If Rihanna's "Diamonds" sounds like it was written in less than 15 minutes, that's because it was: Speaking to the New York Times, songwriter Sia Furler revealed she wrote the track -- with its repeated chorus ("Shine bright like a diamond") -- in just 14 minutes.
In an interview with HuffPost Entertainment in 2012, producer Benny Blanco said that "Diamonds" happened "overnight."
"We're sitting there trying to make records, and we finally just said, 'Let's just do something we like. Let's make a hip-hop record with some really cool chords on it,'" he recalled. "It didn't sound Rihanna at all. We were more thinking of making a record that sounds like Kanye. Let's make a record with a dope beat. So we did. Then Sia heard the track and instantly gravitated towards it. We weren't even thinking of putting a pop song on it, but she wrote this amazing song."
As relayed to the Times, Sia recorded a version of "Diamonds," one that Rihanna followed to the letter when she sang the track for her album.
“I literally punched him in the arm. I thought Benny was playing a trick on me," Sia told the Times. "[Rihanna] could’ve done it her own way, but I think she really genuinely liked the way it was."
Listen to Sia sing "Diamonds" below; Rihanna's release is above.
[via NYT/The 6th Floor]