"This Is What You Came For" is a song by Scottish DJCalvin Harris and Barbadian singerRihanna. It was released on 29 April 2016, throughColumbia Records and Westbury Road and included on Harris' firstcompilation album,96 Months (2024). American singer-songwriterTaylor Swift, initially credited with thepseudonym Nils Sjöberg, wrote the song; Harris then produced withKuk Harrell. Rihanna and Harris had previously collaborated on her sixth studio album,Talk That Talk, which included the international chart-topper "We Found Love" and US top five single "Where Have You Been", the former of which was written and produced by Harris. He played the final version for Rihanna at the2016 Coachella Music Festival. It was also played at the2018 FIFA World Cup Final after the conclusion of the match.
The single debuted at number two on theUK Singles Chart. It peaked at number three on the USBillboard Hot 100, becoming Rihanna's 21st top-five song and Harris's second; the song is currently Harris's highest-peaking single as a lead artist in the US. It became Rihanna's 25th and Harris's fourth chart-topper on theDance Club Songs and also reached number one on the USHot Dance/Electronic Songs; the single became the 12th number one for Rihanna and Harris's tenth on the sister chartDance/Mix Show Airplay. It topped the charts in 12 countries including Australia, Canada and Ireland, and peaked within the top ten in France, Finland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, New Zealand and Switzerland. A music video for the song premiered on 17 June 2016 and features Rihanna in an open cube with images projected on the inside walls.
Taylor Swift (pictured in 2015) wrote the lyrics for "This Is What You Came For", but was initially credited under the pseudonym Nils Sjöberg. The song also features Swift's uncredited backing vocals.
Calvin Harris presented the final recording to Rihanna, two weeks prior to its release. During his performance atCoachella, Harris shared the song with Rihanna and her manager in her trailer. Harris stated that he was "nervous" to play her the song because he had "changed so many bits from when she first heard it."[3] The song was released on 29 April 2016. The song marks the pair's third collaboration, following the global chart-topper "We Found Love" and theBillboard Hot 100 top-five single "Where Have You Been", which are both featured on Rihanna's sixth studio album,Talk That Talk (2011).[4]
I think, when a pseudonym comes in is when you still have a love for making the work and you don't want the work to become overshadowed by this thing that's been built around you, based on what people know about you. And that's when it's really fun to create fake names and write under them. I wrote under the name Nils Sjöberg because those are two of the most popular names of Swedish males. I wrote this song called "This Is What You Came For" that Rihanna ended up singing. And nobody knew for a while. I remembered always hearing that whenPrince wrote "Manic Monday", they didn't reveal it for a couple of months.
Harris and Nils Sjöberg were credited as songwriters and producers. On 13 July 2016 however, TMZ reported that the track was written by Harris's then-girlfriend, American singer-songwriterTaylor Swift, who used the pseudonym Nils Sjöberg because they did not want their relationship to overshadow the song.[6][7] The track became a point of contention upon its release when Harris—in response to being asked about the possibility of collaborating with Swift during an interview withRyan Seacrest—said that he "can't see it happening."[6] Harris eventually confirmed on his Twitter account that Swift wrote the lyrics and contributed some background vocals, while he "wrote the music, produced the song, arranged it and cut [Rihanna's] vocals". He also confirmed Swift's previous request for secrecy as co-writer.[8] The credit has since been officially changed to "Taylor Swift" inBMI's andASCAP's entry for the song.[9][10]
On 1 March 2023, various unreleased songs of Swift'sleaked online, including her full original demo recording of "This Is What You Came For".[11]
"This is What You Came For" marks Rihanna's second collaboration with Harris, following 2011's "We Found Love".
