Songwriter for Rihanna reveals the 6 secret nods to 80s songs in her biggest hit
No one can "unhear" it after finding out.
Here’s a fun fact that even the most hardcore Rihanna fans would be surprised to learn.
The Barbadian singer often gets categorized as a pop star, but part of what makes her so iconic is how she covers a LOT of genres—rock, hip-hop, R&B, reggae…pretty sure she could follow in Beyoncé’s footsteps and do a country album that would top all the charts.
And as one of her songwriters’ recently revealed, one of her biggest hits ever—and practically an anthem of the mid 2000s—is secretly a huge nod to 80’s music.
While appearing on the podcast Behind The Wall, songwriter Evan “Kidd” Bogart shared that the entire second verse of Rihanna’s “SOS,” which came out in 2006, is actually just “’80s song titles strung together as sentences.”
Why? “Because I thought it would be super clever,” Bogart said.
And honestly—he was right. For over 20 years, seemingly nobody has realized this.
“No one thinks about that…it’s like, take on me (A-Ha), I could just die up in your arms tonight (Cutting Crew), I melt with you (Modern English), you got me head over heels (Tears for Fears), oh boy you keep me hanging on (Kim Wilde), the way you make me feel (Michael Jackson)…they’re all number one songs from the ’80s,” he continued.
You can watch Bogart explain these lyrical Easter eggs in the interview snippet below:
@danielswall Replying to @N A N Z Why Rihanna’s First #1 Song Has a Secret In our conversation with Evan ‘Kidd’ Bogart, he reveals the surprising secret behind one of the biggest songs he wrote for Rihanna years ago—a detail no one ever noticed. Here’s a clip from our full conversation @kiddbogart @Rihanna #singer #songwriter #rihanna #sos #hitsong #80smusic #songwriting #demo #viralsong #popmusic #musicproducer #singing #secret #trendingsong #2000s #lyrics ♬ original sound - Daniel Wall
Down in the comments, minds were understandably blown. One person even hailed Bogart a “genius” in the TikTok comments, commending him for “creating masterpieces from masterpieces.:”
As Billboard pointed out, using No. 1 80’s songs was perhaps fortuitous, considering “SOS” became Rihanna’s first of 14 No. 1’s on the chart. A masterpiece from masterpieces indeed.
“He highkey manifest the song’s success by using the #1 song titles in the song,” quipped another viewer.
Here are a few more fun comments:
“That’s actually really creative. Pretty cool.”
“‘Wait what?’ -Rihanna after scrolling Tik Tok.”
“I love this song so much more now.”
“BRILLIANT. Cannot explain how much more that makes me love this song especially considering the sample is ‘Tainted Love.’”
And of course, everyone is bonding about how they won’t ever be able to “unhear” each time they listen to the tune from now on.
There’s even more fun soundbites where that came from. Watch the full interview below:
- YouTubewww.youtube.com