Umbrella (song)

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"Umbrella"
Song

"Umbrella" is a pop song written by Terius "The Dream" Nash, Christopher Stewart, Thaddis "Kuk" Harrell and Jay-Z for Rihanna's third studio album, Good Girl Gone Bad (2007). Featuring vocals by co-writer Jay-Z, it was released as the album's lead single during the second quarter of 2007 (see 2007 in music). "Umbrella" is recognized as the most successful song of 2007 on the United World Chart, gaining more than 8,687,000 points.[1] It has been announced as the 6th most successful song of the last decade,[2] winning a Grammy Award for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration in addition to receiving nominations for Record of the Year and Song of the Year.

Following an incredibly successful chart run around the world and a warm reception from music critics, the song achieved #1 on Entertainment Weekly's list of the "Ten Best Singles of 2007",[3] as well as #3 on Rolling Stone's list of the 100 Best Songs of 2007.[4] It was also named Song of the Year in Blender Magazine's Readers' Poll 2007.[5]

Background and writing

The music was written by Christopher "Tricky" Stewart and Thaddis "Kuk" Harrell and the lyrics and melody were written by Terius "The Dream" Nash with the rap intro written and performed by Jay-Z. The song was produced by Stewart with vocal production by Harrell.[6]

"Umbrella" was not originally written for Rihanna. Christopher "Tricky" Stewart composed the song in 2007, with American pop singer Britney Spears in mind. Her label rejected the song, claiming to have a suitable amount of songs to work with for her future album Blackout, while also Spears having professional difficulties at the time.[7]

Concurrent to the event was the Grammy season of 2007. Stewart and Terius "The Dream" Nash decided to pass the song onto Mary J. Blige, and also L.A. Reid, the then-CEO of Island Def Jam, Rihanna's label.[7] Blige however, was unable to hear the song in full due to her obligations to the Grammys at the time. [8][7] Def Jam representatives remained eager to secure the song for Rihanna, the writers themselves still awaiting a response from Blige.[7] Reid and his team incessantly called them in the entire Grammy weekend to the extent they finally gave them the record.[7]

When she recorded the 'ellas,' you knew it was about to be the jump-off and your life was about to change if you had anything to do with that record.

Stewart confessed he was still reluctant as to whether Rihanna was the right artist to record the song, but following the addition of the "ella, ella" refrain into the track, he felt they were onto "something".[7]

Following Rihanna's recording, Def Jam CEO-rapper Jay-Z added his rap, and then a different verse. Before Stewart and Nash settled on the original rap composed by Jay-Z, he changed it without informing the songwriters. Stewart, however, noted that "from a songwriter's standpoint, he just really made it more about the song, with the metaphors about umbrellas and about the weather versus what he had before."[7]

Single release and promotion

In many parts of the United States, the single was released on March 28, 2007,[9] although its official release date was the following day.[10] The song premiered on the New York radio station Hot 97 and on Rihanna's official website on March 29 at 5:00pm EST.

"Umbrella" premiered on UK radio station BBC Radio 1 on the Scott Mills show and was released digitally in Britain on May 14, 2007, its physical release following two weeks later by which point the song was already #1.

Rihanna made formal appearances all over the United Kingdom prior and following the release of the single. She also debuted three new tracks in Preston at the BBC Radio One One Big Weekend event. At another promotional concert, she performed "Umbrella", "Shut Up and Drive" and "Breakin' Dishes". Rihanna performed "Umbrella" at the MTV Movie Awards 2007. In Germany, she performed the song exclusively at Viva Live, and at the 42nd edition of the chart show The Dome. "Umbrella" was also performed on Live Earth, GMTV, Loose Women, Blue Peter, Kiss Concert 2007, Sprint Concert, Zoopotia Show, Stripped Show, Canadian Idol, 106 & Park and The View.

Reception

Andy Kellman of All Music Guide commented: "'Umbrella,' is her best to date, delivering mammoth if spacious drums, a towering backdrop during the chorus, and vocals that are somehow totally convincing without sounding all that impassioned — an ideal spot between trying too hard and boredom, like she might've been on her 20th take, which only adds to the song's charm."[11]

Chart performance

The popularity and positive critical reception to "Umbrella" ensured the song was a commercial success. Coupled with relentlessly strong airplay of both the promotional video and indeed the song itself for the time surrounding its impressive chart run around the world, "Umbrella" was to become Rihanna's biggest hit.

