Rihanna defends her collaboration with Chris Brown

Rihanna has defended her recent collaboration with her ex-boyfriend Chris Brown.
The singer caused controversy when she teamed up with Brown on a remix of her track 'Birthday Cake'. He had previously attacked her on the evening of the 2009 Grammy Awards and was subsequently sentenced to five years of probation and six months of community labour, with a US court rejecting his plea to end his probation term last month.

But Rihanna has now spoken for the first time about their collaboration and claims that she recruited him because of his success.

She told Ryan Seacrest on his US radio station KIIS FM:

I reached out to him about doing 'Birthday Cake' because that's the only person that really made sense to do the record.

The singer added: "I thought about rappers, and I've done that so many times, and the hottest R&B artist out right now is Chris Brown. So I wanted him on the track. Just as a musician, despite everything else, that was going to be the person."

Rihanna was recently warned by her former church pastor Bishop Vibert Lowe to stay away from her ex-boyfriend. He said: "After all he did, I'd tell her to steer clear of him. He's not the correct influence on her life."

She will return to the UK this summer to headline Wireless Festival.