Rihanna’s publicist Amanda Silverman, has confirmed that the pop star has new music on the way.
According to Silverman, Rihanna is set to launch an album, and lucky for us, it will be happening in neighboring Kenya.
“Well, she has been working on her new album behind the scenes. It is long overdue and the plan is to launch the album in Kenya in the summer. Everything is ready, just waiting for the baby to arrive,” Silverman noted.
The publicist did not give further information but urged the singer’s fans to get ready for the big comeback.
Last year marks the longest period that fans have gone without a new Rihanna record. Her previous full-length was 2016’s Anti, a triple-Platinum album best known for its chart-topping single – and one of her frequent collabs with Drake — “Work.” Anti-followed 2012’s Unapologetic, which contained arguably Rihanna’s biggest song, “Diamonds.”
“So, so far it’s just been R9, thanks to the Navy,” Rihanna said in a 2019 interview with The New York Times, referencing her followers’ fandom name. “I’m about to call it [“R9”] probably, because they have haunted me with this “R9, R9, when is R9 coming out?” How will I accept another name after that’s been burned into my skull?”
Riri has been teasing the album since 2018, first stating in an Instagram comment responding to questions of R9’s whereabouts that it’d be coming in 2019. Of course, that year came and went with no signs of an album.
In July 2020, while doing a promotional tour for Fenty Beauty, Rihanna explained why it’s been taking so long to finish her ninth studio album. “I can’t wait to put something out that I’m really proud of and excited about,” she said in an interview with Access Hollywood.
“It probably is gonna be sooner than my fans think, but I’m just gonna leave that alone because I got enough stress, questions, and, ‘R9, when’s the album coming.’ They don’t leave me alone. I haven’t neglected them. Music is still my baby.”