Prior to its physical release, "Umbrella" achieved the biggest debut in the six-year history of the iTunes Music Store, breaking a previous record held by Shakira and Wyclef Jean’s "Hips Don't Lie". As a digital single, "Umbrella" topped the iTunes Store singles chart in more than 16 different countries around the world.

On the issue dated June 9, 2007, "Umbrella" topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart after a rising from the #41 position to the top, a jump of forty places, going on to spend a total of seven consecutive weeks at the top of the chart. The track was downloaded a total of 277,000 times in the United States alone, the highest debut-week sum since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking downloads in 2003. On the Billboard year end chart, "Umbrella" was ranked at #2, only behind Beyonce's "Irreplaceable".[12] Furthermore, total digital sales of the song stand at a reputable 2.46 million.[13] "Umbrella" was Rihanna’s second number-one single (after "SOS"), and both songs have records for two of the biggest jumps to number one on the Hot 100 chart. In correspondence with this, the song spent a total of four weeks at #1 in Canada, where it became the first song to top the recently debuted Canadian Hot 100 chart.

This success was exceeded abroad when "Umbrella" topped the UK Singles Chart in May 2007, remaing at #1 for a total of ten consecutive weeks. Such achievement makes it the longest chart topper of the 21st century and since "Love Is All Around" by Wet Wet Wet topped the charts in 1994. Following its successful run at #1, the song dropped to #2, replaced in July 2007 by Timbaland's "The Way I Are". "Umbrella" has been announced the second biggest selling single of 2007 in the UK behind Leona Lewis' "Bleeding Love". It has since re-entered the UK Top 40 at #38, before climbing to #18 the week of December 30, 2007 and maintains its steady run in the chart. "Umbrella" became the first song by a female artist to debut at #1 on the official UK Singles Chart based solely upon digital sales. Rihanna also became the seventh artist in UK history to score a tenth week at the top of the chart.[14] Overall sales of "Umbrella" (as of November 2007), stand at just over 473,000, being certified Gold by the BPI.

As well as topping the charts in the UK, "Umbrella" was a similar success throughout Europe, also reaching #1 in Ireland, Spain, Poland, Sweden, Belgium, Austria, Norway, Italy, Portugal, Romania, Germany and Spain.

In Australia "Umbrella" entered the Australian ARIA singles chart at #1, spent six consecutive weeks at the top, and was certified Platinum by ARIA. It re-entered the top 50 in its 26th week at the position of #46, ending the year as 2007's 3rd biggest seller.[15][16] In New Zealand, "Umbrella" reached #1 on the New Zealand RIANZ singles chart and remained there for six consecutive weeks, ending 2007 as the years biggest seller.

"Umbrella" is considered Rihanna's breakthrough single in many worldwide markets due to the fact it achieved considerable success in countries where her previous singles had not even charted. It did, for example, become a #1 hit in most of the Hispanic American countries, and in some Eastern European territories.

Due to its success in worldwide markets, "Umbrella" reached #1 on the United World Chart, remaining for for 10 consecutive weeks and gaining 8.3 million points thus far. It ended the year as the most successful song of 2007, beating close competition from similar success story "Say It Right" by Nelly Furtado.

Music video

File:UmbrellaVideo(G3).PNG
Rihanna in the music video for "Umbrella"

While working on the album, ideas had already began to circulate concerning Rihanna's image, extending into her music videos. She asked American music video director Chris Applebaum, who had previously worked with artists such as Kid Rock and Madonna, to send her "something" to work with. Def Jam representatives were expecting Applebaum to the treatment.[17]

In response, Applebaum hurriedly conceptualized the video, one of his first ideas being the silver body paint that Rihanna is seen in. Applebaum was doubtful whether Rihanna would embrace the idea, but her positive response following a letter the director sent to the artist ensured its approval. Makeup artist Pamela Neal mixed a paint that would give Rihanna such a look. During the session, the paint was re-applied between takes to ensure she was completely covered. The set was closed to Rihanna, Applebaum and a camera assistant.[17] Rihanna also contributed her own ideas towards the video shoot, suggesting to Applebaum that she dance en-pointe, an idea which he accepted.[17]

The final cut of the video premiered at on April 26, 2007 at Thisisrihanna.com. Downloads were made available for those in the U.S. only from the website for a limited time. The video was officially released on the iTunes Store on May 11, 2007, peaking at #1 for a period 8 weeks. On May 14, 2007, the "Umbrella" video debuted on BET’s 106 & Park at #9 before achieving its peak of #4. It was Rihanna’s first video to chart on the countdown since her debut single "Pon de Replay" in 2005. On May 1, 2007, "Umbrella" debuted on MTV’s Total Request Live at #10, before reaching #1 on May 9 where it remained for fifteen days, making it the longest running #1 of 2007. "Umbrella" has been announced as being the most played video ever on Polish music channel MTV Poland, beating previous record holder Madonna’s "Hung Up". Such was the success of the promotional video that it was also nominated for five awards at the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards, including "Female Artist of the Year", "Video of the Year" and "Monster Single of the Year", going on to win the latter two.[18] As of 26 February 2008, the music video for "Umbrella" has been viewed over 30,000,000 times on popular video-sharing website YouTube.

