Rihanna’s ‘Take a Bow’ Originally Sounded ‘Almost Asian’

Rihanna‘s “Take a Bow” is one of her most underrated songs, which is pretty shocking considering how popular it was back in the 2000s. The track was co-written by an R&B star and it originally had an Asian flavor. The tune shares its title and some of its other attributes with a Madonna song from the 1990s.

Rihanna’s ‘Take a Bow’ was originally inspired by an Asian musician

Stargate is a production duo that gave us hits by Beyoncé, Ne-Yo, Fifth Harmony, Katy Perry, and Rihanna. Oh boy, have they written numerous hits for the “Rude Boy” singer. During a 2010 interview with Sound on Sound, Stargate’s Mikkel S. Eriksen discussed the origin of one of Rihanna’s most popular ballads. “We might change the beat, or the chords, or completely rearrange the song,” he said.

“Like in the song ‘Take a Bow,’ our original track had an almost Asian feel, inspired by Ryuichi Sakamoto,” he said. “It was much more left-field, and then after Ne‑Yo wrote the lyrics and the melody, we changed the whole beat and made the song more straightforward.” For context, Sakamoto is one of Japan’s most famous composers. He wrote the scores for movies like The Last Emperor, Little Buddha, and The Revenant.

Madonna also released a song called ‘Take a Bow’

For historians of popular music, it’s probably pretty obvious why “Take a Bow” originally had an Asian feel. According to Stereogum, Madonna had a No. 1 hit in 1995 called “Take a Bow.” Like Rihanna’s song of the same title, Madonna’s “Take a Bow” is a ballad about a flawed relationship. Madonna’s ballad also has some swelling Asian-style strings. There’s a decent chance that Madonna influenced the original version of Rihanna’s hit before Ne-Yo changed things up. Either that, or the similarities between the two songs are a complete coincidence.

While Madonna’s song came first, Rihanna’s is better. The opening line “You look so dumb right now / Standin’ outside my house / Tryin’ to apologize / You’re so ugly when you cry / Please / Just cut it out” is filled with pure venom. It’s one of the best breakup songs of the 2000s because the instrumentation and vocals are restrained but the lyrics pull no punches. Madonna’s song is just another weepy easy-listening ballad that might have been better coming from Celine Dion.

Rihanna’s songwriters explained their approach

In Sound on Sound, Eriksen discussed Stargate’s musical approach. “We will often try left-field ideas that we later adapt,” he said. “We constantly search for different sounds and different inspirations.” Stargate’s musical output is eclectic, including self-empowerment anthems (Perry’s “Firework”), acoustic songs (Queen B’s “Irreplaceable”), dance songs (Rihanna’s “Don’t Stop the Music”), and R&B tunes (Ne-Yo’s “So Sick”).

“You don’t want to be stuck in one lane and just to repeat versions of your last hit record,” Eriksen added. “We tend to play and program all parts on our songs ourselves, but sometimes the guitars are done by Espen Lind and Amund Bjørklund, who are a Norwegian writing and production team called Espionage.” Eriksen noted that Espionage worked on some big hits with Stargate, including Rihanna’s “Hate That I Love You” and Chris Brown’s “With You.”

Rihanna’s “Take a Bow” is powerful and it could have been very different.