Alessia Cara wrote a song for Rihanna’s LP ‘Anti’ – but it didn’t make the final cut.
The 20-year-old pop beauty revealed one of her favourite moments of 2016 was penning the track, but she was forced to clarify her comment as fans thought she had written the song for her next record.
During an interview for the 2017 Juno Awards, Alessia revealed: "I got to meet Rihanna, which was really crazy.
"I didn’t take a picture with her. I just met her and it was awesome. It was to work on her album, which was crazy. So I just went in there, and was like, ‘Hi! great to meet you, I love you!’ Then I just kinda did my thing and left."
Taking to Twitter to make it clear it was for ‘Anti’, she wrote: "fyi: I was referring to ANTI, not the next album!! and she didn’t end up using the song. (sic)"
Despite meeting the 29-year-old R&B superstar, the ‘Stay’ hitmaker hasn’t kept in contact with the ‘Work’ singer, but it was a moment she’ll never forget.
Asked if they are still in touch, she said: "I don’t even have her number, it was a hi and bye.
I went for the handshake and she went for the hug, she was so sweet. I love Rihanna, like I’m obsessed. Just meeting her was crazy and no one really knew about it. I didn’t even want to take a picture, because this moment, I’m gonna have this in my brain."
Alessia’s not the only songwriter whose work ended up in the reject pile, as Rihanna turned down a song called ‘Bird Set Free’ written by Sia and Adele.
Sia, 41 – said in 2015: "We wrote three songs in two days and none of them made the cut and this was one of them.
"I said to [Adele], ‘Do you mind if I pitch it to, say, Rihanna?’ And she said, ‘Yeah, but can you take my vocal off it because I don’t want my vocal floating around out there on a demo’.
"So I went and re-cut the vocal and everybody in my life was like, ‘You can’t give this away to anybody.’"
Although others insisted she should have kept the track for herself, she offered it to Rihanna, but in the end she didn’t think it was "edgy" enough for her.
Sia added: "Well actually I believe she did [get a chance to consider it] and she passed.
"We sent it to her, but it’s not really her so I don’t know why I thought that. It is a smash, but she’s a little more edgy."
Alessia Cara wrote song for Rihanna’s Anti
