Pon de Replay

"Pon de Replay" is the debut single by Barbadian R&B singer Rihanna. The song was written by Alisha Brooks, Carl Sturken, Evan Rogers and Vada Nobles and produced by the latter three for her debut studio album, Music of the Sun. It peaked at number two on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, becoming her first top five single. It also peaked at number-one in New Zealand, number two in the United Kingdom and at number six and number seven in Australia and Canada, respectively. The beat for "Pon de Replay" was also used in Natasja Saad's hit "Mon De Reggae."

Writing and release
"Pon de Replay" was written and produced by Carl Sturken and Evan Rogers while working on Rihanna's demo recordings. The song was eventually added to the album and released as the album's lead single. "Pon de Replay" was first made public in the mainstream media on March 17, 2005 on MTV News. The video was released in July 2005 and the single was officially released on August 9, 2005 to Australian music retail and on August 22, 2005 in the United Kingdom.

Music and lyrics
Musically, "Pon de Replay" is an uptempo dance-pop song. It is set in common time in F, sawing dance-pop and contains mild R&B infused beats. Lyrically, "Pon de Replay" talks about the joy of dancing, telling the DJ to repeat the song over and increase the volume. The song contains the lyrics "Hey Mr. DJ", which is mostly used in songs that lyrically talk about dancing as evident in songs like "Play" by Jennifer Lopez and on "Music" by Madonna. Rihanna explained the song title by saying, "It's just language that we speak in Barbados. It's broken English. Pon is on, de means the, so it's just basically telling the DJ to put my song on the replay."

Critical reception
The song received generally positive reviews. Jason Birchmeier of Allmusic said that "Pon de Replay" is driven by booming dancehall-lite beats and a reggae vocal cadence [...] "it's a simple dance-pop song at its core, with standard English-language singing as well as a can't-miss singalong hook." Barry Walters of Rolling Stone magazine described the song as "a poppy piece of dancehall reggae with slapping, syncopated beats recalling big-band jazz." Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine called the song a genuine dance club trend in sight and described it as a dancehall-pop mixture. However he also noted that the song owes plenty of its sweat and shimmy to Beyoncé's "Baby Boy." Bill Lamb of About.com said, that the primal drums of the song are reminiscent of early 80's new wave classics by the likes of Adam and the Ants and Bow Wow Wow.

Chart performance
In the United States, "Pon de Replay" entered the Billboard Hot 100 chart debuting at number ninety-seven. The song entered the top ten for the issue dated July 16, 2005. It rose to number two on the Billboard Hot 100 on July 30, 2005, in addition to peaking at number two on the Pop 100. The song spent three weeks at number two, and twelve weeks on the top ten, however despite spending twelve weeks on the top ten, the song was held off the top spot by Mariah Carey's "We Belong Together", which spent fourteen non-consecutive weeks at number-one, and also held off the top spot by Pussycat Dolls's "Don't Cha" from the Pop 100. The song reached number-one on the Hot Digital Songs chart. "Pon de Replay" was also a major dance hit topping both the Hot Dance Club Play and the Hot Dance Airplay chart for two weeks. It also performed well on the Billboard  Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart peaking at number twenty-four; 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 number six on the Hot Rap Tracks, an unlikely supporter of the song. After twenty-seven weeks on the chart, "Pon de Replay" was certified platinum for selling over 1,000,000 copies by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). It sold over 4 million copies worldwide.

The song is listed number six on Songs of the Summer of 2005 published by Billboard magazine.

Music video
The video for "Pon de Replay" was directed by music video director Little X. The video is set in a club. The video begins with Rihanna and two her friends arriving at a club where everybody is bored and not dancing because of the low music. She steps up on a platform, wearing a silver belly top with baggy jeans, and begins singing and dancing the song, causing the DJ, played by DJ Cipha Sounds, to turn the music up and everybody to start dancing. Scenes of people dancing in the club are inter cut with images being juxtaposed of Rihanna singing leaning against the wall wearing a light blue short dress. Rihanna is also featured belly dancing and an additional cameo appearance from Kardinal Offishall. The video ends with people in the club formed in a circle dancing in the middle. The music video was also popular receiving much play from MTV and BET. It peaked at number two on MTV's Total Request Live spending thirty-seven 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 number four on BET's 106 & Park and remained on the countdown for over twenty days. Pon De Replay was released in 2006 and one of the top songs of 2006.

Track listing
CD single (European version)
 * 1) "Pon de Replay" (Radio edit) &mdash; 3:34
 * 2) "Pon de Replay" (Remix featuring Elephant Man) &mdash; 3:37

CD maxi-single (European version)
 * 1) "Pon de Replay" &mdash; 3:36
 * 2) "Pon de Replay" (Cotto's Replay Dub) &mdash; 6:48
 * 3) "Pon de Replay" (Instrumental) &mdash; 4:05

Extras:
 * "Pon de Replay" (Video) &mdash; 3:37

German CD Single
 * 1) "Pon de Replay" (Album Version)
 * 2) "Pon de Replay" (Cotto's Replay Dub)
 * 3) "Pon de Replay"
 * 4) "Pon de Replay"


 * UK iTunes EP
 * 1) "Pon de Replay" &mdash; 3:35
 * 2) "Should I" (with J-Status) &mdash; 3:07
 * 3) "Pon de Replay" (Cotto's Replay Dub Version) &mdash; 6:49

iTunes EP
 * 1) "Pon de Replay" (Pon De Club Play Version) &mdash; 7:32
 * 2) "Pon de Replay" (Cotto's Replay Dub Version) &mdash; 6:47

Covers and parodies
Pop girl group Girl Authority covered the song in 2006 for their self-titled debut album. "Weird Al" Yankovic also covered part of the song in his polka medley "Polkarama!" from the album Straight Outta Lynwood.

Charts
Source:

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