Umbrella (Lied)

Vorlage:CurrentSingles Vorlage:Infobox Single "Umbrella" is a song written by Terius "The Dream" Nash, Rihanna and rapper Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter for Rihanna's third studio album, Good Girl Gone Bad.

Background and single release

According to producer Terius Nash, the song was offered to many labels before being recorded by Rihanna. Artists Mary J. Blige and Akon are both rumoured to have passed on the song, before Karen Kwak at Universal contacted Antonio "L.A" Reid.

In many parts of the U.S. the single was released on March 28, 2007, although its proper release date was March 29, 2007. The song premiered on the New York radio station Hot 97 and on her official website on March 29 at 5:00pm EST. The song has already received heavy rotation in several major markets.

It premiered on UK radio station BBC Radio 1 on the Scott Mills show. In the UK, the song was released digitally on May 14 2007 with the physical CD release on May 28 2007, two weeks before the album is released.

Many major radio stations in Los Angeles, Boston, New York City have played versions of the song that either shortened or completely removed Jay-Z's rap from the song. On the issue dated March 28, 2007 the single debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 at number ninety-one.

To date, the song has received mostly positive reviews. It will be performed at the 2007 MTV Movie Awards.

On the day of the digital release in the US it debuted at #1 on iTunes overall sales and R&B charts, surpasing the top song Makes Me Wonder by Maroon 5. It is highly expected that the single will jump to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 due to the amount of digital downloads that have already been sold.

"Umbrella" became the first song by a female artist to debut at number one on The Official UK Singles Chart solely on download sales, and only the second single overall to debut at that postion without a physical release (after "Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley). It is however the third single to become #1 on downloads alone ("Grace Kelly" by Mika being the other track to achieve this feat). The song entered the charts at number one on May 20 2007 selling 34,164 downloads that week. This also made Rihanna achieve her first UK number one single. It increased its sales to 38,482 in its second download only week (the highest number of downloads ever sold in any one week since the charts began), taking its two-week total up to 72,646.

Music video

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Rihanna singing in the music video.

The video was shot on April 13, 2007. It was directed by Chris Applebaum. It premiered at 10:00 a.m. on April 26, 2007 at www.thisisrihanna.com. Downloads were made available for those in the U.S only. The video was released on the iTunes Store on May 11, 2007. It has remained at number 1 for 2 weeks so far.

The video starts with Jay-Z singing his part in a rain of sparks. Rihanna starts singing in a steamy place. During the first chorus, she can be seen walking around en pointe. Later, Rihanna is seen in various positions bodypainted silver. In the endcap of the video, she dances with her umbrella amid a shower of sparks falling like rain where Jay-Z was singing at the beginning of the video.

There are two different versions of the video. The version that premiered on April 30, 2007 on MTV is different from the one that aired online in that there are added water effects during the splashing sequence. This version is shown on television stations and on some websites. On May 14, 2007, the "Umbrella" video premiered on BET's 106 & Park at number nine, Rihanna's first video to chart on the countdown since her debut single, "Pon de Replay", in 2005. In this version, she can not be seen walking en pointe but the added water effects can be seen. On May 1, 2007 Umbrella debuted on MTV's Total Request Live at number ten, and by May 9 it had reached the number-one spot, where it has spent a total of 5 days at #1, during its 14-day-run on the countdown. Its main competition are two American Idol artists, Never Again by Kelly Clarkson and Home by Daughtry. The video has received over 4 million views on YouTube in just 2 weeks.

Formats

Album

1. "Umbrella" (album version) featuring Jay-Z – 4:36

Dutch/ Australian CD Single

1. "Umbrella" (Radio Edit) ft. Jay-Z – 4:20
2. "Umbrella" (Seamus Haji & Paul Emanuel Remix) ft. Jay Z – 4:03

Promo

1. "Umbrella" (non rap edit) – 3:47
2. "Umbrella" (radio edit) featuring Jay-Z – 4:15
3. "Umbrella" (instrumental) – 4:37
4. "Umbrella" (remix) featuring Lil' Mama – 3:10

Official remixes

1. "Umbrella" (Jody Den Broeder Lush radio edit) – 4:42
2. "Umbrella" (Jody Den Broeder Lush mix) – 9:11
3. "Umbrella" (Jody Den Broeder Destruction radio edit) – 4:26
4. "Umbrella" (Jody Den Broeder Destructive club mix) – 7:56
5. "Umbrella" (Seamus Haji & Paul Emanuel radio edit) – 4:00
6. "Umbrella" (Seamus Haji & Paul Emanuel club remix) – 6:34
7. "Umbrella" (The Lindbergh Palace radio edit) – 3:52
8. "Umbrella" (The Lindbergh Palace remix) – 7:52

Unofficial remix

An unofficial remix of the song has leaked onto the internet featuring singer/rapper Lil' Mama instead of Jay Z.

Chart

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References

Chart (2007)	Peak position
Canadian BDS Airplay Chart	20
Croatian Singles Chart	2
Czech Airplay Chart	12
Dutch Top 40	24
Euro Digital Tracks	1
France R&B chart	1
Germany R&B Chart	1
Irish Singles Chart	1
LCC Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs	1
Lithuania Airplay Chart	10
New Zealand RIANZ Singles Chart	34
Poland Chart	53
Romanian Top 100	16
Slovakian Airplay Chart	6
Swedish Chart	5
UK Singles Chart	1 (2 Weeks)
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	41
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Airplay	3
U.S. Billboard Pop 100	31
U.S. Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs	22
U.S. ARC Weekly Top 40	15
U.S. Mediabase Top 40 Airplay	13
United World Chart	14