Pon de Replay

"Pon de Replay"
Single by Rihanna
from the album Music of the Sun
B-side	"Should I?"
Released	May 24, 2005 (2005-05-24)
Recorded	2004
Studio	The Loft Recording Studios (Bronxville, New York)
Genre	Dancehall reggae R&B
Length	4:06 (album version) 3:34 (radio edit)
Label	Def Jam SRP
Songwriter(s)	Vada Nobles Carl Sturken Evan Rogers Alisha "M'Jestie" Brooks
Producer(s)	Nobles Sturken Rogers
Rihanna singles chronology
"Pon de Replay" (2005) "If It's Lovin' that You Want" (2005)

"Pon de Replay" is the debut single recorded by Barbadian singer Rihanna, from her debut studio album Music of the Sun (2005). It was written and produced by Vada Nobles, Alisha "M'Jestie" Brooks, Carl Sturken and Evan Rogers. Her debut single, the song was released on May 24, 2005 as the lead single from the album. It is a dancehall, reggae and R&B song that means "play it again" in one of Barbados's official langauges.

Info

The song peaked at number 2 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, becoming her first Top 5 single; it also peaked at number 1 in New Zealand, number 2 in the UK and at number 6 and number 7 in Australia and Canada, respectively. The beat for "Pon de Replay" was also used in Natasja Saad's hit "Mon de Reggae". Pon de Replay was also a major dance hit topping both the Hot Dance Music/Club Play and the Dance Radio Airplay chart for 2 weeks. It also performed well on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks charts peaking at #24; most of its chart points had been received from airplay from pop stations and from its digital downloads. In an unusual situation, the track reached #6 on the Hot Rap Tracks, an unlikely supporter of the song. On the non-Billboard chart, ARC Top 40, the track also hit #1. Pop girl group Girl Authority covered the song in 2006 for their debut album. The song was the 21st best sell of 2005 with 3,970,000 units sold.

The hit single, "Pon de Replay" was first made public in the mainstream media on March 17, 2005 by publicist, Jonathan Hay through co-producer Vada Nobles on MTV News.

Track listing

• CD single (European version)

1. "Pon de Replay" (Radio edit) (Brooks, Alisha/Rogers, Evan/Sturken, Carl/Nobles, Vada) — 3:34
2. "Pon de Replay" (Remix featuring Elephant Man) (Brooks, Alisha/Rogers, Evan/Sturken, Carl/Nobles, Vada) — 3:37

• CD maxi-single (European version)

1. "Pon de Replay" (Brooks, Alisha/Rogers, Evan/Sturken, Carl/Nobles, Vada) — 3:36
2. "Pon de Replay" (Cotto's Replay Dub) (Brooks, Alisha/Rogers, Evan/Sturken, Carl/Nobles, Vada) — 6:48
3. "Pon de Replay" (Instrumental) (Brooks, Alisha/Rogers, Evan/Sturken, Carl/Nobles, Vada) — 4:05

• Extras:

"Pon de Replay" (Video) — 3:37

Music Video

In the music video, directed by Little X, Rihanna and her friends arrive at the club where everybody is bored and not dancing because of the low music. Rihanna steps up and sings the song, causing the DJ to turn the music up and everybody to start dancing. The music video also features Rihanna doing some belly dancing moves. The music video was also popular receiving much play from MTV and BET. It peaked at #2 on MTV's Total Request Live spending 37 days on the countdown; it was not able to retire due to the early introduction of the music video for her second single, "If It's Lovin' That You Want". The video reached #4 on BET's 106 & Park and remained on the countdown for over 20 days.

Covers & Parodies

"Weird Al" Yankovic covered part of the song in his polka medley Polkarama! from the album Straight Outta Lynwood.