Shontelle

Rihanna's Loud Will Be 'Brighter,' Shontelle Says

19 Oct 2010 19:59:27 EDT

A fellow Barbados native and childhood friend, the upstart singer also reveals her contribution to Rih's November 16 LP.
By Rebecca Thomas, with reporting by Jayson Rodriguez

The average American girl might spend summer camp trying to accessorize her lame crewneck tee or crushing on the boy two cabins down, but it didn't go down like that for Rihanna and childhood friend-turned-singer Shontelle. Far from deconstructing T-shirts or penning gushy love notes, the Barbados-born singers were busy working up a sweat.

"Just picture Rihanna's 'Hard' video," Shontelle joked to MTV News, comparing their camp experience to the combat-inspired clip. "Picture both of us being that G."

While Rihanna is currently prepping Loud and Shontelle dropped her sophomore LP last month, the future stars were once enrolled in a boot-camp-style cadets program on the lush island — though apparently the two didn't share equal rank.

"I was the drill sergeant," the 25-year-old informed us. "And yes, I did give [Rihanna] push-ups. I have given her push-ups."

The Caribbean crooners can "laugh about it now," and as if to offer further proof that there aren't any lingering hard feelings, Shontelle said she recently caught a show on Rihanna's Last Girl on Earth Tour "and we got in the studio. So there's actually a track that we worked on together that's gonna be on Loud."

The "Impossible" singer confirmed widely circulated rumors that her fellow Bajan's fifth album will revive pre-"Russian Roulette" Rihanna.

"Loud is a real contrast from the last album, from Rated R," Shontelle said. "It's a lot brighter. ... This album is gonna be so much fun, as you can tell just from the first single. It's just like, 'Unh, unh la la la,' " she explained, letting out the first bar of "Only Girl (In the World)." "That's pretty much how the whole album sounds. It's a lot of fun."

Are you excited to hear Shontelle and Rihanna's collaboration? Let us know in the comments!

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Shontelle Expected Fans To 'Connect' To 'Impossible'

18 Oct 2010 16:11:10 EDT

'Now it just has this staying power,' Barbados-born singer says of platinum power ballad.
By Rebecca Thomas, with additional reporting by Jayson Rodriguez

In one of the very last episodes of MTV's "The Hills," series regular Audrina Patridge fights back tears as boyfriend Ryan Cabrera strums his signature song onstage at an outdoor concert. The L.A. sun beaming above her, Patridge knows she should be soaking up the moment, but another guy has her heart. As she takes off, overcome, the opening lines of Shontelle's "Impossible" come on, the singer's voice punctuating the scene like an exclamation point.

While the story line packed emotional punch, it was the soaring, gut-wrenching ballad that had viewers perusing the song credits and double-clicking the "buy" button on iTunes. But that kind of reaction doesn't surprise Shontelle. The Barbados-hailing songstress recently told MTV News she never doubted the certified-platinum lead single from her new album, No Gravity, would resonate with listeners.

"I knew [with] 'Impossible,' a lot of people would relate. I just knew people would connect with it and that there just was a need for a song like that out there," she said.

Written by Swedish producer Arnthor Birgisson and Norwegian singer/songwriter Ina Wroldsen, "Impossible" is a chest-pounding track about doing everything right and getting your heart broken anyway. Still, the single, which dropped digitally in February, has slowly climbed to #13 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #9 on the pop songs chart.

"It's crazy right now, because it took a lot of work to actually get it to where it went, you know, being a top-five single [on Billboard's European songs chart] and being platinum and all that. It took a long time to work it as a ballad, 'cause everything else was like four-on-the-floor," she said, referring to the proliferation of electronic dance music hits populating the charts. "But now it just has this staying power."

Even as "Impossible" keeps charting overseas, Shontelle said she's excited about her Darkchild-produced second single, "Perfect Nightmare," as well as a track she cooked up with another singer who reps for Barbados, childhood friend Rihanna. That track will appear on the star's upcoming Loud.

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