Rihanna — From Music of the Sun to ANTI, Every Studio Album

Rihanna was born Robyn Rihanna Fenty on February 20, 1988, in Saint Michael, Barbados. In 2003 she formed a trio with two classmates, and they auditioned for the American producer Evan Rogers. He asked to work with her alone and brought her to the United States to record demos, including Pon de Replay.

The demo led to a deal with Def Jam, where Jay-Z was then president. Pon de Replay came out in May 2005 and reached number two in both the US and the UK.

With more than 250 million records sold, Rihanna is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, and she has won nine Grammy Awards. In 2017 she launched the cosmetics brand Fenty Beauty, and in 2021 Barbados declared her a National Hero.

Music of the Sun came out on August 29, 2005, and debuted at number ten on the Billboard 200. A Girl Like Me followed on April 25, 2006, and SOS became her first number one on the Hot 100, and Unfaithful reached the top ten in many countries.

Good Girl Gone Bad, released on May 31, 2007, changed everything. Umbrella with Jay-Z spent seven weeks at number one in the US and ten in the UK, and it won the Grammy for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration. Don't Stop the Music, Shut Up and Drive, Hate That I Love You and Rehab were singles too.

The 2008 reissue, Reloaded, added Disturbia and Take a Bow, both number ones. They are not in the album playlist here, which uses the original 12-track edition, but both are in the Greatest Hits playlist.

Rated R came out in November 2009, a darker, rock-leaning record made after a very public year. Rude Boy topped the Hot 100 for six weeks, and Russian Roulette and Hard reached the top ten. In 2010 she sang on Eminem's Love the Way You Lie, seven weeks at number one, and Loud followed on November 12, 2010, with three number ones: Only Girl (in the World), What's My Name?

with Drake, and S&M.

Talk That Talk, released on November 18, 2011, had We Found Love with Calvin Harris, ten weeks at number one, her longest run at the top. Unapologetic came out on November 19, 2012, and became her first number one album in the US, led by Diamonds, with Stay as the second single. Before ANTI she released FourFiveSeconds with Kanye West and Paul McCartney, which did not make the album and sits in the Greatest Hits playlist.

ANTI arrived on January 28, 2016, first only on Tidal. It went to number one on the Billboard 200, and Work with Drake held the top of the Hot 100 for nine weeks.

What sets Rihanna apart is range without a change of voice. Pon de Replay is island dance-pop, Umbrella is a stadium chorus, Rude Boy is dancehall, and Love on the Brain is an old-fashioned soul ballad, and all of them sound like her.

She also kept moving. Each album from 2009 to 2012 came out roughly a year after the last, and each one tried something new, from the heavy guitars of Rated R to the house beat of We Found Love. Then ANTI slowed everything down.

Her first solo song after it was Lift Me Up in 2022, written for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, which earned her an Academy Award nomination and is in the Greatest Hits playlist. In February 2023 she headlined the Super Bowl LVII halftime show.