Get that Michael Buble audience, GURL.
http://www1.billboard.biz/bbbiz/phot.../TFMm_0617.pdf
Rihanna: Here To ‘Stay’
Madonna did it. So did(more recently) fellow pop/dance divas like Fergie, Miley Cyrus and Katy Perry. Now Rihanna has, too. Like those singers, Rihanna’s career path to further crossover success reaches a notable milestone: “Stay,” featuring Mikky Ekko, marks her first top 10 on Billboard’s Nielsen BDS-based Adult Contemporary chart. (Earlier this month, the ballad likewise became her highest-charting entry on Adult Top 40, having reached No. 2.) In contrast, last month “Stay” became Rihanna’s record-setting 10th Mainstream Top 40 No. 1. She first arrived on the latter list eight years ago with the No. 2 dancehall-ready “Pon De Replay,” but she didn’t grace AC until three years later, when “Take a Bow” reached a No. 21 peak. Rihanna’s road to top 10 AC status follows those taken by other female soloists who arrived conquering top 40 but with songs that were far from AC-friendly (at the time, anyway). In 1983, Madonna blasted in with her No. 16-peaking debut Billboard Hot 100 hit, “Holiday.” But, with AC then being dominated by Christopher Cross, Barry Manilow and Barbra Streisand, the song never reached the AC chart. Madonna didn’t win all-out AC support until 1985, when her ballad “Crazy for You” reached No. 2. A year later, “Live to Tell” became her first of five AC No. 1s.In recent years, Fergie (“Big Girls Don’t Cry”; No. 1, six weeks, 2007) and Cyrus (“The Climb”; No. 1, 15 weeks, 2009) followed pop acceptance with ballads that led AC, while Perry’s No. 2-peaking “Wide Awake” earlier this year was a 180-degree turn from her debut pop smash, “I Kissed a Girl.” The ultimate benefits that acts reap from adding AC success after scoring at top 40? Reaching adult consumers, who are more affluent and, thus, more likely to buy their albums than younger pop P1s. AC hits can also have much longer shelf lives—by years—than pop-only titles, so a song like “Stay” might become an AC staple in a way that only a handful of pop hits do on top 40 radio. Essentially, “Stay” might be putting a song to the name Rihanna for adult listeners, who might not have been that familiar with her music. Now, she’s gaining that familiarity.So, while “Stay” has gone to recurrent status at many Mainstream Top 40 reporters, the song’s radio life span may be only beginning.