Theme
Songs about fame
Interpretations from our editorial team that explore this theme.
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Rihanna
Umbrella (feat. JAŸ-Z)
A promise of shelter to someone you love when their weather turns bad, dressed up in stadium-sized pop hooks
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Britney Spears
Gimme More (Remastered)
A dance-floor anthem about being watched, wanting it, and daring the crowd to keep demanding while she performs through the noise
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The Weeknd
Starboy (feat. Daft Punk)
A coronation that doubles as a funeral, Abel Tesfaye flexing his new pop-star wealth while taunting the broody persona he had to kill to get there
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Kanye West
Flashing Lights
A relationship souring under the heat of fame, where designer status, paparazzi flashbulbs and growing distance between two people all blur into the same disorienting glare
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Kanye West
Father Stretch My Hands, Pt. 1
A gospel-rap opener that yokes a plea for spiritual liberation to the grubby comedy of celebrity excess, asking God for help without pretending to clean up first
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Drake
Drake, Qendresa - Slap The City
A Toronto rap star tries to convince himself, and a sharp-tongued woman he's circling, that he's ready to stop sleeping with the whole city and settle into something real
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Drake
Wants and Needs (feat. Lil Baby)
A flex track where Drake catalogues his sins, his money, and his appetites, then half-jokes about needing Jesus to balance the ledger
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Noah Kahan
Orbiter
A rising songwriter at an awards show he's about to lose feels alien in his own success and orbits the partner who keeps him tethered
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Dominic Fike
White Keys
A reflection on a teenage relationship that lost out to fame, sung by someone who can now afford everything except the closeness he traded away
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Nicki Minaj
Beauty and a Beat (feat. Nicki Minaj)
A nightclub fantasy of fame, attraction, and party-as-escape, anchored by Nicki Minaj's guest verse boasting about her place at the top of pop
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Ariana Grande
hate that i made you love me
A pop apology that isn't one, where the singer refuses to take blame for the obsession she inspired just by existing
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Drake
Club Paradise
A homecoming monologue about the cost of leaving, where success has replaced the people and city that made the artist feel known
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Taylor Swift
This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things
A petty, party-thrown kiss-off to a former friend who talked behind the singer's back, dressed up as a hostess apologizing for taking the punch bowl away
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Drake
Janice STFU
A flex-and-grievance record where Drake answers an unseen critic (Janice) while toggling between a muse named Emiliana and a long settling of scores with industry peers