After much anticipation, “billionaire” Rihanna finally returned to music after six years of being in business with the single Lift Me Up. Incidentally, it fell at the same time as Taylor Swift released her new album.

So, in its debut week on the Billboard Hot 100, Lift Me Up only ranked second, behind Anti-Hero by Swift, even though this is the second week of this song.

Despite a decrease compared to last week, in the second No.1 week – tracking from October 28 to November 3 – Anti-Hero still achieved admirable results with 35.6 million streams; 37.6 million viewers listened to the radio and 17,000 copies were sold. Meanwhile, those of Lift Me Up are 48.1 million; 26.2 million and 23,000 copies. Although far behind in terms of radio listens, Lift Me Up is only the fourth song to reach the top 10 radio stations in the first week, after < /span>by Lady Gaga and by Janet Jackson. All for You Born This Way by Adele, Easy on Me

No.2 this time by Lift Me Up also brought Rihanna her 32nd top 10. She is currently an artist with many top The fifth top 10 in the history of the Hot 100 chart, behind only The Beatles (34 top 10s), Madonna (38), Taylor Swift (40) and Drake (59).

The last time Rihanna reached the top 10 was in 2017, when she featured in the song Wild Thoughts by DJ Khaled with with Bryson Tiller, reaching No.2 for seven weeks. She first entered the top 10 with her debut hit Pon De Replay, also climbing to No.2 in 2005. Rihanna is proud to have 14 No. .1, the third most after The Beatles (20) and Mariah Carey (19).

On the chart of hot R&B/Hip hop songs and hot R&B songs, Lift Me Up easily ranked No. first. In 2017, she also topped both charts with Wild Thoughts. In addition to the US, Lift Me Up ranked No. 1 in Switzerland, top 5 in Australia and the UK, and top 10 in more than 10 other countries.

The song Lift Me Up was released on October 28 through Westbury Road and Roc Nation, as the opening single for the album. blockbuster Black Panther: Wakanda Forever – just hit theaters last Friday. The song marks Rihanna’s first solo release since her 2016 studio album, Anti. This R&B ballad was written and primarily produced by Ludwig Goransson. Also participating in the composition are Rihanna, Ryan Coogler and Nigerian singer Tems.

Critics are quite divided in their opinions about Lift Me Up. Critics praised the song as “gorgeous” and “built around Rihanna’s voice, asserting her sovereignty with a resounding sound”. After a period of silence, Rihanna seemed more “mature, with a glossy mahogany light”, helping the ballad brighten up, while at the same time deepening the pain.

The critics praised Rihanna’s performance, but said that the content Lift Me Up was bland, far different from other songs. from her familiar emotional past, making it “forgettable”, while not unpleasant, but lacking in personality. All in all, this is probably not Rihanna’s true comeback record.

Rihanna’s mature voice in “Lift Me Up”:

Just an appetizer

Rihanna’s full name is Robyn Rihanna Fenty, born in 1988 in Barbados. Her childhood was not very happy when her family was poor and her addicted father often beat his wife and children. After her parents divorced, Rihanna’s health gradually improved.

Since childhood, Rihanna has wanted to pursue a career in music. At age 15, she formed a music group with two classmates in Barbados. Although the group did not have a name or music, they received an audition invitation from producer Evan Rogers. “The moment Rihanna walked into the room, it was as if the other girls didn’t exist” – Rogers later recalled.

After getting a contract with Def Jam in 2005, Rihanna quickly received attention with her first two albums Music of the Sun (2005) and A Girl Like Me (2006) both reached the top 10 of the Billboard 200. The third album, Good Girl Gone Bad (2007) established her status in the industry as a sex symbol. The single Umbrella topped the chart and brought Rihanna her first Grammy award and made her a global superstar. Subsequent albums continued to achieve commercial success.

To date, Rihanna has released eight studio albums, sold more than 250 million records worldwide, and is the second best-selling female music artist of all time, behind only Madonna. Among Rihanna’s many awards, we can mention 9 Grammy Awards, 13 American Music Awards, 12 Billboard Awards, six world records and a presidential award.

In addition to music, Rihanna is famous for her humanitarian activities and is an extremely cool businesswoman. As of 2022, she is the richest female musician with a net worth of up to 1.4 billion USD. Not only has her business been successful, during her six-year hiatus from music activities, Rihanna also happily became a mother last May.

For many years, Rihanna has always been the name most expected to return with a lot of expectations. So Lift Me Up only ranks No.2, after Anti-Hero by Taylor Swift, is that disappointing? According to commentators Billboard, it’s not bad to be behind Swift, especially for someone who hasn’t been active for six years and especially with a song that is not really strong (it can even be said that Lift Me Up achieved such a high ranking largely thanks to the name and voice of Rihanna). Everyone believes this is just an appetizer to help relieve Rihanna’s music hunger.

Therefore, commentators also believe that Lift Me Up, in addition to revealing Rihanna’s more mature voice, does not must be a hint for the new album’s artistic direction. The song seems to be tailor-made for the film, a tribute to Chadwich Boseman.

Remember, fans had to wait three years between Unapologetic (2012) and Anti (2016) and during this time, the singles she released did not reflect the sound and scope of Anti. And overall, would Beyonce or Adele use a soundtrack moment to introduce a new personal direction to the world? Are not. And so does Rihanna.

Although Rihanna’s direction is not revealed, will Lift Me Up, along with I Ain’t Worried by OneRepublic (for the movie Top Gun: Maverick) and Vegas by Doja Cat (for the movie Elvis), all in the top 10 Hot 100, is it a dime direction? Maybe. Look at Adele’s Skyfall reaching the top 10 with many awards, Earned It by The Weeknd ranked No.1 and won a Grammy or Shallow by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper had great success as a team. Clearly, audiences are increasingly interested in film music, and film is a fertile ground for artists who want to combine albums (like Doja Cat), reintroduce themselves (like OneRepublic) or make a debut after their debut. long periods of inactivity (like Rihanna).

Curious now: between now and when Rihanna headlines the Super Bowl next February, will she release new music? Even though Rihanna has plenty of hits to perform, who isn’t looking forward to a new hot song? But maybe she’ll do what Kendrick Lamar did at the Day N Vegas festival, where he used it as the end of a chapter, highlighting the achievements of his career up to that point, signaling the beginning of a new era. Note: No matter how curious you are, don’t ask Rihanna or she will get mad!