Rihanna is determined to release her long-awaited ninth studio album in 2023.
The superstar released seven albums in the first eight years of her career, but after dropping her eighth LP ‘Anti’ in 2016 she stepped away from the studio in favour of other ventures.
Following her phenomenal Super Bowl Halftime Show performance, the Work hitmaker has opened up about the status of new material, installing it’s finally coming.
“I want it to be this year,” she 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.”
Although the feature made it clear the singer was not aware she was pregnant at the time of speaking, Rihanna appeared to have big ideas for the project.
Explaining the delays, she continued: “When you come off of an album like ‘Anti’… In hindsight, it really is my most brilliant album.
“But there’s this pressure that I put on myself. 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.”
Insisting that if she kept waiting “until this feels right and perfect and better”, a new album would never get released, Rihanna concluded: “So I want to play. And by play, I mean I have my ideas in my head, but I can’t say them out loud yet.”
