Rihanna’s 7 Best Videos: Shut Up And Watch

John Hamilton | November 9, 2012 5:30 am

Fasten your seatbelts, pop fans: Pop’s fierce ruling princess (and quite possibly the hardest working woman in showbiz) Rihanna is set to begin an unprecedented promo blitz for her new album, the intriguingly-titled Unapologetic. The centerpiece of this international media blowout will be the week-long, seven-country 777 Tour, commemorating seven years of the “SOS” starlet’s international pop dominance. That’s an exhausting travel schedule even for notorious workhorse Rihanna, but we’re all for sticking to a numerical theme! We just hope she takes seven days off when it’s over. (Not likely.)

With Unapologetic‘s first video on its way (and, judging from leaked photos, the clip for the current Top 10 hit “Diamonds” promises to be a fiery, post-apocalyptic epic), we’re taking a look back at the Barbadian beauty’s most iconic visuals. Staying on-theme, we’ve chosen seven of them — one from each year that the singer has wowed us. This was no easy task, considering the “S&M” diva seems to release a new single or collaboration every two weeks.

But We think the list below succinctly captures Rihanna’s transformation from dewy pop ingénue to A-list glamazon, with a few interesting stops along the way. But of course, we’d love to know which videos you think have defined Rihanna most in her brief-but-brilliant career so far. Post your suggestions in the comments!

“SOS” (2006): Of the three distinct videos that were filmed for Rihanna’s first #1 smash, we prefer this foliage-festooned performance. Why? Because it perfectly frames the fresh young talent as a force of nature. Also, because we get a charge from one of the YouTube comments regarding the clip’s obvious Nokia shill: “OMG! That cell phone is such a dinosaur. LoL.”

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