Billboard’s Greatest Pop Star of 2007: Rihanna (2024)

(In 2018, the Billboard staff released a list project of its choices for the Greatest Pop Star of every year, going back to 1981. Read our entry below on why Rihanna was our Greatest Pop Star of 2007 — with our ’07 Honorable Mention runner-ups, Rookie of the Year and Comeback of the Year pop stars at the bottom — and find the rest of our picks for every year up to present day here.)

The steamy opening shot of the “Umbrella” video is a fitting analogy for the way Rihanna truly arrived in 2007. As smoke wafts around a latex-leotard-clad mystery woman in the visual, the camera pans across her silhouette, before revealing a single smoky eye hiding under a crisp black fedora — and that eye unmistakably belongs to the Barbados-born singer. With the ubiquitous song and its striking video, Rihanna debuted a brand-new look (complete with her then-signature asymmetrical bob haircut) and a brand-new sound (not a steel drum within earshot) — as well as a brand-new masterplan to dominate the Billboard charts and become an A-list pop superstar.

Of course, Rihanna didn’t come out of nowhere — we met her in 2005 through her sun-kissed debut single “Pon De Replay,” and then she took her island roots all the way to No. 1 on the Hot 100 the next year with the Soft Cell-sampling “S.O.S.” — but it was all leading to something much bigger, and that something bigger was her third studio album, Good Girl Gone Bad, released in May 2007. Def Jam pulled out all the stops for the project, securing Timbaland, Justin Timberlake, Tricky Stewart, The-Dream, Ne-Yo, J.R. Rotem, StarGate and more songwriting and production all-stars to put together a dozen could-be and would-be smashes.

In order to come out strong, they needed an undeniable lead single, and they found it in “Umbrella.” According to producer/songwriter Tricky Stewart, a few other vocalists were considered for “Umbrella,” including Britney Spears and Mary J. Blige, but Def Jam fought tooth-and-nail to secure the cymbal-forward instant smash for Rihanna. “When she recorded the ‘ellas,’ you knew it was about to be the jump-off, and your life was about to change if you had anything to do with that record,” Stewart told MTV News back in 2007.

It didn’t hurt that then-label boss Jay-Z also wanted to hop on the song for a guest verse (though, he acknowledged, “It was a hit without me”), and he officially co-signed Rihanna’s new era with his “Take three, action!” ad lib in the “Umbrella” intro, making it clear that the label had a feeling the third time was the charm for RiRi. They were right: “Umbrella” spent seven consecutive weeks at No. 1 on the Hot 100.

Front and center for the hit-packed album was a newly confident Rihanna, who owned her singular vocals like never before — most notably on the silky-smooth duet “Hate That I Love You” with Ne-Yo, a No. 7 hit in December — and scored her first certified dance-floor smash with “Don’t Stop the Music,” foretelling her soon-to-be unparalleled success in that arena. The album also proved just how adaptable a pop star she could be, as she jumped from genre to genre with ease while never giving up her identity, even going full rock ‘n’ roll with Fall Out Boy for her 2007 VMAs performance of “Shut Up and Drive.” Rihanna was unstoppable in 2007 — and decades later, we still wouldn’t get in her way.

Honorable Mention: Fergie (“Glamorous,” “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” “Clumsy”), Kanye West (Graduation, “Stronger,” “Good Life,”), Justin Timberlake (“LoveStoned,” Timbaland’s “Give It to Me,” 50 Cent’s “Ayo Technology”)

Rookie of the Year: Amy Winehouse

Amy Winehouse burst onto the scene in October 2006 with her devastating breakthrough album Back to Black and its self-fulfilling prophecy of a lead single, “Rehab.” She became a legend-in-the-making the next year, with “Rehab” hitting the Hot 100’s Top 10 in June, as she rolled out four more singles from Black — “You Know I’m No Good,” the title track, “Tears Dry on Their Own” and “Love Is a Losing Game” — and performed at the MTV Movie Awards, Lollapalooza, Glastonbury and anywhere else organizers could get her to show up. This story doesn’t have a happy ending, but back in 2007, Winehouse’s light burned blindingly bright.

Comeback of the Year: Timbaland

In addition to his work behind the scenes on Rihanna’s project, Timbaland took a big step back into the spotlight with his April 2007 release Shock Value — his first album since 1998. Tim had kept busy following his breakthrough work with Missy Elliott and Aaliyah back in the late ’90s, most notably teaming up with Justin Timberlake for his first two solo albums. But Shock Value gave the superproducer his biggest hits as a lead artist to date: the No. 1 Hot 100 smash “Give It to Me,” featuring JT and Nelly Furtado, the No. 3-peaking “The Way I Are” with Keri Hilson and D.O.E., and “Apologize,” Timbo’s remix of what became OneRepublic’s breakout hit, which tapped out at No. 2.

(Read on to our Greatest Pop Star of 2008 here, or head back to the full list here.)