Earlier this year, Rihanna made her return to music with a jaw-dropping Super Bowl halftime performance that compiled two decades of her chart-topping pop career into a truly iconic 13 minutes. With 118.7 million people tuning in to watch her comeback, it became the second most viewed halftime show in history, second only to Katy Perry in 2015 (the power of her left shark).
There were rumours this would be the dawn of a new era for the popstar turned Fenty founder, leading to the highly anticipated release of her ninth studio album and a world tour. However, these were quickly shut down with the announcement Rih would instead simply be performing on the world’s biggest stage at the Super Bowl. Mourning the loss of a confirmed album, we watched her soar through the air on that floating platform, while pregnant with her second child. Iconic!
Now though, rumours are once again swirling that Rihanna is planning her follow up to 2016’s Anti, as well as a major stadium tour across the globe in 2024 and 2025 after reported talks with Live Nation. There were also rumours of a documentary, what happened to that? Here’s everything we know. Come on gays, let’s break it down.
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Are we getting new music from Rihanna soon?
The short answer: maybe? In an interview with the Associated Press in late 2022, Rihanna set the record straight about the Super Bowl: that fans should see the performance as an unconnected, entirely separate event to the arrival of a new album. “Super Bowl is one thing. New music is another thing. Do you hear that, fans?” she said. “The second that I announced this, I said, ‘Oh, my God, they’re going to think my album is coming. I need to get to work.’” Speaking to Good Morning America in February 2023, she added that no timeline is currently in place: “I’m excited to actually put new music out but I don’t have any updates for you on that yet.”
But fear not! In October 2023, Entertainment Tonight gave us a bit more details on when we might hear new music from Rih, revealing: “fans can take comfort that there will be new music from the singer in the new year.” Will this be a new album? A new single? A new song for another movie soundtrack? Maybe we’ll be blessed with all three.
What’s the next Rihanna album called?
While elusive artists like Frank Ocean have peppered teasers on social media, enough for fans to start at least making wild guesses at what’s coming next, Rihanna fans have nothing for Rihanna’s next standalone record. It’s unlikely her music will bear any of the same titles of her fashion or beauty ranges.
What will Rihanna’s next album sound like?
Now this we have heard hints about. Speaking at a Savage x Fenty show in 2021, RiRi told journalists: “You’re not going to expect what you hear.” Genre-wise, she’s done it all, from EDM to rock-pop to R&B. She told Vogue, back in October 2019, that the record would be reggae inspired, which would align with her more recent statements.
In terms of collaborators, well, a feature from her partner A$AP Rocky wouldn’t be a huge surprise. In pre-COVID times, she also posted on Instagram Stories alluding to being in the studio with The Neptunes, the production duo of Pharrell and Chad Hugo. One of Rihanna’s most recent vocal features was, of course, with N.E.R.D. on “Lemon”. That was so long ago though, that that music might have been scrapped, but knowing they’ve worked well together before, it’s likely Pharrell will be involved somehow.
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What is the release date of the next Rihanna album?
Every time Rihanna has loosely dated new music, saying it’s coming “soon” or, as she said in 2018, “next year”, it’s never materialised. So it’s best to stop hoping quite so hard for a solid timeline. Speaking around a Savage x Fenty launch, Rihanna told Access Hollywood: “In the past, I’d shoot out an album in three months, but now, I don’t have the luxury of doing that because I have this other baby.” The baby she was referring to was Savage x Fenty; now she has an actual baby… two, actually! But with her first live performance under her belt, who knows whether it may inspire Rihanna to finally drop the much-anticipated R9.
So what were those rumours about the Rihanna stadium tour?
We all got instantly hyped when rumours swirled that Rihanna was planning to go on tour after her Super Bowl performance. After all, The Sun reported that insiders close to her said she has plans to announce a tour of both North America and Europe. The rumours suggested the North American dates of the tour would be in 2023 with Europe to follow in 2024, and that it would follow an unusual set up in that “her plan is to set up mini residencies in major cities rather than visit multiple places”.
This rumoured timeline was interrupted with the announcement that Rihanna was pregnant with her second child during her Superbowl performance. But in October 2023, both Entertainment Tonight and The Daily Mirror reported that Rihanna is planning to go on tour over 2024 and 2025 after striking a deal with live music entertainment company Live Nation. Soon after though, Billboard reported that a source close to Rihanna herself denied their was a tour confirmed, calling the claims “bogus”. What is the truth?!? It seems we’ll have to wait a little longer to see if these tour rumours manifest.
If and when the tour does happen, though, it may be your last chance to hear Rihanna perform live in a long time. The source speaking to The Sun also added Rihanna “wants her next global outing to be swift and easy as she plans to refocus on Fenty Beauty and Savage X Fenty after her brief return to music.” Since, Rihanna has stepped down as CEO of Savage x Fenty, but it would make sense that she would look to capitalise on the success of a mammoth, throwback-hits tour right now after the unprecedented success of recent world tours from Taylor Swift, Beyoncé and Madonna.
When can I watch the Rihanna documentary?
This is a tricky one. The-six-and-a half-years-in-the-making film is finished according to director Peter Berg (the producer behind Friday Night Lights). However, he adds Rihanna still needs to approve the final cut. “It’s done and sold, and Amazon’s ready,” Peter told The Hollywood Reporter in a recent interview. “She’s a perfectionist, so we keep adding. It’s been six and a half years of filming, so, yeah, it’s ready to come out. We’re just waiting on her to say, ‘Yeah, let’s do it.’ I don’t know. Maybe it’ll be a 10-year project.” No Peter, don’t say that! But the filmmaker isn’t all that worried about getting RiRi’s blessing: “When Rihanna asked me to make a doc, I thought she was joking. My work tends to be a bit more masculine, at least on the surface. But this has allowed me to dip in and out of her life while I’m doing other things.”
He continues, “I’ve loved it — watching her in the studio, seeing her turn Fenty into this billion-dollar entity and, now, being a mom. It’s such an enriching experience, I don’t really care how long it takes.” So when can you watch the Rihanna doc? The TL;DR version is: whenever mother says.