HERE’S EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT RIHANNA’S NEW ALBUM, ‘R9’ | HO

Rihanna has confirmed she is working on her ninth album, dubbed R9 by fans

It’s unknown when it will be released, but Rihanna has confirmed that she is now ‘prepared to go back into the studio’

Here’s everything we know about Rihanna’s latest album so far

It’s been eight long years since her last album was released.

But good news – Rihanna has finally opened up about when we will be able to hear songs from her new record, nicknamed ‘R9’.

While the singer, 36, admitted that she is starting a lot of the tunes from scratch, she did confirm that plans are in place to put her ninth studio album out to her adoring fans.

But what will tracks be called, and what else has Rihanna said about her latest music? Here’s everything we know about R9 so far…

When will Rihanna’s new album be released? 

As of yet, it’s unknown when Rihanna will release her new music – but we do know that she’s working on it.

What will Rihanna’s new album be called? 

While it’s been dubbed ‘R9’ by her loyal fans – who call themselves the Rihanna Navy, thanks to the 2009 lyrics in G4L, “We’re an army, better yet a navy” – Rihanna is still unsure what she’s going to call her next record.

However, the singer has heard the nickname so many times, that she’s now considering using it as the album name!

In an interview with T magazine, Rihanna joked, “I’m about to call it that probably, ’cause they have haunted me with this. ‘R9, R9, when is R9 coming out?’ How will I accept another name, after that’s been burned into my skull?”

What are the track names on Rihanna’s new album? 

Of course, it’s still unclear what tracks will appear on Rihanna’s next album – but she has said it will be released unlike any of her others.

Telling Vogue magazine in 2022 that she is looking at her new material “completely differently from the way I had wanted to put it out before”, Rihanna added, “I think this way suits me better, a lot better. It’s authentic, it’ll be fun for me, and it takes a lot of the pressure off.”

While it’s been a while since we last had an album from the star, back in 2022, Rihanna released the lead single from the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever soundtrack, titled Lift Me Up.

It’s unknown if the track will make it onto the album.

What has Rihanna said about her new album? 

Although we definitely know that Rihanna is working on putting a new album out, it doesn’t sound like we’re going to be hearing it anytime soon.

At the launch for the latest products in her beauty empire, Fenty Hair, the Ocean’s 8 actor joked of the products, “This is probably the longest I’ve ever taken to create something… No, I lied, that’s R9.”

She added, “Music for me is a new discovery, I’m rediscovering things. I have been working on the album for so long that I just kind of put all that stuff aside.

“And now, I’m prepared to go back in the studio. Now I’m prepared, so I’m gonna start.”

While it sounds like Rihanna is totally starting the album from scratch again, she assured fans that there are some songs that she doesn’t want to abandon, so she’ll be revisiting them with “new ears” and a “new perspective”.

And the reason for the delay? The businesswoman – whose fortune of £1.4 billion has been made not only thanks to her music, but also her beauty and lingerie empires, as well as brand and fashion deals – is too busy!

“[I] used to be in the studio, only the studio, for three months straight,” Rihanna admitted in 2019, revealing that her life now is “fashion one day, lingerie the next, beauty the next, then music the next.”

“It really does suck that it can’t just come out, because I’m working on a really fun one right now,” she continued. “I’m really happy with a lot of the material we have so far, but I am not going to put it out until it’s complete.

“It makes no sense to rush it, but I want it out. 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.’”

When was Rihanna’s last album released?  

It’s been eight years since Rihanna last put an album out into the world, with 2016’s critically-acclaimed Anti featuring hits such as Work and Needed Me.