R&B icon Mary J. Blige has revealed that she passed on Rihanna’s chart-topping 2007 hit Umbrella because she felt the song wasn’t right for her.
Speaking on the 7PM in Brooklyn podcast, Blige said she was offered the track—featuring Jay-Z and co-written by Tricky Stewart, Kuk Harrell and The-Dream—but decided against recording it after hearing the lyrics.
“All I heard was ‘eh, eh,’ and I was like, ‘Yo, my fans are gonna bug out on me if they hear me talking about eh, eh, eh,’” she recalled.
According to Blige, hearing Rihanna’s final version later confirmed she made the right call.
“Then when I heard Rihanna do it, I was like, ‘See, it was for Rihanna, it wasn’t for me,’” she said. “It got away, but it wasn’t for me in the first place.”
Umbrella went on to become a global smash, topping charts in 19 countries and winning the Grammy Award for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration in 2008. In the UK, its success famously coincided with a period of heavy rain and flooding, making it one of the most played songs of the 2000s.
Interestingly, the song was originally written with Britney Spears in mind. The-Dream later revealed that Spears’ team turned it down after failing to see its hit potential.
Rihanna eventually claimed the track after hearing about it, with The-Dream recalling that her confidence sealed the deal. The rest, as they say, is music history.
