“Does Rihanna know?” is the question all of the Bajan pop icon’s fans are asking this weekend amid rumors of her inking a multimillion-dollar deal ahead of her big comeback. A report quietly surfaced on Saturday (Oct. 21) purporting to have exclusive details about her plans.
“Rihanna is quietly planning a comeback tour after signing with Live Nation. The deal was created to facilitate a world tour, and her creative team is quietly at work in Los Angeles putting it all together as she raises her family. She’ll press play on the live show once she’s ready to go back to work and has two albums’ worth of material to release once she’s back,” wrote The Mirror. The outlet’s unsubstantiated claims state that the alleged deal is worth $38 million.
Rihanna quietly welcomed her and partner A$AP Rocky’s second child, a son named Riot Rose Mayers, in early August. The proud parents shared new family photos with their first-born son, RZA Athelston Mayers, in tow in September. The big reveal of her second pregnancy took the world by surprise in February. With more than 121 million eyes on her for the Super Bowl, the beauty mogul announced that her family was expanding by showing her growing belly.
Up until that point, her legion of fans, dubbed The Navy, were hopeful that she would be making her return to music. Rihanna may have fed those hopes just a little when she spoke with Apple Music about being in an experimental phase with music. “Musically, I’m feeling open,” she said. “I’m feeling open to exploring, discovering, creating, things that are new, things that are different, things that are off, weird, [that] might not ever make sense to my fans. You know, the people that know the music that I put out.”
The multifaceted artist has not released a new project since 2016’s Anti. Fans did, however, get two new songs, “Born Again” and “Lift Me Up,” which were featured on the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever soundtrack last year. The latter record also earned the superstar her first Oscar nomination for Best Original Song at the 2023 Academy Awards in March.