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One of the questions Rihanna gets asked repeatedly is when she'll release a new album.
The singer joked that she continues to work on new music, and she made it clear that she is not retiring, despite what her T-shirt says.
“People rebelled against the word retirement,” Rihanna said in an interview with Entertainment Tonight, explaining a photo of her wearing a T-shirt with the phrase “I'm Retired” emblazoned on it.
She continued, “They were like, 'There's no more albums coming out.' Nobody read the other parts. It was like, 'This is my best dressed thing.'
Rihanna also said she is ready to get back into the studio while rediscovering music.
“I think for me, music is discovery,” she said. “I'm rediscovering a lot of things. I've been working on an album for a long time, so I've put all that aside and I'm ready to get back in the studio. Here we go. Hold on!”
Rihanna has been teasing the release of a new album for years, even going so far as to say in 2023 that she wanted to release it that year and had recorded new music. While she said she'll be “starting over” with R9, she said, “I don't want to ignore the songs that I have, so I want to really go back and listen to them with new ears, with new perspectives, and see what holds true and what I'm still passionate about.”
The singer's last studio album was 2016's Anti. She has released several singles since then, including “Lift Me Up” from the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever soundtrack.
In a separate interview, Rihanna reiterated that she was “not retired,” telling Extra magazine, “I'm not retired. I just loved that dress. I got it as a gift and I loved it…”