Rihanna’s ‘Only Girl (In the World)’ Hits 1 Billion YouTube Views, Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ Notches Two Billion

Despite not releasing an album in nearly a decade, Rihanna remains one of the biggest music stars on the planet. Need proof? The 2010 Anthony Mandler-directed video for her Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hit “Only Girl (In the World)” has just passed the billion-views mark.

That means RihRih now has 13 different videos as a lead, featured artist or collaborator that have crossed the 10-digit mark. The song’s visual parallels the lyric, with the singer posing in a series of color-saturated vistas wearing different outfits as she appears to, literally, be the only girl left in the world, a status Rihanna seems to be just fine with as she wails the song’s uplifting chorus in a field of wind-blown flowers. The uptempo lead single from Rih’s fifth studio album, Loud, earned her a 2011 Grammy Award for best dance/electronic recording.

Fifty years after its release, Queen‘s epic rock opera “Bohemian Rhapsody” has crossed the two billion views mark, making it the oldest song to reach that mark in YouTube history. The six-minute lead single from the group’s 1975 A Night at the Opera album is legendarily epic, roping in balladry, hard rock guitars, lyrics about Galileo and Beelzebub and layer-upon-layer of backing vocals.

Back before music videos were part and parcel of the music-selling game, Queen tapped Bruce Gowers to film what is essentially a performance-style visual, opening with the four members in gauzy silhouette singing the intro, before cutting to singer Freddie Mercury singing the first verse while seated at a grand piano dressed in a frilly white satin outfit.

It follows Mercury as he wanders the soundstage, then cuts to guitarist Brian May for his pealing solo. When the “send a bolt of lightning” chorus explodes with what sounds like hundreds of voices, Gowers throws up a fractal image featuring six versions of the quartet before ping-ponging between Mercury and drummer Roger Taylor wailing “Galileo, Galileo.” The trip rolls to a close with a smoke-filled stage performance during the hard rock section that ends with Mercury tickling the ivories and Taylor gently tapping a gong.

Watch “Only Girl (In the World) and “Bohemian Rhapsody” below.