User:Tomica/Diamonds

Background and artwork
Following the release of Rihanna's fifth studio album, Loud (2010), the singer revealed via Twitter that the album would be re-issued with new songs and released in fall 2011. In September 2011, Rihanna again took to the social networking site to confirm that the plans had been scrapped, with the singer tweeting "I [thought about] a [re-release], but LOUD is its own body of work! Plus [you] guys work so hard that [you] deserve to act brand new". On September 15, 2011, she confirmed that recording sessions for her sixth studio album were indeed underway, tweeting "I can't wait to start filling u guys in on some details!" Kuk Harrell, one of the producers with which Rihanna worked, spoke on the recording of the album that they have a portable studio and set it up in different hotels throughout Europe where they stay, so can record the new material. Rihanna's sixth studio album was released in November 2011 under the title Talk That Talk. It received mainly positive reviews from music critics assigning an average score of 64 based on 27 reviews at Metacritic. The album spawned a total of six singles, including the commercial success "We Found Love" which topped the charts in more than 20 countries worldwide including the US Billboard Hot 100.

After her performance at the iHeartRadio music festival in September 2012, Rihanna was interviewed for the radio and confirmed that she is about to release new single describing the song as "happy and hippy rather than dancey". According to her, the song is something that people don't expect further revealing it as "laid-back but it's hopeful. It's a record that... gives me such a great feeling when I listen to it. The lyrics are very hopeful and positive, but it's about love." "Diamonds" premiered on September 26, 2012 on the Elvis Duran and the Morning Show and was made available for digital download one hour later on iTunes. It was co-written by Australian singer-songwriter Sia Furler together with Mikkel S. Eriksen and Tor Erik Hermansen. The production of the song was helmed by Eriksen and Hermansen under their stage name Stargate and American record producer Benny Blanco. Stargate has previously produced some of Rihanna's previous singles including "Don't Stop the Music" and "Only Girl (In the World)". The cover artwork for the song was revealed on September 24, 2012 and features Rihanna rolling diamonds on a piece of paper. According to Chris Witherspoon of The Grio the paper with the diamonds on the cover is originally used for rolling marijuana and additionally labeled the artwork as controversial.

Composition
"Diamonds is a mid-tempo pop ballad that features drums, heavy synthesizers and Rihanna's "powerful pipes". Lyrically, the song is a departure from the themes of "unhealthy relationship" that was notably present on some of Rihanna's previous singles. According to Glenn Yoder of The Boston Globe, with lyrics like "I choose to be happy" and "We're like diamonds in the sky," the single shows a new side of the singer that we usually don't see.