God had other plans for me

Rihanna addressed her future in music at her most recent public appearance, fuelling fan speculation if she has another album in her.

• READ MORE: Rihanna: every album ranked and rated

The pop star and cosmetics mogul was in her native Barbados last Friday (November 7) to launch her latest products under the Fenty Beauty brand. In a speech to attendees, she talked about how her work in music – beginning with the 2005 album ‘Music of the Sun’ – laid the groundwork to her success today as an entrepreneur.

“Music was the thing that got the attention, but God had other plans for me,” she told the crowd. “And I was able to create in ways that were very sincere and genuine, or organic and authentic to the things that I love.”

Referring to Barbados, she said: “It doesn’t even feel like a job, but when you bring it home” before the crowd erupted into cheers.

rihanna last night:

“music was the thing that got the attention, but god had other plans for me” she is gone 😭 pic.twitter.com/3fop9I25jz

— 𝖌𝖆𝖇 (@gabgonebad) November 8, 2024

The clip has added fuel to the ongoing fan discourse on whether Rihanna – whose last album was 2016’s ‘Anti’ – is indeed done with music. For the past few years, Rihanna has gone full businesswoman mode with Fenty Beauty, and, save for a Super Bowl performance last year, has mainly shied away from making and performing music.

“She’s basically saying she’s retired”, one fan writes in response to a tweet with the quote. “Oh we’ll never get that album again guys”, another fan laments.

One fan chose to see it differently: “Notice how she said “had” because she’s releasing R9 soon wbk [we been knew]”, they wrote.

Rihanna also responded to Billie Eilish’s excitement upon hearing she is her dream musical collaborator. “She is the most ‘Anti’… coolest girl ever. In my mind, she doesn’t listen to commercial music, or anyone’s music,” she told Access Hollywood.

“I feel like she’s just creating her diary, vocally. You can feel like she is just zoned into who she is and what she’s experiencing [and] feeling, even if she doesn’t know what it is.”

The wait for a new album has been simmering all this time, and Rihanna knows it. In July, Rihanna sent a DM to GloRilla asking about new music: “I know dis wild hypocritical, but when the album drop?”.

In April, the star said she had material she felt she “could make hits out of”. Additionally, she told Extra that she felt the album would represent “the evolution” of her sound.

Earlier this week, Rihanna clapped back at critics who latched onto a joke she made about election fraud.