Other versions

"Cinderella"

Chris Brown contributed his own written vocals to the song's second verse, chorus and bridge in an answer song entitled "Cinderella", which was released to radio stations on June 12, 2007, the remix achieving notable success on U.S. R&B stations for a time. Brown uses the auto-tune effect on his voice, made popular by T-Pain.

Acoustic version

Rihanna recently went back into the studio and recorded an acoustic version of the song with a new arrangement and some added lyrics[19] and has since released the song as a bonus track to "Good Girl Gone Bad" on the iTunes Music Store

Notable remixes

Cover versions and parodies

  • Gay singer/song writer Eric Himan performs a version of this song, however it is not available for release yet.
  • Indie singer-songwriter Scott Simons released a version of "Umbrella" on Myspace and his website which soon became an internet favorite and received radio play on several stations in the U.S. and overseas.[22]
  • Pop singer and actress Mandy Moore performed her own version of the song in a slower, more ballad-like arrangement. Moore stated that while she is not the biggest fan of pop music, "...you just can't deny how melodic this song is."[23]
  • The Italian pop punk band Vanilla Sky recorded "Umbrella" for an exclusive on their MySpace in September 2007, receiving over 30,000 plays in its first week online.[25] The music video has also been shown on VH1e.
  • Swedish metal band Lillasyster made a hard metal version of Umbrella and also a video for their version of the song under Gain Music Entertainment. This version of the song has received a lot of attention in Sweden, Norway, Germany and even in Thailand, and went on Swedish national radio in September 2007 and received radio play on several stations in Sweden. The video is due to be released on October 10th on Myspace, Lillasyster's website and MTV and Swedish MTV did a piece on the making of the video which was aired October 3 and October 7.[26]
  • Welsh rock band Manic Street Preachers cover of the song appears on a CD given away with a February 2008 special souvenir box set issue of the British music magazine NME. Additionally, their version will be available on iTunes from 5th March 2008 [3].
  • Irish/English Freakfolk artist Patrick Wolf performed a cover version of the song at the Lowlands festival in the Netherlands in 2007.
  • Starsailor covered the song while playing their song "Fidelity" on their Latin American tour.
  • The Mint Chicks performed covered this song on New Zealand television show.
  • The Axis of Awesome parodied this song in two videos for the 2007 Australian Federal Election, presented by the Sydney Morning Herald. In both videos, ex-federal treasurer Peter Costello is seen playing piano and rhyming to "Peter Costello" instead of "Umbrella"
  • The Brazilian singer Pitty also covered it in a few live concerts.
  • New York Group Push Play covered the song at their CD Release Party on December 22,2007 at Irving Plaza.[28]
  • Taylor Swift performed this acoustic, which is for download on itunes.
  • McFly recorded a rock cover, released as a B-Side on their 2007 single "The Heart Never Lies". They also performed it on their Greatest Hits Tour in 2007.
  • Grammy Award winners Keith Urban and Carrie Underwood performed this song as a duet in 2008 during the Love, Pain and the whole crazy Carnival Ride tour.
  • Nerdcore artist Shael Riley did an acoustic cover of the song which was posted on his Myspace.

Reported coincidence with weather

The song's reign at number-one in Britain occurred as the UK was hit by extreme rainfall and flooding, which led some people to jokingly suggest the two events were related, the media referring to it as the "Rihanna Curse". Interestingly, the precise day the song was knocked from the #1 position by Timbaland, the weather seemed to improve. A similar situation occurred in New Zealand, where the song hit #1 in the early winter of 2007 as the country was experiencing some of the worst storms in its history.[30] In Greece, "Umbrella" was released at a time when people were suffering through a summer of several major heatwaves topping 47C/117F, and the worst forest fires of modern history, killing 60 people. When the song peaked at #4 in the Greek singles chart in October 2007, the country experienced significant rainfall. Spain also experienced one of its wettest summers in decades, and the coldest August since the beginning of the 20th century during "Umbrella"'s chart run.

Charts

Year End Charts

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