"Disturbia" is a synthpop song from the re-release of Rihanna's third album, Good Girl Gone Bad: Reloaded. It is the third single from the re-release, following "Take a Bow" and "If I Never See Your Face Again". The song was written by Andre Merritt, Chris Brown, and Robert Allen, and produced by Brian Kennedy; it has background vocals by Brown and Merritt. The song received a nomination for "Best Dance Recording" for the 51st Grammy Awards. Pop-punk band The Cab covered the song for the compilation album Punk Goes Pop 2.

"Disturbia" is a moderately fast dance groove composed in the key of B minor with 124 beats per minute. The tempo is set in common time. Rihanna's vocal range spans from D to E ₅. Auto-Tune effects are used throughout the song on Rihanna's vocal tracks.

The song was originally written by Chris Brown and his team known as the Graffiti Artizts and was considered for the re-release of his album Exclusive. Despite the identical title, the song is unrelated to the 2007 suspense film Disturbia. After finishing the song, Brown felt that it would be better suited for a female singer; he then forwarded it to Rihanna. Def Jam had considered saving the track for Rihanna's next album in 2009, because she had already recorded "Take a Bow" for the re-release of Good Girl Gone Bad. However, Rihanna and her team felt that the song was a summer single and needed to be recorded and released as soon as possible. The decision was finally made to release the song as the follow up to "Take a Bow". On September 7, 2008, Rihanna opened the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards with a live performance of the song.

Reviews for the song were generally positive, and many commented on its contention as a summer hit. The song has received positive reviews: Rolling Stonecalled Disturbiaan "awesomely creepy synth-pop mindfunk", ranking it #11 in their Best of 2008special on Singles of the Year. Josh Tyrangiel, with TIMEmagazine, commented on the song's "rubber-ball melodies that bounce around your head" but confessed that "'Disturbia' ingratiates itself by not trying to be more than the silly piece of product that it is." It was a big hit around the world.

On June 26, 2008, "Disturbia" debuted at number eighteen on the BillboardHot 100, becoming Rihanna's highest debut on the chart to date, as well as her sixth top twenty from Good Girl Gone Bad. The next week, the song rose to the eleventh position, but experienced a drop to fifteen the week after, staying there for two additional weeks. However, the next week after the release of the video and a massive increase in sales and radio, the song jumped to number four, making Rihanna the seventh female singer (Madonna, Whitney Houston, Donna Summer, Mariah Carey, Beyonce, and Ashanti being the other six) to have two songs in the top five concurrently, as her previous single, "Take a Bow", was at number two that same week. It is also her sixth Top 5 single on the Billboard Hot 100. The following week, the song reached number three, surpassing her other hit single, "Take a Bow". For the chart week of August 23, 2008, "Disturbia" knocked out Katy Perry's "I Kissed a Girl" to become Rihanna's fourth number one hit on the Hot 100 and held on the top spot for the week ending 30 August. It is her third number one from Good Girl Gone Bad: Reloaded, following "Umbrella" and "Take a Bow", staying at number one for two weeks. On July 29, 2008, "Disturbia" jumped to number two on the BillboardHot Digital Songs chart, topping it in the following week. "Disturbia" then jumped to number one on BillboardHot Digital Songs chart. Coincidentally, on both charts "Disturbia" has peaked on, it knocked off Katy Perry's single "I Kissed a Girl" from number one. On the issue date September 6, 2008 the song was knocked off by "Whatever You Like" by T.I.. It has also topped the Pop 100 chart knocking off Chris Brown's "Forever" from the top spot. It again reclaimed the top spot after being moved to number 2 by "Forever" for a week. For the Billboard issue dated 13 September, "Disturbia" topped both the Hot Dance Club Play and Hot Dance Airplay charts. Rihanna tied with Madonna for the most number of Dance Airplay hits, with a total of six, which was later broken by Madonna when her single "Miles Away" became her seventh number one dance airplay hit. As of 19 December, Disturbia has been certified 3x platinum for over 3,000,000 digital sales by the RIAA. As of February 27, 2009 the single has spent over 36 weeks inside the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Rihanna's longest lasting Hot 100 hit. It is Rihanna's first song to go triple-platinum, and is therefore her biggest selling single worldwide.

