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Even without a studio album in nearly ten years, Rihanna continues to be a dominant figure in popular music. The music video for her 2010 hit “Only Girl (In The World),” directed by Anthony Mandler, has recently surpassed one billion views on YouTube.
That milestone brings Rihanna’s tally to 13 videos — as a lead artist, a featured performer or a collaborator — that have reached ten digits on the platform. The “Only Girl” clip mirrors the song’s exuberant tone: she moves through a series of vibrant, color-drenched tableaux in a range of bold outfits, at one point standing alone in a windswept field of flowers as the chorus soars. The track was the lead single from Rihanna’s fifth album, Loud, and won the 2011 Grammy Award for Best Dance/Electronic Recording.
Meanwhile, fifty years after its release, Queen’s genre-defying “Bohemian Rhapsody” has crossed two billion views on YouTube, making it the oldest song to reach that threshold on the site. The six-minute epic blends tender balladry, blistering guitar work and operatic, multi-tracked vocals — complete with lyrical nods to Galileo and Beelzebub — to create one of rock’s most ambitious pieces.
Before conceptual music videos became standard, Queen worked with director Bruce Gowers to produce what feels like a staged performance: the clip opens with the band in a gauzy silhouette, then shifts to Freddie Mercury at a grand piano in a frilled white satin costume. The camera follows him across the set, cuts to Brian May’s soaring guitar solo, and builds into the famous, choir-like chorus where visual effects multiply the group into a kaleidoscopic array. The sequence alternates between Mercury and Roger Taylor during the “Galileo” passages and culminates in a smoky, hard-rock finale with Mercury at the keys and Taylor lightly striking a gong.
Watch “Only Girl (In The World)” and “Bohemian Rhapsody” below.
