Songfacts®:

• This club banger was the lead single from Rihanna's fifth album, Loud. It finds her yearning for her man to keep her at the center of his attention. "I want you to make me feel like I'm the only girl in the world," she sings.
• The Norwegian production team Stargate (Tor Erik Hermansen and Mikkel Storleer Eriksen) wrote this with R&B songwriter Crystal Nicole, and with Sandy Vee, who co-produced Katy Perry's Firework." Rihanna loved the song, but so did Perry, who also wanted it.
  
  "We knew just from those two reactions that we had something special, but obviously it was a Rihanna song first, so she got it," Hermansen told Entertainment Weekly. "It was the easiest process ever with that song because it was brief. Rihanna recorded the song and put it out super fast. I think the secret to that one is the statement it makes in the chorus. This is as close to a diva moment as you'll get. It's modern in its sound, but it has that classic diva moment, where she's really belting and singing it out. You don't get a lot of those records."
  
  Eriksen added: "She killed it. And not to be too technical, but what makes the song a little bit different is the key change: The verse is in one key, and then it goes into a different key in the chorus. That's not a usual thing to do in dance music or pop music in general."
• Rihanna was red hot in 2010 and "Only Girl (In The World)" seemed like a surefire #1 hit when it premiered on Ryan Seacrest's radio show September 7. But the song didn't shoot to the top as expected, so her label, Def Jam, put out the next single, her Drake collaboration "What's My Name?" which went to #1 on November 20.
  
  "Only Girl (In The World)" then made a resurgence and reached the top spot on December 4, in its 11th week on the chart. It was the first time in Hot 100 history that an album's debut single reached #1 after a chart-topping second release.
• This was Rihanna's fourth single to top the Hot 100 in 2010, making her the first female solo artist with four #1 hits in the same calendar year (Usher did it in 2004).
  
  Rihanna was releasing albums at a rapid pace and also doing a lot of collaborations. Her first 2010 chart-topper was "Rude Boy" from her 2009 album Rated R. Next came "Love The Way You Lie," a team-up with Eminem. "What's My Name?" and "Only Girl (In The World)," both from Loud, followed.
• In the music video, Rihanna is indeed the only girl in the world, as she sings it in the Southern California desert. It was directed by Anthony Mandler, who did many of her early videos, including "Umbrella."
  
  Rihanna was rocking red hair at this time, a new look for her. She was on the rise as a style and fashion icon, showing her talent for creating eye-catching looks with lots of variation.
• The Stargate team had been working with Rihanna since her first album, Music Of The Sun, when they produced her track "Let Me." Other Rihanna songs they helmed include "Don't Stop The Music," "Hate That I Love You" and "Rude Boy." They also did a lot of work with Rihanna's Def Jam labelmate Ne-Yo, including his #1 hit "So Sick."
• Rihanna closed the October 30, 2010 episode of Saturday Night Live with a rendition of this song. The Bajan star wore a bright red dress to complement her flaming red hair.
• "Only Girl (In The World)" sold an impressive 126,000 copies in its UK debut week, but Rihanna had to settle for the #2 spot on the UK singles chart behind Cheryl Cole's Promise This after its first seven days on the tally. Excluding Christmas weeks from the reckoning, this was the highest sale by a #2 single since Westlife's version of "Uptown Girl" sold 195,000 copies in 2001 behind Hear'Say's "Pure and Simple." The following week the song climbed one place to knock Cheryl Cole off the top spot, giving Rihanna her fourth UK #1 single.
• Rihanna sang this at the Super Bowl halftime show in 2023 in a performance where she was raised and lowered on a platform, surrounded by about 100 dancers dressed in white. She wore a colorful red outfit and was visibly pregnant with her second child, which she confirmed a short time later. Rihanna hadn't toured since 2016, so this was a highly anticipated event.