Rihanna Turned Down This Huge Hit Song by Pitbull to Work With Shakira Instead 

Rihanna and Shakira released their song “Can’t Remember to Forget You” in 2013, and one of them had to turn down another massive hit to record the track. Here’s what Pitbull said about Rihanna passing on his song “Timber” and what Shakira shared about working with the Barbadian singer.

Pitbull and Kesha collaborated on the song ‘Timber,’ but Rihanna was the rapper’s first choice

The Pitbull song “Timber” featuring Kesha was released in October 2013 as the lead single from the rapper’s Meltdown EP. The track interpolates Lee Oskar’s 1978 song “San Francisco Bay” and features harmonica playing by Paul Harrington. 

According to Billboard, “Timber” was the 90th-most popular song of the decade. It peaked at No. 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 for three consecutive weeks and topped the charts in over 15 additional countries. In 2014, the song sold 9.6 million units worldwide, making it the sixth best-selling song of that year. 

“Timber” was not Kesha’s first collaboration with Pitbull – she had previously featured the rapper on remixes of her songs “Tik Tok” and “Crazy Kids,” Pitbull featured her on his 2009 hit “Girls.”

But Kesha was not Pitbull’s first choice for “Timber” – he once revealed that Rihanna was the first artist he asked to contribute to the song. 

Pitbull said Rihanna turned down ‘Timber’ to do a song with Shakira instead

In a 2013 interview with KiddNation, Pitbull opened up about why Rihanna passed on his song “Timber.”

“You can have an artist that you want to work with on that record, it won’t be that artist that ends up on that record,” said the rapper. “But the artist that does end up on that record happens to be the perfect fit.”

“I mean, let’s just say Kesha, I want to thank you very much for giving us an amazing collaboration with ‘Timber,’ which is doing great all around the world,” he continued. “With that said, that is an ironic situation there. The person we were looking at first to work on that record was actually Rihanna. And Rihanna had, I think, something she had to do with Shakira and wasn’t able to work on our record.”

But ultimately, he was pleased with how the collaboration with Kesha turned out.  “And happened to be Kesha, we were on tour with her, and she’s crazy, sexy, cool, wild, and fun,” Pitbull said. 

Shakira said her ‘Can’t Remember to Forget You’ collaborator was the ‘sexiest woman on the planet’

The Shakira song “Can’t Remember to Forget You” featuring Rihanna was released in January 2014, just a few months after Pitbull and Kesha released “Timber.” The single centered around Shakira and Rihanna lamenting their inability to get over their toxic lovers.

Shakira gushed about working with the “Diamonds” singer, calling her a “sweet teacher.” “Working with Rihanna was utopia. She’s the sexiest woman on the planet,” the Colombian singer told Glamour magazine (per Songfacts). “And at the end of the day, we’re both just basically Caribbean girls. The chemistry was so good and so real. She taught me dance moves. She was a sweet teacher.”