

“Stay” by Rihanna, featuring Mikky Echo, is a music video about a vulnerable relationship.  Rihanna the main character is sitting in bathtub for the whole video.  She looks sad and is alone.  She seems vulnerable and is naked.  The colors in the video are blue, green, and brown, these colors seem cold and depressing.  The room in which the bathtub is found is empty except for her and the bathtub, there is nothing else located in the room or even on the walls.   Rihanna’s body is small; she is holding her self close.  Rihanna appears to be thinking about and singing about something that makes her unsure and sad.  All of these images together would seem to indicate that the overall message of the video is a questioning and a vulnerability and a defenselessness in a relationship. in her relationship with her partner.

Rihanna is sitting alone in the bathtub.  There is nothing else in the dark room besides her and the bathtub.  The bathtub is white and is the only bright thing in the video.  This represents the isolation and loneliness that Rihanna feels in her relationship and in her life.  How can one be in a relationship yet feel so alone?  Why does Rihanna feel so alone?  Being alone in general is scary, but being alone when you have someone else in your life is even scarier.  Rihanna seems upset and confused as to why she is so alone and feeling so empty.  She is sitting in contemplation of her life and her relationship.  She is alone to figure out why she is alone.

Rihanna’s face and body language also represents her loneliness.  She looks miserable and like she has been crying.  Her eyes stare off into the distance, as if she is thinking about something.  She appears to be thinking about something that is puzzling to her.  Rihanna is holding her body close together like she is hiding from something. She is protecting herself from something bigger then her. Because of the relationship to the words of the song, we can assume that she is contemplating her relationship and what it means.  The video and the lyrics are about staying or leaving a relationship.  Should she stay in it and feel alone but in love?  Or should she get away from this relationship?  Should her partner stay? Or should he leave?  Rihanna is confused and does not know which path to take.  Her eyes show her sadness, confusion and aloneness, she does not make eye contact with the viewer and appears to have been crying.  People cry when they are sad and when they are happy, however, Rihanna’s facial expression clearly tells the viewer that she is sad not happy. 

Rihanna sits in the bathtub naked.  The bathroom in general is a great place to go and be alone, it is the one place people can get away from life and just think.  While it is normal to be in a bathtub with out clothes, being naked is also a sign of vulnerability.  Clothes protect us, they are a shell.  Having nothing on to cover us makes us vulnerable, and being naked is a nothingness.  Rihanna is allowing herself to be vulnerable and exposed in this moment.  In the begging of the video we see her take her clothes off. The director emphasizes this by showing her get un dressed and step into the bathtub. This helps to showcase her vulnerability. She wants to be vulnerable in her relationship and open to talking with her partner about how she is feeling, but she is also scared to do that.  

The main colors in the video are blue, green and brown.  These colors represent a coldness and a sadness.  The back wall of the room is brown and desolate, with nothing on it, no art work or powerful saying.  The walls like Rihanna are naked.  The water in the bathtub is blue/green which looks dreary, and which represents the sadness as well.  Rihanna sits at one end of the tub, holding her body close.  There is nothing else in the bathroom beside Rihanna and the tub.  The director chooses to put just a bathtub in the room to represent the loneliness that Rihanna is feeling and to emphasize the loneliness in the lyrics and the loneliness of her relationship.

The main lyric that is sung throughout the whole song is stay. Rihanna is asking her partner to stay, while her partner is asking her to stay. Neither one can decide what to do. Should they stay in the unhappy relationship or should they leave? Rhianna is contemplating this in the scene. 

Rihanna appears defenseless in the images of the video, and so it seems in her relationship as well.  She is alone and seems to be sad.  She is vulnerable.  She appears to be singing about contemplating what to do next in her relationship, but she is confused.  She wants to stay and be in love, but it also seems that she is not happy.  She should not feel alone in her relationship, especially because she has someone, but she does.  Throughout the video the director gives visual clues as to how Rihanna is feeling through this image.  The emptiness and aloneness that she is feeling is shown through the singularity of Rihanna alone in a bathtub, and the bathtub alone in a room.  Her vulnerability is shown through her nakedness.  It seems that Rihanna does not know what to do or where to go from the place she is in, at this moment in time in her relationship.