A Girl Like Me is the second album by Barbadianpop/R&B/dancehall singer Rihanna. The album was released through Def Jam Records on April 252006 (April 24th in the UK). The lead single "S.O.S. (Rescue Me)" has achieved considerable airplay throughout the United States and Canada and has reached high peak positions on both airplay charts. It contains samples of the 1981 cover version of "Tainted Love" from Soft Cell. It reached a peak postition of 2 on the UK Top 40, the same as her previous single "Pon De Replay". The album has so far sold over 900,000 copies in the US.
Rihanna has stated she has tried to incorporate more rock music into her album[citation needed], and this sound is shown on the song "Kisses Don't Lie". R&B artist Ne-Yo contributed writing to the album also, including the song "Unfaithful", which is the second single of the album. Rihanna said in an interview with Carson Daly that much of the music she sang on this album is music she would never have sung before[citation needed]. Rihanna has an original song called "crazy little thing called love", not to be confused with the song by Queen. Her third single, "We Ride" hit radio on August 21.
The album debuted at number five on the Billboard 200 with 115,000 copies sold in its first week, nearly twice the debut sales of Music of the Sun. It also debuted at number six on the UK Album Chart with 24,000 copies sold that week. The album sold 193,000 copies worldwide in its first week of release, and has shipped over 2 million copies worldwide.
(* appears on the iTunes editon of A Girl Like Me. As of 7/30/2006, the bonus tracks from "A Girl Like Me",iTunes edition have been deleted from the U.S. Store)
Producer: Mike City, Gussie Clarke, Don Corleon, Mikkel S. Eriksen,Tor E. Hermansen,Poke & Tone, Evan Rogers, Jonathan Rotem, Carl Sturken, The Conglomerate
Vocal producer: Makeba Riddick
Engineers: James Auwater, Donovan "Vendetta" Bennett, Franny "Franchise" Graham, Jeremy Harding, Al Hemberger, Malcolm Pollack, Jonathan Rotem, Tiger Stylz
Mastering: Chris Gehringer
Mixing: Jason Goldstein, Jason Groucott, Al Hemberger
A&R: Jay Brown, Adrienne Muhammad, Tyran "Ty Ty" Smith