Rihanna
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Grammy-winning superstar and billionaire beauty mogul Rihanna has been teasing her long-awaited ninth studio album for nearly a decade. In the years since the release of her 2016 album Anti, the Barbadian hitmaker has split her time between her business ventures and occasional music releases like the PartyNextDoor collab “Believe It” and the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever soundtrack entry “Lift Me Up.”
Now, three years later after “Lift Me Up,” Rihanna is back with another film soundtrack release: “Friend of Mine” from the forthcoming animated movie Smurfs. On the new song, Rihanna, who voices protagonist Smurfette in the new flick, trades the traditional pop and R&B sounds fans have come to expect for an up-tempo club track.
“Just met you tonight, but you feel like a friend of mine / Feel like a friend of mine, feel like a friend of mine / Feel like a friend of mine, feel like a friend of mine / How can so familiar be so brand new?” she sings.
As for what’s next for her musically, Rihanna told Harper’s Bazaar in February that she’s reached a breakthrough for the long-awaited R9.
“I think music is my freedom,” she said. “I just came to that realization. I just cracked the code on what I really want to do for my next body of work. I am actually feeling really good about this. I know I kept saying this over the years.”
“[I’m] feeling really optimistic. This feels right. It feels like it digs right into where I need to be, and I want this. This body needs to come out, and I’m ready to go there,” she added. “This is becoming my new freedom, because when I’m in the studio, I know that my time away from my kids is to blossom something that hasn’t been watered in eight years.”
She admitted she waffled on what sounds to go with for her next LP, resolving that it won’t resemble the radio-ready music of her dominating run in the 2000s and 2010s. “I know it’s not going to be anything that anybody expects. And it’s not going to be commercial or radio digestible. It’s going to be where my artistry deserves to be right now,” she said. “I feel like I’ve finally cracked it.”
Smurfs is in theaters July 18.
