Report: Rihanna’s new album is actually coming, with a tour planned for 2025

Take this report with a grain of salt, but a U.K. tabloid claims that Rihanna‘s return to music is imminent.

Yes, we’ve all been hearing this since 2016, but The Sun reports that this time it’s for real. The tabloid quotes a “well-placed music insider” as saying, “Finally the wait is almost over. Over the years so many songs have been recorded with loads of different people, including Alesso and Diplo.”

“She has gone from pop to reggae to hip-hop and everything in between,” continues the insider. “But because she wants it to sound fresh, and because of where Rihanna is at in her life, practically everything was scrapped. Some [songs] have been reworked but the majority was canned completely when she went back to the drawing board earlier this year.”

However, the insider claims that “things are finally coming together,” despite the fact that the album may arrive in 2025 rather than later this year due to the “slow pace of vinyl production.” 

Still, the insider says, “2025 is set to be her year with a giant tour in the works with Live Nation … there are a handful of artists she has been collaborating with this year to perfect the album. She knows the expectations are sky high but she wants to pull something out of the bag that is different from anything she has done before.”

Rihanna’s last album was 2016’s Anti-. Since then, she’s focused on building her beauty and clothing brands, and having children with her partner, A$AP Rocky.

Rihanna told Extra in April that her new music is “gonna be amazing” and added, “It has to be — that is the only reason it’s not out yet.”

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