Singer/songwriter Taio Cruz has confirmed that ‘Umbrella’ was offered to Mary J Blige and Britney Spears before Rihanna turned it into a worldwide hit.
Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, Cruz said: “They [Spears’s representatives] sent it back saying it didn’t work for her.”
Mary J Blige recently claimed she turned the track down because it was too mainstream.
Cruz, whose friend Christopher ‘Tricky’ Stewart co-wrote the song, attributed its success to the shrinking attention spans of music fans.
“The audience can be distracted quite easily, so you want something they can sing along with immediately,” he said.
“[It’s] so simple, it’s like a playground chant. If you look at the most successful songs, they are choruses of four of five words, three notes, repeated. It’s not rocket science.”

Chris Brown has fuelled rumours that he is romantically involved with Rihanna by making a reference to her at a London concert.
The pair have been the subject of persistent speculation since they were spotted “smooching” in a hotel pool while on holiday in Jamaica.
Rihanna recently denied reports that they are dating, insisting that she was enjoying “being a single woman”.
However, rumours have resurfaced after the couple were photographed leaving a hotel in London in the early hours of Saturday.
Brown, 18, told the audience at Sunday’s indigO2 gig: “If I was the prince of R&B, then I would need a princess.”
He then launched into a remixed version of Rihanna’s record-breaking single ‘Umbrella’.