One of them smells like roses and the incense of the gods; the other smells like man-sweat and a freshly smoked joint. One of them was plucked from Barbados and primed to be a star on urban radio until—oops!—pop superstardom interfered; the other has been bouncing around the music industry since the age of 16, finally breaking through at 30 years young. Neither of them, despite swirling rumors, has been making romantic visits to Shia LaBeouf on the set of Indiana Jones IV. Both of them, despite very different paths to success, had massive hits this year.

The story of Rihanna and Robin Thicke is very much the story of two songs: “Umbrella” and “Lost Without U,” two ubiquitous tunes that are more than just bubblegum. Deejays and veejays played both of them relentlessly, but we never got sugar sick. Rihanna says that when she first listened to the songwriter’s demo of “Umbrella,” she thought it sounded a little weird. “Then I got to the part that everybody loves,” she says, before singing the syllables of the summer: “Ella, ella, eh, eh, eh. I said, ‘Oh, my God, I have to have this.’ ” A couple of months and one Jay-Z guest verse later, and half the world was going through the exact same process: First, “This is weird.” Then, “Oh, my God! Ella, ella, eh, eh, eh!” And finally, “I have to have this song.”

The story behind Robin Thicke’s tender R&B ballad “Lost Without U,” which he wrote back in 2004, is a little more complicated. “The first time Pharrell heard the song, he said it was a smash,” Thicke says. “The first time Bono heard it, he said it was an incredible smash. But it still took three and a half years for anybody else to hear it.”

Although Thicke has earned his “I told you so” attitude, he’s not playing every angle of his success. “If I were just looking for money or fame, I could take all these offers that I’ve been turning down,” he says. “All the commercial tie-ins with cheeseburgers.” Rihanna, on the other hand, has capitalized on every opportunity. This year she transcended her old Beyoncé-lite look and emerged as a fashion icon and sex symbol. “I was like, ‘I’m cutting my hair. I’m dying it black,’ ” she says. “I don’t want to be the one with long blond hair that people expect. I hate the expected.” She wound up on the gossip hit list, and photos popped up of her walking her toy dog, looking ferocious in a short skirt or painted-on leather pants, accompanied by reports of her publicly making out with Josh Hartnett. She also launched major ad campaigns and was honored by Gillette Venus for having this year’s Celebrity Legs of a Goddess. As part of the honor, the company insured her legs for a cool million. At first, she says, she thought it was a little weird source.