Synopsis

Rihanna prepares for a performance while secretly caught between two relationships. At a restaurant, a discreet note reveals her connection with another man, who later appears as the pianist during her rehearsal. While her boyfriend sleeps, Rihanna arranges a secret meeting and slips away to see her lover. The parallel settings of the restaurant, rehearsal stage, and empty streets underline her divided loyalties. When the rehearsal ends, her boyfriend waits outside. She embraces him, but her tears reveal the guilt and emotional cost of the affair.

Factoids & Trivia

• The video was filmed on March 1-2, 2006, several months before its May 1 premiere on MTV.

• It was released during the promotional campaign for Rihanna's second studio album, "A Girl like Me."

• The pianist is also the man who writes Rihanna the note in the restaurant, linking the video's separate storylines through one character.

• The final embrace is designed as the video's emotional payoff: Rihanna returns to her boyfriend, but her tears make clear that the apparent reconciliation is not a happy resolution.

• "Unfaithful" received a Best International Song win at the 2007 NRJ Music Awards and a Best Music Video nomination at the 2007 Urban Music Awards.

• The video helped establish Rihanna's early move from straightforward performance clips toward narrative-driven videos built around character, secrecy, and emotional conflict.