Covered: Stay

In 2012, pop (and now makeup) powerhouse Rihanna released her seventh album, Unapologetic, perhaps known best for “Diamonds” — and gorgeous piano ballad “Stay” with Mikky Ekko.

Rihanna delivers a powerful, emotional vocal on the track, with a strong, bold voice singing about a relationship she wants to save. She’s backed by a piano that’s since become recognizable immediately, and Ekko takes on the second verse before the two meld for the end, complementing each other beautifully. “Stay” ultimately peaked at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Six years later, in 2018, singer Cat Power released her version of the track on her album Wanderer.

Cat Power has a long history of putting her spin on music another artist wrote and released before. “I love the tradition of covering songs,” she said in a press release when her “Stay” was released as a single. “I think it’s one of the highest compliments you can pay another artist. It’s one of the great traditions in American music and one of the true pleasures of music history.”

Her version starts not with the familiar notes of Rihanna’s but rather a lighter, tinkling piano — it sounds like a different song at first, and while the memorable notes from the original appear soon enough, Cat Power’s notes are sprinkled throughout. She even starts her verses at a different point and occasionally with a different rhythm and delivery, and her voice is more subdued than Rihanna’s, breathy and soft. Rihanna’s “Stay” is a confident declaration about a love she wants to reclaim, and Cat Power’s is a sad reflection on where that relationship stands and what to do next, playing with both romance and heartache. Rihanna is presenting an argument, Cat Power is pleading, albeit gently.

Given Cat Power’s appreciation of the art of the cover song, the fact that she handles “Stay” in this way is not surprising. She’s mastered the combination of tribute with new artistry — and of course, one would have to really work at it to ruin “Stay.”