Discussion: Rihanna

Hi! I wanted to write a blog about Rihanna, but I honestly don't know her music as well as some of the other music I've written about. However, I do have an opinion about her. She's R&B's "it-girl" right now, everyone knows her, and the thing I keep wondering, is: WHY? How the hell did she get this big? I think I understand, 'cuz her songs are all catchy with great production, but I don't see why Jay-Z signed her and let her sing this music. He chose her over Teairra Mari, that's where it went upwards for Rihanna and downhill for Teairra Mari. Pon De Replay sounded very addictive, but it wasn't good enough to reach eternal stardom. Same for If It's Lovin' That You Want. Then there were songs like S.O.S. (which was dope, I'll admit that) and Unfaithful (which should have been a Beyonce song, she would blow Rihanna away) and later on Umbrella, Don't Stop The Music and Disturbia. I love all of these songs, I understand why they were hits. But there are also a lot of songs I never understood, such as Live Your Life (the song with T.I.), Rehab, Shut Up And Drive (main problem with this is that it sounds like a pop-song only teenage girls should listen to), Take A Bow, Hate That I Love You, We Ride.. And many more.. I don't understand why they became hits.. Now she has Te Amo, my boyfriend introduced me to the song (he likes Rihanna a lot) and this is another song I love by Rihanna.

Fuck. As I'm writing this blog, I'm starting to finally understand why Rihanna is so popular. She has some real catchy songs that even I listen to, my hate for top-40 music can't even keep me from doing that. My opinion is that Rihanna is dope as long as she sings fun songs and an occasional slow song can also work but only if she doesn't try to get too vocal.. Because her voice really isn't very good... Please give songs like Unfaithful to Beyonce from now on, and I'm serious about that because Beyonce does these songs very well (if you don't know, check the slow songs on I Am... Sasha Fierce).

My question for you guys: what do you think about Rihanna, what is your favorite Rihanna song and what Rihanna song do you dislike the most?

Shisha and camels. And Nancy Ajram!

Howdy folks! I'm back from Tunisia, with a suitcase full of souvenirs and beautiful memories. It was so amazing, I would go back immediately if I could. I went there with my boyfriend. They always say you really get to know each other on vacation. Well, if that's so, then I'm now a hundred percent sure that we belong together.

So, what's typical for Tunisia you ask me? Palmtrees, camels, shisha (waterpipe), couscous and a lot of sand. And many other things, of course. We stayed in a huge all-inclusive hotel in Sousse, we even had a private beach there. The people were lovely, there was a waiter who liked us so much that he offered us to stay at his house so that we wouldn't have to go home.

Now, for the musical part of the vacation... I was in a souvenir shop at one point, and music was playing.. Guess whose music? Nancy Ajram's! I was so excited to hear my favorite Arabic artist! I heard a lot of other Arabic music that I didn't know, and in a media store I found CD's by Latifa, Elissa, Warda and Nancy Ajram, all Arabic artists I know. But most of all, there was a lot of American and European music. At the hotel they played artists like Pitbull, Fun Factory and Spice Girls. In a restaurant at the beach we heard Beyonce's song Why Don't You Love Me and at another hotel they were constantly playing Lady GaGa. At times it made me sad that people listened to so much American music when Arabic music is just as good (if not better). I mean, you can say it makes sense because they don't limit themselves to the Arabic culture, but that would be hypocrite because most people in America and Europe don't listen to music from the Arabic world or the Asian world for example either. So why would they listen to our music to be multi-cultural when we don't listen to theirs?

I don't know much more to write about music in Tunisia, because my vacation was much too active to make time for listening to music.

I do have a funny picture for you guys, of me smoking shisha.. Watch the smoke come out of my nose, lol.

Feel free to comment on this blog!

Love,

Cynthia