Never Ending

Album: Anti (2016)
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Songfacts®:

  • Rihanna has fallen in love. However, her emotions are pulling her apart and she sings on this acoustic guitar-led ballad of her trepidation regarding the new relationship.
  • Rihanna wrote the song with Roc Nation producer Chad Sabo. The melody in the last two lines of the verse is reminiscent of Dido’s 2000 hit "Thank You," which the English singer wrote with Paul Herman, so they get credits too.
  • Chad Sabo originally wrote the song in November 2013. He recalled to Genius: "I had been recording some demos at home on a little digital 8-track recording studio. All the songs had this kind of lo-fi minimal production. This song happened over the course of a couple weeks. I had written a guitar riff then revisited it later."
  • The lyrics were inspired by a very specific experience that Chado had. He explained: "I have to preface this by saying that I don't casually smoke weed. I was touring with a band at the time, and they got me to smoke for the first time in a very long time. It was very strong - apparently it was the strongest stuff at the medicinal dispensary. I had a crazy experience where I felt really disconnected from myself and my body. A lot of those lyrics are very literal. I utilized the last couple lines of the chorus to make it open-ended and make it a song that people could relate to as a song about love and heartbreak."
  • This was Chad Sabo's first ever major collaboration. "I wasn't working with management at the time - I was just living with my parents writing songs and recording demos," he said. "I put them on Facebook and SoundCloud. I had a friend who heard my song on Facebook and passed it along to Edith at Roc Nation - that's how everything got rolling. Up until that point, I had been writing songs for myself and had no real expectations."

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