2010Released
3:55

Did You Know?

Interesting facts and trivia about Only Girl (In The World). By Songfacts®.

This club banger was the lead single from Rihanna's fifth album, Loud. It finds her yearning for her man to keep her at the center of his attention. "I want you to make me feel like I'm the only girl in the world," she sings.

The Norwegian production team Stargate (Tor Erik Hermansen and Mikkel Storleer Eriksen) wrote this with R&B songwriter Crystal Nicole, and with Sandy Vee, who co-produced Katy Perry's Firework." Rihanna loved the song, but so did Perry, who also wanted it. "We knew just from those two reactions that we had something special, but obviously it was a Rihanna song first, so she got it," Hermansen told Entertainment Weekly. "It was the easiest process ever with that song because it was brief. Rihanna recorded the song and put it out super fast. I think the secret to that one is the statement it makes in the chorus. This is as close to a diva moment as you'll get. It's modern in its sound, but it has that classic diva moment, where she's really belting and singing it out. You don't get a lot of those records." Eriksen added: "She killed it. And not to be too technical, but what makes the song a little bit different is the key change: The verse is in one key, and then it goes into a different key in the chorus. That's not a usual thing to do in dance music or pop music in general."

Rihanna was red hot in 2010 and "Only Girl (In The World)" seemed like a surefire #1 hit when it premiered on Ryan Seacrest's radio show September 7. But the song didn't shoot to the top as expected, so her label, Def Jam, put out the next single, her Drake collaboration "What's My Name?" which went to #1 on November 20. "Only Girl (In The World)" then made a resurgence and reached the top spot on December 4, in its 11th week on the chart. It was the first time in Hot 100 history that an album's debut single reached #1 after a chart-topping second release.

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Song Analysis

Key, BPM (tempo) and time signature of Only Girl (In The World).
BKey
MinorMode
4/4Time Signature
126BPM

Album

The album Only Girl (In The World) is released on.

Released By

The record label that has released Only Girl (In The World).
Def Jam Recordings
© 2010 The Island Def Jam Music Group
℗ 2010 The Island Def Jam Music Group

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