The Top 10 Everything of 2009

On Feb. 8, Rihanna was scheduled to perform the opening number at the Grammy Awards. She never made it to the event. The night before, then boyfriend Chris Brown was driving her to their hotel following a party when he received a text message from another woman. Rihanna challenged him, and a physical altercation ensued. "I was battered, I was bleeding, I was swollen in my face," she later told Diane Sawyer. The "Umbrella" singer went into seclusion with her family in her native Barbados but soon reconciled with her abuser. After realizing that other battered women may follow her example, she decided to leave Brown for good. "Even if Chris doesn't hit me again, who's to say [these men] won't kill these girls [in similar situations]?" she said. "That's not what I want to teach people." In June, Brown pled guilty to felony assault. He's serving five years of probation, has attended domestic violence counseling and has been ordered to stay 50 yards away from Rihanna (10 yards if they are attending the same industry event) until 2014.