Aktuelle Hits verstehen: „Russian Roulette“ by Rihanna
Muttersprachler David Fermer erklärt, worum es in „Russian Roulette“ geht. Wer auf das Bild links klickt, bekommt den Text auch von ihm vorgelesen:
Exactly one year ago, in February 2009, the pop star Rihanna was the victim of a personal tragedy. The domestic violence she suffered at the hands of her then boyfriend, Chris Brown, made the headlines across the world when a police photograph of Rihanna's injured face was secretly given to the press. It was a dramatic moment, not just for Rihanna fans, but for people all over the world. It was also a scary wake-up call that domestic violence can happen anywhere.
One year later, Rihanna hasn't only left Chris Brown behind her and ended what was clearly a very bad relationship, she has also created a new album, „Rated R“. The „R“ almost definitely stands for Rihanna, but it could also stand for „Russian Roulette“, the title of the album's lead single. Russian roulette is a horrific life and death game involving a gun and a bullet and a 1 in 6 chance of being killed.
Rihanna takes the horror of this „game“ and uses it to talk about the pain she has been through. „Take a breath, take it deep / calm yourself / he says to me. If you play, you play for keeps / Take a gun, and count to three ...“ These are strong images and strong words, especially when you know what Rihanna has been through over the last twelve months. And then in the chorus, Rihanna sings as if she is talking directly to us: „And you can see my heart beating / You can see it through my chest / And I'm terrified, but I'm not leaving / I know that I must pass this test / So just pull the trigger“.
It is almost as if Rihanna is talking about herself, about the test of this last year, about the broken heart which the whole world saw, about her pain and fear. But through all of this, Rihanna has won respect from her public. She has spoken openly about what happened to her, about her shame for having loved someone who could hurt her so badly, and at the end of it all, she has come back to the one thing she can really trust: her music.
Vokabeln:
victim = Opfer,
domestic violence = häusliche Gewalt
injured = verletzt
bullet = Kugel
pain = Schmerz
to play for keeps = im Ernst spielen
chest = Brustkorb
to pull the trigger = abdrücken
to hurt = wehtun
to trust = vertrauen
