Please don’t stop the music.
That’s what members of Rihanna’s “Navy” of fans have implored of the superstar, who hasn’t released an album since 2016’s Anti.”
And now that the singer has revealed that she is pregnant with her third child with A$AP Rocky — making her baby bump debut at the Met Gala on Monday night — she was asked if her long-awaited ninth studio LP, referred to as “R9,” might be further delayed.
“Noooooo!” she told Entertainment Tonight, although she admitted some aspects might have to wait. “Maybe a couple videos. But I can [still] sing.”
Rihanna, 37, already shares sons RZA, nearly 3, and Riot Rose, 1, with Rocky, who was one of the co-chairs of this year’s Met Gala, held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute in Manhattan.
As she closed the blue carpet at the star-studded event — wearing a cropped Marc Jacobs suit jacket, wool bustier top and pinstripe skirt — Rihanna joked with reporters that “I brought the kid.”
She added to ET: “I’m shockingly feeling OK and not too overwhelmed at the moment.”
But she admitted to having some issues earlier in her pregnancy. “At first, it was kinda like, ‘Ahhhhhhhh,’ and ‘I’m tired,’” the nine-time Grammy winner said. “But then I’m excited.”
Rocky, 36, also gushed about expecting their third child at the Met Gala.
“We were tired of holding that, and it was time to show the people what we was cooking up,” he told the Associated Press. “I’m glad everybody’s happy for us, because we’re definitely happy.”
Shakira panicked when she thought she accidentally revealed Rihanna’s pregnancy at the Met Gala.
“Rihanna, I want to see her! Yeah, I want to see her so bad,” she told NBC News. “And I just heard the news too.”
When the reporter appeared to be confused about Shakira’s comment, the Colombian superstar replied, “She’s pregnant.” But quickly realizing that the reporter didn’t know about Rihanna’s pregnancy yet, she asked, “Was I not supposed to say that?”
Rihanna and Rocky announced they were expecting their first child in January 2022 with a sweet photoshoot taken in New York City. Rihanna debuted her baby bump while wearing a pink jacket, while Rocky wore blue.
At the time, the pair didn’t reveal if they were expecting a boy or a girl. Their son RZA was born four months later.
Less than a year later, Rihanna confirmed her second pregnancy while performing at the 2023 Super Bowl halftime show. She gave birth to Riot Rose that August.
As for “R9,” Rihanna recently told Harper’s Bazaar that contrary to rumors, the album would not be reggae.
“There’s no genre now. That’s why I waited,” she said in her March cover story. “After a while, I looked at it, and I was like, this much time away from music needs to count for the next thing everyone hears. It has to count. It has to matter.
“I have to show them the worth in the wait,” she continued. “I cannot put up anything mediocre. After waiting eight years, you might as well just wait some more.”
Content shared from nypost.com.