Rihanna › Lyrics

There are plenty of factors that have made Barbados-born singer Robyn Rihanna Fenty a star. She's a fine singer whose talent turned the head of producer Evan Rogers, who discovered her while on vacation. She's a stunning beauty, an... Read More

There are plenty of factors that have made Barbados-born singer Robyn Rihanna Fenty a star. She's a fine singer whose talent turned the head of producer Evan Rogers, who discovered her while on vacation. She's a stunning beauty, an arresting presence in videos and on magazine covers. And her songs feature enough of a cool Caribbean breeze to make them stand out amid the hot competition of the domestic dance music scene. She's is becoming an enduring presence on the charts because she sounds great the first time you hear her --and, once again -- pon de replay.

Lyrically, Rihanna employs words mostly to service to the slammin' tracks her producers create. "Pon de Replay," the hit from her debut album, "Music of the Sun," is simply a request for "Mr. DJ" to "turn that music up." "S.O.S.," the signature smash from the follow-up, "A Girl Like Me" boasts words about a woman begging for rescue from an unhealthy obsession with a boy, but it's the classic sample from Soft Cell's "Tainted Love" that secured the song's place on the charts. And again, on her Jay-Z featuring hit "Umbrella," it's the track itself that keeps the rain from falling.

Rihanna does have a hand in writing the words to some of her songs, but most often they're written by others. Songs with lyrics about physical attraction, love and nasty breakups dominate her records, although there are some interesting twists. On "Unfaithful," for example, it's the girl who strays and is wracked with guilt -- but not so severely that she'll stop.