Hot off her performance at the Super Bowl, Rihanna has given fans a much-needed update on her return to music. In a new interview, the singer said it will be “ridiculous” if the project doesn’t get released this year.
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Rihanna’s last full-length effort, Anti, was shared in 2016. Given the extended hiatus, her fans have been growing ever-so antsy waiting for new material. Though she satiated them for a spell with her Black Panther theme “Lift Me Up,” they’ve all but demanded it’s high time for some classic Rihanna bops.
“I want it to be this year,” Rihanna told British Vogue. “Like, honestly, it’d be ridiculous if it’s not this year. But I just want to have fun. I just want to make music and make videos.”
Though that is exciting news for all of us that have been hitting replay on “Work” for the past seven years, the piece did include a caveat. Rihanna was not aware she was pregnant with her second child when the interview took place, which throws a potential wrench in her release timeline.
As to what prompted the break from music? “When you come off of an album like Anti… In hindsight, it really is my most brilliant album,” she told the publication.
“But there’s this pressure that I put on myself,” she continued. “That if it’s not better than that then it is not even worth it. … It’s not the right way to look at music because music is an outlet and a space to create, and you can create whatever. It doesn’t have to even be on any scale. It just has to be something that feels good. It could just be a song that I like. It literally could be that simple.”
Elsewhere in the conversation, Rihanna explained her decision to perform at the Super Bowl after previously turning it down in 2018 in solidarity with Colin Kaepernick.
“There’s still a lot of mending to be done in my eyes,” she said. “But it’s powerful to break those doors and have representation at such a high, high level and a consistent level.”
As a testament to just how in-demand Rihanna is right now, her Super Bowl performance was the second-most-watched halftime show of all time, averaging 118.7 million viewers. Katy Perry still holds the top spot with an average of 121 million.
(Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Roc Nation)