"This Is What You Came For" is anEDM,dance-pop,house andeurodance song.[4][12][13] Gil Kaufman ofBillboard stated that the song is "a chilled-out, joyful club track that nods to classicChicago house from the late 1980s and early 1990s, but with a modern, poppier flavor."[4] The song is written in the key ofA minor with atempo of 124 beats per minute. The song follows a chord progression of Am–Fmaj7–G–C, and Rihanna's vocals span from G3 to E5, amounting to 2 different octaves.[14]
"This Is What You Came For" received generally positive reviews. Lary Barleet fromNME stated that "As it builds to a climax, he pulls it right back, eschewing theEDMdrop in favour of voguish and mellowtropical house. It will definitely be a hit, however by manipulating her voice so much he's stripped away the personality that made 'We Found Love' such a standout, and her latest albumAnti so compelling. The result is surprisingly soulless."[15] Robbie Daw from theIdolator gave the song a positive review, stating, "The song is pretty decentEuro-centric dance floor fodder. It's just a bit subdued-which might have been the correct decision; why attempt to top apop classic and fail when you can zig left, aiming for other territory altogether?"[13]
"This Is What You Came For" debuted at number two on theUK Singles Chart. The single debuted at number nine on the USBillboard Hot 100 and later peaked at number three on the chart, becoming Rihanna's 28th top ten hit in the US, Harris's fourth, while on the magazine'sDance/Mix Show Airplay it extended Rihanna's number-one streak on that chart to 12 (the most of any artist on that chart) and gave Harris his tenth (the most among male artists, but at the same time extended his most weeks at number one on the chart among artists to 73).[16] "This Is What You Came For" became Rihanna's 25th and Harris's fourth number one on theHot Dance Club Songs Chart, where it became the first song since 2013's "Wake Me Up" to stay at number one for two weeks.[17] As of October 2016, the single has sold 1.2 million copies in the United States.[18]
"This Is What You Came For" debuted at number one on theScottish Singles Chart, and peaked at number one in Australia, Canada and Ireland. The song also reached the top 10 in Germany, Ireland, New Zealand, Switzerland, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal and Slovakia. The song has reached the top 10 in all except three of the countries it has charted in.
The official music video for the song directed byEmil Nava with Director of Photography Martin Coppen, edited by Ellie Johnson and produced and projection mapped by Matt Brown, was released toYouTube on 16 June 2016. In it, a giant white box is shown sitting in a variety of places, such as a misty field and a forest. The scene then cuts to Rihanna, dressed in a sparkly blue jumpsuit, singing while standing and dancing inside the box. While she performs, graphics are projected onto all 5 sides around her. Lasers were the only other effects used with the video projections, and were provided by Dynamic FX. These include a variety of video effects and designs, footage of a crowd partying and running horses, and a drawing of a mountain with lightning over it. The video technology used for projections blended all angles of the backing video, so it would be displayed without skewing the image and allowing it to play back in a 3D environment. This new technology was being used for the first time on this video. This video also had many scenes and different cube designs cut from it, as the filming was cut short due to time constrains. Calvin Harris makes a brief cameo appearance in the video, driving a sports car (Lamborghini Aventador).[19] As the video ends, Rihanna walks outside, revealing the box has been set up on a dark, deserted soundstage. Two months after its release, the video reached 500 million views, and on 29 November 2016, the video reached one billion views. As of September 2025, it has reached 2.8 billion views, and isthe site's 66th most viewed video.[20]
Swift performed "This is What You Came For" on thepiano for the first time live at theUnited States Grand Prix inAustin, Texas, on 22 October 2016.[21] She sang the track with anacoustic guitar at the DirecTV Super Saturday Night inHouston, Texas, on 4 February 2017.[22] Swift performed it as part of a mashup with her song "Gold Rush" (2020) at Liverpool of herEras Tour on 14 June 2024.[23]
^"Rankings" (in Spanish).CAPIF.Archived from the original on 19 August 2017. Retrieved20 January 2017.To view the peak position, selectdigital mensual,2016 andJulio.
^"Top 100 Colombia". Archived from the original on 16 January 2017. Retrieved30 December 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link). national-report.com Retrieved 2017-02-04
^"ČNS IFPI" (in Czech). Hitparáda – Radio Top 100 Oficiální. IFPI Czech Republic.Note: Select 35. týden 2016 in the date selector. Retrieved 5 September 2016.
^"ČNS IFPI" (in Czech). Hitparáda – Digital Top 100 Oficiální. IFPI Czech Republic.Note: Select 20. týden 2016 in the date selector. Retrieved 24 May 2016.
^"ČNS IFPI" (in Slovak). Hitparáda – Radio Top 100 Oficiálna. IFPI Czech Republic.Note: insert 201626 into search. Retrieved 4 July 2016.
^"ČNS IFPI" (in Slovak). Hitparáda – Singles Digital Top 100 Oficiálna. IFPI Czech Republic.Note: Select SINGLES DIGITAL - TOP 100 and insert 201627 into search. Retrieved 11 July 2016.
^"Dutch charts portal" (in Dutch). Mega Single Top 100. Hung Medien.Archived from the original on 24 December 2016. Retrieved23 December 2016.
^"Top Selling Singles of 2016".The Official NZ Music Charts. Recorded Music NZ.Archived from the original on 24 December 2016. Retrieved23 December 2016.
