decade. During that long hiatus, Ri launched her fashion and cosmetics empire Fenty Beauty, created to be inclusive of all skin tones, launched in 2017 and was a near instant success. Her Savage By Fenty lingerie line launched in 2018 and the Fenty Ready to Wear fashion line launched with Louis Vuitton in 2019. Here's Rihanna talking to British Vogue at the launch of the fashion line.
- [49:57]
Rihanna
I got to design and have people really see what I'm made of as a designer and really just respect the work that we did. It's new.
- [50:06]
Megan
I've never done anything like this.
- [50:09]
Rihanna
This is completely different. This is like from scratch.
- [50:12]
Chris Melanfy
Reportedly, these ventures have made Rihanna a billionaire. Investopedia estimated her net worth as of February 2025 at 1point billion, which prompts the question, does Rihanna need to record music again? Surely not for her bottom line, but she does care about her musical legacy. In 2022, Rihanna issued new music under her own name for the first time in six years. Lift Me up was a single from the soundtrack to the Marvel Cinematic Universe sequel Black Wakanda Forever. The song was mostly successful. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song, her first Oscar nomination. Rhee even performed it live with an Orchestra on the 2023 Oscars telecast, impressing the audience with the strength of her live vocal. But reviews for the stately song from from both critics and fans were mixed and it peaked on the Hot 100 at number two, stuck behind the number one smash Anti Hero by Taylor Swift, another artist who, by the way, launched as a teenager in the mid 2000s but has more assiduously tended to her chart presence. The fact is, Rihanna has other priorities now. In addition to her Fenty brands, she has also started a family. Her relationship with Rakim Myers, better known as rapper ASAP Rocky, was made public in 2021, and in 2022. She gave birth to their first child. They now have two children. So will we ever get that ninth Rihanna album? Does she even need it? In interviews over the last decade, Rihanna has teased a possible reggae album or a reggae experimental album or maybe two albums, one pop, one reggae. She has reportedly tried material with A$AP Rocky and a variety of collaborators and scrap songs that that didn't meet her standards. She's made clear she won't release a new album unless it exceeds the bar she set for herself on anti quote. I have to show the worth in the weight, she told Harper's Bazaar. I cannot put up anything mediocre. After waiting eight years, you might as well just wait some more. Unquote. My take make I'm not one for predictions. The Black Panther single shows the hunger is still there. But no matter what, for a woman who is still under 40, Rihanna has lived a lot of life and she has a formidable legacy. She experienced the full arc of a superstar imperial level career, one that would normally take two decades in the space of one decade. Music careers can be long, but imperial phases are short. She probably won't top Mariah Carey or the Beatles for most number one hits. And that's okay if she comes back. Rihanna shouldn't put out music for the chart records or even for her Navy fandom. She should record for herself. She has nothing left to prove. By the way, that includes the Super Bowl. That box is already checked too. Rihanna was the halftime performer in 2023 in the middle of Super Bowl 50. It was a quintessential Rihanna performance. Regal, steely, effortlessly cool. There were no aggressive dance moves and yet she commanded the stage, which seemed to float through the stadium as if by magic. Her outfit revealed that Rihanna was pregnant with her second child, a milestone for a woman performer on the halftime stage and an implied warning to her fans that she wouldn't be releasing new music until she was good and ready. The same determination that impressed the people who signed Rihanna two decades earlier was on vivid display. As ever, she was a diamond in the sky.
- [55:37]
Rihanna
Where we Right away. All right away.
- [55:45]
Chris Melanfy
I hope you enjoyed this episode of Hit Parade. Our show was written, edited and narrated by Chris Melanfy. That's me. My producer is Kevin Bendis. Kevin also produced the latest installment of our monthly hit parade, the Bridge shows, which are available available exclusively to Slate plus members. In our latest Bridge episode, I welcome music critic Julianne Escobedo Shepard, who has followed the hit making career of Rihanna and breaks down what makes her voice and her Persona so unique. To sign up for Slate plus and hear not only the Bridge but all our shows the day they drop, visit Slate Document. Our supervising producer is Joel Meyer, and Slate's editor in chief is Hilary Fry. Check out Slate's roster of shows@slate.com podcasts. You can subscribe to Hit Parade wherever you get your podcasts, in addition to finding it in the Slate Culture feed. If you're subscribing on Apple Podcasts, please rate and review us while you're there. It helps other listeners find the show. Thanks for listening, and I look forward to leading the Hit Parade back your way. Until then, keep on marching on the one. I'm Chris Melany Foreign this episode is brought to you by Discover. If there's one thing to learn from the entertainment industry, it's just how easy it is to earn a reputation, even if it doesn't reflect who celebrities really are. For example, everybody thinks that Discover is a car that isn't widely accepted. But in reality, it's accepted at 99% of places that take credit cards nationwide. Yeah, 99%. So maybe now you'll think twice before judging a book by its cover. Unless it's a celebrity cookbook. In that case, judge away, based on the February 2024 Nielsen report. Learn more at discover.com credit card if.
- [58:16]
Megan
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