Rihanna’s Anti Turns 10: When Is New Music Coming? What the Singer Has Said About Her Elusive Next Album

2019: She Has Not Had Time to Go to the Studio

Updating Vogue on the status of the reggae album, she clarified that it would be more “reggae-inspired or reggae-infused.”

At the time, she was “trying to get back in the studio.”

She explained: “It’s not like I can lock myself in for an extended amount of time, like I had the luxury of doing before. I know I have some very unhappy fans who don’t understand the inside bits of how it works.”

There will be more music, she promised, adding she could never foresee a day when she would fully retire.

2019: She Doesn’t Want to Rush the Album

Although the reggae-tinged album is “a really fun one,” she told Interview magazine, she isn’t going to put it out until it’s fully “complete.”

“I’ve gotten to the point where I’m like, “Even if I don’t have the time to shoot videos, I’m going to put an album out,” Rihanna said.

Still, when pressed for a release date, she could not give an estimate.

2019: R9 Is Allegedly Done but She Refuses to Release It

She teased fans at the end of the year by sharing a video with the caption: “update: me listening to R9 by myself and refusing to release it.”

2020: She Likes to Tease Her Fans

When asked about the album by Entertainment Tonight‘s Rachel Smith, she cryptically replied, “To be continued.”

She added: “I like to antagonise my fans a little bit. Well, they antagonise me, too! So they get it right back.”

Smith frequently follows up with the singer at other red carpets, and each time, she only gives a vague assurance that new music will come.

2020: The Album Won’t Be Reggae, Actually

For British Vogue‘s March 2020 cover story, she revealed she pivoted from the reggae concept — though it will happen at some point.

“I feel like I have no boundaries,” she explained. “I’ve done everything — I’ve done all the hits, I’ve tried every genre — now I’m just, I’m wide open. I can make anything that I want.” 

2022: She’s Changing the Way She Views R9

“I’m looking at my next project completely differently from the way I had wanted to put it out before. I think this way suits me better, a lot better,” she told Vogue. “It’s authentic, it’ll be fun for me, and it takes a lot of the pressure off.”

2023: She Wants to Make Music and Music Videos

Ahead of her Super Bowl halftime show performance, she admitted to British Vogue that she wanted the next album to come that year. (She revealed her second pregnancy during the show, and the album did not arrive.)

“Maybe it’ll never come out and no, I’m not down to that,” said Rihanna. “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.”

She continued: “I just want to make music and make videos. … I need the right background music with the visuals. I can’t just go shoot a video to me talking.”

2024: She Has Visual Ideas

To Interview magazine in 2024, she said that she has ideated the visuals before the music.

“Now I’m having all of these visuals, and I don’t have the songs for them yet, but maybe that’s the key, this time,” she pondered. “Maybe the visual ideas are leading me to the songs that I need to make.

2024: Life Has Led Her Away from Music

At the launch of Fenty Beauty cosmetics in her home country of Barbados, she told party attendees: “Music was the thing that got the attention. But God had other plans for me and I was able to create in ways … that were very sincere and genuine or organic and authentic to the things that I love.”

2025: R9 Won’t Be Commercially Friendly

Her most recent album update might be her most substantial yet. She’s “cracked the code” on the direction for her ninth album, she told Harper’s Bazaar.

“This much time away from music needs to count for the next thing everyone hears,” the “Work” singer acknowledged. “It has to count. It has to matter. I have to show them the worth in the wait. I cannot put up anything mediocre.”

Though she had gone into the studio for the last eight years, she had not figured out an approach that aligned with her current place in life — until now.

“It’s not going to be anything that anybody expects. And it’s not going to be commercial or radio digestible,” Rihanna teased. “It’s going to be where my artistry deserves to be right now.”