Music

Andrew Lloyd Webber claims he discovered Rihanna

by Jeremy Mersereau

Ultra-successful impresario and to-date the only person to profitably stage a musical about the common house cat, Andrew Lloyd Webber, could have had another major musical success in his long career full of them, if only he’d “brought her back” (whatever that means): He claims to have heard Rihanna before anyone else.

In an interview on British TV earlier this week, Webber said he heard the future pop megastar singing karaoke at a resort in Barbados while with his creative partner Nigel Wright, but decided against doing anything about it. “I said to Nigel, ‘If we bring her back, you know it’s like when you see a picture when you’re away and you take it home and you think, why did I buy that?'” Webber said. “I thought: we’ll get her back, it’ll be fine, but then what do we do with her?” Damn, maybe it’s a good thing Webber missed out, in case we ended up with a modern-day Mr. Rochester locking the pop star of our age up in an attic somewhere when he couldn’t figure out what to do with her.

When asked by host Piers Morgan if he ever thought about how much money that decision cost him, Webber said “I don’t think in those terms, but if I did, let me put it this way – it’s not a story I’m proud of”.

Of course, in reality, Rihanna wouldn’t be discovered until vacationing American record producer Evan Rogers spotted her at a beauty pageant when she was 16. She later cut a three-track demo with Rogers which included an early version of “Pon de Replay,” and eventually became the Rihanna we all know and love today.

[H/T The Guardian]