Rihanna – Where Have You Been

Recorded At 3 AM Between Tour Stops, She Ended Up On An IV Drip

Rihanna released “Where Have You Been” on April 17, 2012, as the fifth US and third international single from her sixth studio album Talk That Talk. The song peaked at number five on the Billboard Hot 100 in July 2012, spending 31 weeks on the chart and becoming Rihanna’s 22nd top ten entry. In the UK, it reached number six and topped the UK Dance Chart—her third number one on that chart following “Who’s That Chick?” with David Guetta and “We Found Love” with Calvin Harris. The track also hit number one in Mexico and Israel, reached the top five in France, Denmark, and New Zealand, and sold over four million copies in the US alone. What nobody knew at the time was that Rihanna had recorded the album while simultaneously performing two-hour stadium shows every night—finishing meet-and-greets at one AM, then heading to portable studios set up in hotel rooms until dawn.

The single topped the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart and peaked at number three on Pop Songs. Internationally, it reached number two in France and Israel, number four in Denmark and New Zealand, and number eight in Ireland and Norway. The Talk That Talk album debuted at number three on the Billboard 200 with 198,000 first-week sales, eventually earning triple-platinum certification. The album produced six singles, with lead single “We Found Love” becoming Rihanna’s eleventh number-one hit. By the time “Where Have You Been” was released, Rihanna had already tied with Janet Jackson and Mariah Carey with 27 top ten entries on the Hot 100—she would eventually surpass both.

The song interpolates Geoff Mack’s 1959 country classic “I’ve Been Everywhere,” flipping its wandering theme into a tale of romantic longing and sexual desire. Ester Dean wrote the lyrics alongside producers Dr. Luke, Cirkut, and Calvin Harris. Dean had contributed to eight tracks on Talk That Talk, establishing herself as one of Rihanna’s most important collaborators. The lyrics speak plainly about a woman searching for someone to please her all night long—”I’ve been everywhere, man, looking for someone / Someone who can please me, love me all night long.” Critics likened it to the album’s lead single “We Found Love,” praising the track’s infectious energy and what Billboard called a “filthy, fantastic” bass drop that made it club-ready. The song runs 4 minutes and 3 seconds in the key of C minor at 128 beats per minute, with Rihanna’s vocals ranging from B♭3 to C5.

The album was recorded in more than 25 cities during the Loud Tour between February and November 2011, primarily at Eightysevenfourteen Studios and Eyeknowasecret Studio in Los Angeles. Vocal producer Kuk Harrell explained the insane schedule: Rihanna would perform, finish meet-and-greets around one AM, then head to the studio at two or three AM. “I’d make the decision based off where I felt her voice was,” Harrell said. “Knowing she just did two hours of a show and meet-and-greets, I would suggest capturing the stuff that was easier to get like the lower-range stuff so we wouldn’t hurt or damage her voice.” In May 2012, Rihanna admitted she’d suffered from exhaustion during recording, crying one morning after finally getting off an IV drip: “This is the craziest schedule I’ve ever been on in my entire life.” She finished the album at 5 PM the day before it was due.

Talk That Talk marked a sonic evolution for Rihanna—the album incorporated dance-pop, electro house, R&B, hip hop, and dubstep. Released November 18, 2011, on Def Jam Recordings, it followed her successful Loud album from 2010. The album peaked at number one in Austria, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom, where it sold 163,000 copies in its first week. As of March 2013, Talk That Talk had sold over 5.5 million copies worldwide. Beyond “Where Have You Been,” the album spawned hits including “You da One,” the Jay-Z collaboration “Talk That Talk,” and the controversial Chris Brown remix of “Birthday Cake.”

The music video, directed by Dave Meyers and filmed March 7-9, 2012, in Los Angeles, became a cultural phenomenon. It featured choreography by Nadine “Hi-Hat” Ruffin—the first time Rihanna had committed to extensive choreography in a video. “I was never gonna shoot this video if I couldn’t do the choreography because it would be pretty pointless. It would be disappointing,” Rihanna explained. The video depicts her emerging from a swamp as a reptilian water creature, dancing in an Egyptian desert, channeling Hindu god Shiva with multiple arms, and performing tribal-inspired routines in various exotic settings. It received 4.93 million views in its first 24 hours—a Vevo record at the time—and earned MTV VMA nominations for Best Choreography and Best Visual Effects. By November 2025, it had exceeded 788 million views on YouTube.

For a song recorded between tour stops on virtually no sleep, “Where Have You Been” became one of Rihanna’s most enduring club hits. The track surpassed one billion streams on Spotify in 2025, becoming her 17th song to reach that milestone. It experienced a TikTok-fueled resurgence in the 2020s, with dance challenges introducing it to a new generation. Rihanna performed it at Radio 1’s Hackney Weekend with a giant sphinx onstage, on Saturday Night Live with Arabian-inspired choreography, and during her legendary 2023 Super Bowl LVII halftime show in a medley with “Only Girl (In the World).” The song that nearly broke her became proof that sometimes the best work happens when you’re pushed past your limits—even if it takes an IV drip to get you there.