Does Rihanna know what she started?
The singer posted a video on social media on Thursday (Feb 26) chronicling a night in her life, which included spending time in the studio in the early morning hours.
The sight of Rihanna in the studio was enough to have her fans reignite those embers of hope that her long-awaited ninth studio album could actually be on the way.
Her last album Anti was released a decade ago.
Since then, Rihanna and ASAP Rocky have welcomed three children. She has also raised said children, been a supportive partner during Rocky’s gun assault trial, built an empire in Savage x Fenty with a $1 billion valuation, and headlined the Apple Music Super Bowl LVII Halftime Show.
In a 2025 interview with Harper's Bazaar, Rihanna said she has been in the studio for “the whole eight years” since the release of Anti, but she could not figure out the direction that she wanted to take her ninth studio album.
“I was searching for it,” she said. “I went through phases of what I wanted to do. ‘This kind of album, not that album.’ 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. I feel like I’ve finally cracked it, girl!"
Rihanna seemed optimistic at the time about what her next album will be.
“I think music is my freedom. I just came to that realization,” she said. “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.”
The interview came a year after Rihanna sent her fans into a tailspin by announcing she was “starting over” on R9.