During the 2010 MTV Europe Music Awards , on November 10 , 2010 , Rihanna was interviewed by MTV News ' staff . In the interview she explained that , West already played his album to her three months ago and that " All of the Lights " was one of her favorite songs . About it , she further commented , " So when he asked me to come up to the studio at 2 o'clock in the morning , I had to , because I loved it , I knew it was that song . " In an interview for the same publication , Elly Jackson said of the song 's vocal layering , " He got me to layer up all these vocals with other people , and he just basically wanted to use his favorite vocalists from around the world to create this really unique vocal texture on his record , but it 's not the kind of thing where you can pick it out " . Andrew Dawson , Anthony Kilhoffer , Mike Dean , HI and Noah Goldstein recorded West 's vocals at Avex Recording Studios in Honolulu , Hawaii and Electric Lady Studios in New York City . Rihanna 's vocals were recorded by Marcos Tovar at the Westlake Recording Studios in West Hollywood , California
2010 MTV Europe Music Awards
2010 MTV Europe Music Awards
All of the Lights