Mary J. Blige wanted to record Umbrella, but Rihanna persuaded the songwriters to give it to her instead...Rihanna told the Daily Telegraph newspaper: "Any songwriter would die for Mary to sing one of their songs. So I just prayed that I got it. It was perfect for me - it had a West Indian groove.
"When I saw one of the songwriters at the Grammy Awards, I went up to him and said, 'Listen, 'Umbrella' is my song.'
"He must have thought I was really pushy and laughed it off. But I held his face and I turned it back to my own, 'No, I'm serious, I need 'Umbrella'.
