Stargate Explain The Creation Of Rihanna’s “Diamonds”

Stargate, the gentlemen behind Rihanna‘s biggest hits - try “Don’t Stop the Music,” and most recently, “Diamonds” - did a little interview with The Hollywood Reporter, where they discussed what it’s like to work with, y’know, everyone who matters in the music industry, and specifically Rihanna, the #UNAPOLOGETIC Bajan banger to rule them all. Predictably, there’s a story behind that hypnotic Sia-penned megahit - but it wasn’t conceived as a radio smash.

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As Stargate producer Tor Erik Hermansen explains: “When we wrote "Diamonds" with Benny Blanco…we collaborated with him for a couple of weeks trying to come up with material for Rihanna. And we were basically trying to come up with big records, and making big up-tempo pop records and then after a couple weeks of that, we just decided, ‘Today we're not trying to make a big hit record. Today we are going to make something that we love and that's a little bit darker, a little bit slower, and a little bit more emotional, and that's when we made the track for “Diamonds.”‘

But the radio-courting wasn’t central to the composition of that song: “A few days later Sia came in and wrote the lyrics,” Hermansen explained. “When we made that song we basically made it for ourselves. We didn't try to make a hit. The song goes out, and it becomes huge, and that becomes rewarding in a sense that when we feel something, the public feels it as well, and it's nice to be reminded of that.”

The process sounds pretty #UNAPOLOGETIC to us.

[via The Hollywood Reporter]