Rihanna’s 10 Best Songs — And Why They’re Important

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Rihanna has a legacy that now transcends music, but her upcoming headlining performance at the Super Bowl LVII halftime show is a celebration of what made Rihanna the millennial hit making paragon she’ll always be remembered as. Some singers are known for being expert songwriters or vocal gymnasts. But Rihanna has an underrated talent that some singers possess and even fewer have mastered —the art of converting your larger than life persona into a three minute song. Because of that, she’s become the musical act with the fourth most #1 songs in Billboard history (only behind The Beatles, Mariah Carey and Elvis Presley) and has some of the best selling singles of all time. Here are the top 10 songs of a music catalog that, for many, will forever be the soundtrack of our formative young adult years.

10. Disturbia (2008)

In 2008 Rihanna’s career was still fairly young but had already evolved significantly with her crossover from dancehall to pop music. Though she had found success in a few different musical niches, “Disturbia” showed she wouldn’t be complacent. The song had an alt pop orientation, and its theme of mental anguish was a more nuanced subject matter than her past hits of love, heartbreak or a night on the dance floor. This ability to reshape her sound and image proved that Rihanna was an artist that would keep us interested for years to come.

9. S&M (2011)

We all knew that Rihanna had sex appeal, which usually revealed itself through subtle innuendos in her music (see “Umbrella” or “Shut Up and Drive”), but “S&M” made us all clutch our pearls with its detailed description of kink play in real time. None of the shock value took away from the pulsating beat and whimsical chorus of balderdash which was common in music at the time, partly thanks to Rihanna’s hits (e.g. “na, na, na, come on,” “bum bum beedeum,” “you can stand under my umbrella, ella, ella” etc.) Instead it solidified Rihanna as a sex icon.

8. FourFive Seconds feat. Kanye West & Paul McCartney (2015)

An acoustic mid-tempo track featuring rap’s esteemed narc and a former Beatle makes this the most peculiar song in Rihanna’s discography. Even performing alongside Macca, Rihanna holds her own and is the star of the collaboration. This out-of-left-field, single-only release foreshadowed a substantial creative outpouring that would be fully realized the following year on ANTI (2016).

7. What’s My Name? feat. Drake (2010)

By the start of the 2010s, electro pop and EDM were all the rage, which would have left little room for Caribbean inspired music to flourish. That is, not if the Bajan National Hero had anything to say about it. “What’s My Name?” is a futuristic, electro dancehall song that somehow fit in perfectly on pop radio, and was the first of many sublime collabs with her ex-jump-off Drake.

6. Kiss It Better (2016)

ANTI has some of Rihanna’s most beloved ballads, each referencing a different era of love songs — like the top 10 hit doo-wop “Love On the Brain” and the critic favorite “Higher” which is reminiscent of classics like “At Last.” But the underrated “Kiss It Better” is an 80s-inspired synth-rock power ballad with 2010s soul. Unlike her other ballads, Rihanna never loses herself in “Kiss It Better,” which is why it stands out as one of her few prevailing melodramatic moments.

5. Rude Boy (2010)

“Rude Boy” is the answer to the question: “how much can a song experiment with reggae and ragamuffin and still be considered pop?” It’s one of Rihanna’s most simple songs, but its addictive chorus and club friendly appeal make it one of her most effective. It’s almost impossible to hear it just once when you press play.

4. Bitch Better Have My Money (2015)

“Bitch Better Have My Money” is not only the quintessential payday anthem, but it’s also the best showcasing of Rihanna’s rap prowess. In an era where hip hop took over as the mainstream genre of choice, Rihanna was unfazed while other pop stars scrambled with watered down trap beats and awkward collaborations with rappers. “BBHMM” perfectly set the tone for the neo-hip hop soul and alt R&B sound she’d create on her aforementioned magnum opus ANTI.

3. We Found Love feat. Calvin Harris (2011)

“We Found Love” is an EDM pop staple of the early 2010s that takes you on a love-induced trip that can make you weep if you let it. It’s the quintessential example of the emotion that can be found in electronic music and the vastness it can give to a 3 and a half minute elegy that could’ve been just another love song.

2. Work feat. Drake (2016)

This song best encapsulates everything Rihanna the artist does best: pop, dancehall, alt R&B, great collaborations, and infectious hooks. Rolling Stone perfectly summed it up as a “minimalist banger” with a “tropical house vibe.” Half the song is sung in English, while the other half is partly in Bajan Creole and Jamaican Patois, giving a worldly flavor to contemporary radio that was missing and very much needed at the time.

Umbrella feat. Jay-Z (2007)

Take a song with a juvenile chorus everyone is prompted to sing on a rainy day, fill it with sexual innuendos, and you have one of the most ubiquitous songs that has remained in the cultural subconscious. Originally written with the intention to have Britney Spears as its vessel (the blueprint for pop singers like Rihanna who’s main job is to bring a je ne sais quoi to an already existing song), Rihanna took it on and became a superstar overnight. With blue-ribbon production by Tricky Stewart and imaginative lyrics that will go over your head the first couple times you listen to it, “Umbrella” is Rihanna at her pop best.