The snorty study is in the journal Animal Behaviour. And those snorts, according to Weissman’s findings, also become louder and harsher. The increase in snorts reflects the animals’ inner emotional state: as they become more excited or more aggressive, their songs become, well, snortier. But as the song continues, they become more common, resulting in a snort crescendo. In the earliest parts of the song, snorts are relatively rare. The whole song seems to be an introduction for these snorts.” And in the song, the rarest thing, most interesting element, is the snort. “We found that the song is an advertisement for male quality. Weissman and his team recorded the songs of male hyraxes during mating season, and they analyzed their structure. “We’ve tried to understand the meaning of all this-why a hyrax would waste time and energy and expose himself to predators by singing such a loud song.” And these bouts are complex. And along the song, they get more and more complex, they get longer, they include more sounds.”īiomusicologist Yishai Weissman from Bar-Ilan University and Hebrew University in Israel. We know a lot of birds sing, but we don’t have many mammals that actually perform a song, a complex song with different syllables coming in bouts. “The hyraxes are a mammal that has a rare phenomenon, which is singing. They live in groups of up to 80 individuals. Meet the rock hyrax, sometimes called the rock rabbit or the dassie, common in rocky areas of Africa and the Middle East. So you might not think they’d be the closest living relatives to elephants. What it takes to come alive").They grow to about 20 inches long and weigh less than 10 pounds. Rihanna previously sung about love and diamonds when she pondered the existence of both on her 2011 hit, "We Found Love" ("Yellow diamonds in the light. Whilst it was the first time that Blanco had worked with Rihanna, the Bajan star had previously hooked up with Stargate for a number of her hit singles including "Take A Bow," "Rude Boy" and "What's My Name?." This was produced by the Norwegian production duo Stargate and Benjamin "Benny Blanco" Levin. Sia is also a performer in her own right, having released several albums over the course of her career, as well as providing vocals on hit singles by the likes of David Guetta ("Titanium") and Flo Rida ("Wild Ones"). The Australian singer-songwriter has also crafted tunes for the likes of Christina Aguilera and Madonna, but this was the first time Rihanna had recorded something penned by her.
The song was premiered on Septemduring Elvis Duran and the Morning Show and was made available for digital download an hour later. It's about love and the gears are different than what people will expect." It gives me a great feeling when I listen to it. When asked about the mood of the song following her performance at the iHeartRadio festival in Las Vegas, Rihanna replied, "You're not sad. We're like diamonds in the sky," she sings. General CommentThe first single from Rihanna's seventh album is a departure from the singer's recurring theme of an unhealthy relationship, as the Barbadian songstress croons of a bright love. Palms rise to the universe, as we moonshine and molly You're a shooting star I see, a vision of ecstasyĪt first sight I felt the energy of sun rays You and I, you and I, we're like diamonds in the sky Find light in the beautiful sea, I choose to be happy