Rihanna holds many titles, including youngest self-made billionaire, fashion mogul and mom, just to name a few.
But she hasn’t forgotten about the one that made her famous: popstar.
In a new interview for British Vogue’s March cover story, Rihanna, 34, opened up about motherhood, her Super Bowl gig and the ever-present question of new music on the horizon.
The Barbadian singer hasn’t released an album since “ANTI” in 2016, and confessed in the new interview that there’s a lot of “pressure” to put out a follow-up record, saying “that if it’s not better than that then it is not even worth it.”
“I realized that if I keep waiting until this feels right and perfect and better, maybe it’s going to keep taking forever and maybe it’ll never come out and no, I’m not down to that. So I want to play. And by play, I mean I have my ideas in my head, but I can’t say them out loud yet,” she shared.
But fans hopefully won’t have to wait long — Rihanna wants a new album to come out this year.
“Like, honestly, it’d be ridiculous if it’s not this year,” Rihanna said, expressing a sentiment that all of her fans feel as well.
If that’s the case, the new mom is in for a very busy year. During Rihanna’s Super Bowl 2023 halftime show, fans online speculated that the singer is again pregnant, which turned out to be true. Shortly after her highly anticipated set, RiRi’s reps confirmed that she and rapper A$AP Rocky, 34, are indeed expecting a second child together.
Rihanna called the experience of pregnancy a “head f–k.”
“It’s everything. You really don’t remember life before, that’s the craziest thing ever,” she said of giving birth to her first child last May, whose name has not yet been revealed to the public. “You literally try to remember it — and there are photos of my life before — but the feeling, the desires, the things that you enjoy, everything, you just don’t identify with it because you don’t even allow yourself mentally to get that far, because … because it doesn’t matter.”
She added, “Essentially, from one person I became two. You walk into the hospital as a couple and leave as a family of three. It’s nuts.”
Rihanna recently credited motherhood for being part of the reason she agreed to perform the halftime show, and echoed those statements in British Vogue, admitting that having a child made her re-evaluate a lot.
“Raising a young black man is one of the scariest responsibilities in life,” she shared. “You’re like, ‘What am I leaving my kids to? This is the planet they’re gonna be living on?’”
The Fenty Beauty CEO was previously approached to do the halftime show for Super Bowl 2019 in Atlanta, but turned it down due to the NFL controversy surrounding Colin Kaepernick.
RiRi clearly changed her mind about performing, and while she still thinks there’s work to be done, she felt it was important to have consistent diversity.
“There’s still a lot of mending to be done in my eyes, but it’s powerful to break those doors, and have representation at such a high, high level and a consistent level,” she said.
“Two Super Bowls back-to-back, you know, representing the urban community, globally. It is powerful. It sends a really strong message,” she added, referring to last year’s headliners of Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Mary J. Blige and Kendrick Lamar.
It would be hard for Rihanna to top her own NFL halftime pregnancy reveal — during her first live performance in seven years, no less — but she may not be done upping the ante just yet. The interviewer at British Vogue reminded the star that she had told the magazine in 2020 that she wanted three or four kids, to which Rihanna responded, laughing, “Oh s–t. You really gotta be careful with your mouth.”
The March issue of British Vogue will be available on newsstands and via digital download from on Feb. 21.