Calvin Harris & Rihanna collab ‘We Found Love’ turns 9 years old
Back in 2011, it was hard to find a bigger name in the world than Calvin Harris. This was an era when Barack Obama was still serving his first term as president of the United States, Manchester United were still winning trophies in football, and Kim Kardashian was still three years away from her marriage to Kanye West. Safe to say, things were very different back then, but one thing that’s remained constant over the course of the past 10-15 years is Calvin Harris’ ability to craft huge pop/dance crossovers. Having burst onto the scene as a pale and skinny Scot jumping around on keyboards and synthesisers performing tracks like ‘The Girls’, Calvin took things up a notch in 2011 with the release of his ’18 Months’ album. Accompanying a new chiselled look, complete with whitened teeth, designer beard, and six-pack – a style which soon earned him a bank-busting residency in Las Vegas, the world’s new lucrative ‘EDM capital’, Calvin Harris also decided to stop using his own vocals on tracks, preferring to work with A-List talent instead.
With acts like Ellie Goulding, Tinie Tempah, Kelis, Example, Dizzee Rascal, Florence Welch, and Ne-Yo all roped in to work on the album, it was Rihanna who managed to shine bright like a diamond, when she layed down an emotive vocal on ‘We Found Love’. Released on this day 9 years ago, the Calvin Harris x Rihanna combo took the UK producer’s career to new levels, and the duo even worked together again in 2016, repeating the feet with ‘This Is What You Came For‘. With EDM truly booming during this period, the pop-star & DJ mix soon started to spread throughout the industry, with David Guetta previously using acts such as Akon, Kelly Rowland, Nicki Minaj, and Flo Rida, on his tracks. You can relive the mighty ‘We Found Love’ below!
Image Credit: Calvin Harris Press / Provided by Neu Communications
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