The singer debuted the new song from her upcoming album 'Unapologetic' in her SNL performance over the weekend
Listen to Rihanna on iHeartRadio
For all of Rihanna’s diva-like attributes, you don’t really think of her as the torch-song type—but “Stay,” an Unapologetic track debuted by Ri last night during her “SNL” residence, reveals that the singer is certainly capable of such show-stoppers, as the piano-led number sees Rihanna going for the home-run ballad, and mostly connecting.
For the last Rihanna ballad we can remember like this, you have to go back to A Girl Like Me‘s infidelity cry “Unfaithful.” This song is more instrumentally understated—just the simple piano melody, some occasional guitar and cymbal flourishes, and subtle cello backing. Mostly it’s just Rihanna hitting all the right notes here with impressive force and obvious feeling as she sings “Not really sure how to feel about it / Something in the way you move / Makes me feel like I can’t live without you / And it takes me all the way / I want you to stay.”
We’re not going to dive deep into the lyrics and try to figure out how much of it is about Chris Brown yet—for now, we’re just going to try to actually enjoy the song, which sounds like it should be a certain highlight on Unapologetic when the album is released a week from Tuesday.
READ MORE: Popdust
