“We Found Love” is a song by Barbadian singer Rihanna released as the lead single from her sixth studio album, Talk That Talk (2011). The song features Scottish DJ Calvin Harris, whose 2012 album 18 Months also includes the track. Produced and written by Harris, “We Found Love” premiered on September 22, 2011, on the Capital FM radio station in the United Kingdom, and was made available to download on the same day as the lead single from Talk That Talk. “We Found Love” is an uptempo EDM song, with elements of electro, house, dance-pop, techno and Europop. The song’s lyrics speak of a couple who “found love in a hopeless place”.
The song was a major worldwide success. It topped the US Billboard Hot 100 for ten non-consecutive weeks, becoming the longest running number-one single of 2011. The single also surpassed “Umbrella” and became Rihanna’s longest running number one single. It was the singer’s eleventh song to top the Hot 100, placing her in third place among female recording artists amassing the most number one singles. Outside of the United States, “We Found Love” topped the charts in 25 other countries, including Canada, New Zealand, France, Germany, the Republic of Ireland, Russia, Scotland, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. According to Billboard it is the 29th most successful single of all time in the US. As of 2015, the single has sold 10.5 million copies worldwide, thus being one of the best selling singles of all time.
The song’s accompanying music video, directed by Melina Matsoukas, depicts the singer as a drug-abusing thrill-seeker in a relationship that quickly spirals downward into addiction and domestic violence. The video won a Grammy Award for Best Music Video at the 55th Annual Grammy Awards and MTV Video Music Award for Video of the Year at the 2012 MTV Video Music Awards. The song has been performed on both the British and American versions of The X Factor, as well as at the 54th Annual Grammy Awards and the 2012 Brit Awards. Multiple recording artists have covered “We Found Love” including British artists Coldplay and Jessie J.
