Any Rihanna fans out there will know that the songstress’ first number one hit was ‘SOS’.
Released in 2006 as part of her album A Girl Like Me, the catchy pop song quickly shot to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 and remained there for three weeks.
Fast forward 18 years and Rihanna‘s had a total of 14 number one singles in the US, performed at the Super Bowl, won nine Grammy Awards and 13 American Music Awards, and has had over 12 billion streams on Spotify.
But Rihanna may not have achieved her superstar status without the success of ‘SOS’ – which was written by Evan ‘Kidd’ Bogart.
Speaking on the Behind the Wall podcast, hosted by Daniel Wall, Bogart lifted the lid on ‘SOS’ and its origins.
“I wrote it and I had no idea what I was doing,” he admitted. ‘SOS’ marked one of the first pop songs written by Bogart.
“If you really look at how that song was written, it’s not written by someone who knows anything about writing pop music,” he went on.
“I was just going on instinct.”
Rihanna is one of the biggest names in the music industry (Leon Bennett/Getty Images)
Bogart went on to note that the lyrics were ‘crafted out of clever word play’.
Further elaborating on this, the composer – who has also written songs for the likes of Beyoncé, Leona Lewis, Jason Derulo and Madison Beer – explained: “The whole second verse of [SOS] is 80s song titles strung together as sentences, because I thought it would be super clever.”
He named top tunes like Aha’s ‘Take On Me’, Cutting Crew’s ‘(I Just) Died In Your Arms’, Tears For Fears song ‘Head Over Heels’, and ‘The Way You Make Me Feel’ by Michael Jackson.
“They’re all number one songs from the 80s,” Bogart concluded.
Adding to the 80s vibe, ‘SOS’ samples Soft Cell’s 1982 hit ‘Tainted Love’.
In light of his revelations, people have hailed Bogart as a ‘genius’.
Replying to @N A N Z Why Rihanna’s First #1 Song Has a Secret In our conversation with Evan ‘Kidd’ Bogart, he reveals the surprising secret behind one of the biggest songs he wrote for Rihanna years ago—a detail no one ever noticed. Here’s a clip from our full conversation @kiddbogart @Rihanna #singer #songwriter #rihanna #sos #hitsong #80smusic #songwriting #demo #viralsong #popmusic #musicproducer #singing #secret #trendingsong #2000s #lyrics
♬ original sound – Daniel Wall
One person penned on TikTok: “He’s a genius. Song titles as lyrics?? He created a masterpiece from masterpieces.”
“I love idea of this and the execution is perfect,” raved another of the 2006 track.
A third went on: “I never knew this the man is a genius!!!”
Others shared how mind blown they were about where Bogart drew inspiration from for ‘SOS’.
“My brain just exploded. I never noticed this,” a music fan penned.
A second said: “My jaw is being scraped off the floor.”
Me too, guys. Me too.
