Check The Credits: Crystal Nicole Tells The Stories On Writing for Rihanna, J.Lo, Mariah Carey & More

“Only Girl in the World” – Rihanna

When I wrote that song I was the only one that was not a fan of it. I find it funny, because everybody loved that record except for me. I thought I could do better. I thought the song could be better and it wasn’t until after Rihanna actually sang it and put her voice on it that I actually started to like the song. I was in a session with Stargate, who have done so many other records for her and a lot of people. They gave me three tracks. That day was a difficult day for me. I couldn’t come up with any concepts, any ideas, any melodies and I just was kind of having writer’s block. I had written to the first two tracks and nothing was good, so I played the last track like “Something has to come out of this.” As I was listening to it, it sounded like a suspenseful kind of movie and when I write I always see things visually before I can actually write it down on paper. I just kind of saw her walking around as if she was the only person, the only girl in the world. I wrote the verse first and when I got to the hook the track just exploded. It was like this bomb went off musically. I was thinking what could I say that would just make you stop in your tracks and go “Wow. That’s like an explosion.” The first thing that came up was “I want you to make me feel like I’m the only girl in the world.” At the time I had no clue how many people would relate to that line and how many women want to feel like they’re the only one and how many guys want to make their woman feel like she’s the only one, so it was completely beyond me. I had no idea it was going to be number-one in however many countries it went number one. That record is definitely the biggest record to date that I’ve been a part of.