Top Artist Finalists: Rihanna

There's nothing that makes a pop star irresistible like some actual edge-and Rihanna cuts through the competition like a candy-coated switchblade. "Trends are boring," she says. "It's boring to see everyone doing the same thing." No one's yawning at RiRi: In the past year, the beautiful Barbadian diva has proven beguilingly unpredictable. Who could forget her confession this year that she's sexually submissive, a theme emphasized in the hook to her controversial single "S&M": "I may be bad, but I'm perfectly good at it/ Sex in the air, I don't care, I love the smell of it/ Sticks and stones may break my bones, but chains and whips excite me." Whew.

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Photo Gallery: Rihanna's Fashion Evolution

Then she discovered Twitter: speaking her mind online sparked a catty tweet smackdown with R&B singer Ciara. They made up, but Rihanna's outspokenness didn't stop. "No more corny label tweets!" she exclaimed. "I just got on there and started talking." And of course, there is Rihanna's surprising reason for reducing the limits of her restraining order against physically abusive ex-boyfriend Chris Brown. "I just didn't want to make it more difficult for him professionally. What he did was a personal thing," she told Rolling Stone.

"It had nothing to do with his career. Saying he has to be a hundred feet away from me, he can't perform at awards shows-that definitely made it difficult for him...[But] it doesn't mean we're gonna make up, or even talk again."

Rihanna faces controversy head on, no apologies: her duet with Eminem, "Love the Way You Lie," seems to openly confront the issues inherent in an abusive relationship like the one she had with Brown. On the one hand, it's raw. On the other, it's impossible to look away-and the combination proved compelling: "Love the Way You Lie" was an international pop-cultural phenomenon, and helped solidify Eminem's career comeback. "It's kind of like the closing to that chapter, and now we're in a new stage," she explains.

NEXT: What's Upcoming for Rihanna