In the United Kingdom, "Disturbia" debuted on the UK Singles Chart at number forty-seven due to digital sales. After the release of the music video, the song re-entered the chart at number forty-seven again and climbed to number thirty-four and number nine in the proceeding weeks. The song peaked at number three, from digital only sales giving Rihanna her eighth British top ten single. Although "Disturbia" hasn't and will not receive a physical release the song rose back up the charts from number 5 to number 3. It spent 11 weeks in the UK Top 10 singles chart and held the record for the biggest selling download only single selling over 300,000 downloads. The record was then beaten by Leona Lewis with her single "Run," but was beaten in December 2008, by Alexandra Burke for the single "Hallelujah." All in all "Disturbia" was a huge success in the UK, and is likely to have reached #1 if it were released in physical format also. It is Rihanna's third longest charting single in the UK where it has spent 36 weeks in the top 100, only being passed by two extra weeks by "Don't Stop the Music" and a further 33 weeks with her massive hit "Umbrella". "Disturbia" finished as the 13th best selling single of 2008, one place above her number 1 hit "Take a Bow". In Spain, "Disturbia" topped the charts of the most popular radio station, while in the official Spanish Singles Chart peaked at number ten and achieved Platinum with sales over 40,000.The song was also a massive hit in Ireland where it peaked at number four for six consecutive weeks and became the 18th best selling single of the year, surpassing a number of top three hits. In Switzerland, the song peaked at number eight on downloads alone. On the Canadian Hot 100, the song has peaked at number two for five weeks. In New Zealand, "Disturbia" became Rihanna's third number one single, and her first since "Umbrella". It is her fourth top five hit, and fifth top ten hit there from Good Girl Gone Bad, since "Hate That I Love You" peaked at number six. It was certified Platinum on August 23, 2009, selling over 15,000 copies. In Australia, it has climbed to number six. The song was the most added song to Australian radio in its first week of major radio release. It was certified Gold on downloads alone before the physical release several weeks later, when it was subsequently certified Platinum. "Disturbia" topped the Turkey Top 20 chart for nine consecutive weeks, the longest running number one in 2008 on the chart. On December 28, 2008, the UK Singles Chart listed this as #18 for the end of the year chart show. On January 7, 2010, UK music channel Smashhits listed "Disturbia" at #3 on "Rihanna: Ultimate 10".

The video for "Disturbia" was filmed on June 29, 2008 and was co-directed by Anthony Mandler, along with Rihanna herself. After 2007's "Don't Stop The Music," this is Rihanna's second video, that she directed herself. The video was choreographed by Rihanna's long time choreographer, Tina Landon, who is best known for her work with Janet Jackson. The "Disturbia" video was released exclusively on iTunes for a 48-hour period. It debuted on MTV's TRLand BET’s 106 and Parkand MuchOnDemand on July 24, 2008 and on VH1 on July 26. It debuted in the UK on August 1, but in the rest of Europe the video debuted on September 8, receiving immediately High Rotation on MTV. It peaked at #1 on TRLand MuchOnDemand. The video begins in a surrealistic torture chamber where Rihanna is seen smoking and beside a piano. As the song starts Rihanna is seen encaged wearing lenses covering her eyes, which make her look as if her eyes have rolled into the back of her head. Scenes are interspersed with Rihanna sitting in a gas-chamber like room and wearing a feathered headdress. Later on she is seen tied to a chair struggling. At the bridge of the song she performs a Thriller-esque dance routine. As of September 20, 2009 the official video had been viewed more than 49 million times on YouTube, with almost another 40 million views through duplicate music videos.

Rihanna used "Disturbia" as the first performance of the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards immediately following Britney Spears' opening speech. The format of the music video was partially preserved, with the zombie dancers present with light staffs. The performance was mixed with samples from 'Sweet Dreams' by the Eurythmics, and contained a rock solo break from the White Stripes song Seven Nation Army. Deleted scenes from the video were projected behind the singer.

Subsequently, Rihanna was interviewed on GMTVand performed the song again, as well as on For One Night Only, This Morning, and Star Academy France. Following her performance on Star Academy France, the album soared from #43 to #11 having a sales increase of 211%, peaking at #8 the following week, becoming Rihanna's first album to reach the top 10 in France.