Not a day goes by where Rihanna fans fail to press the singer to release her highly anticipated ninth studio album. Rihanna, however, is infamously tight-lipped about the upcoming project, urging fans to be patient because it’s “going to be worth the wait.” But now, amid the continued pause on live music and touring, Rihanna is wary that a tour won’t even be possible for this album cycle.
In a recent interview with the Associated Press, Rihanna opened up about her current creative process, saying she’s trying to make up for not being able to tour: “I want to go on tour but I can’t, so I’m stuck with music that I love, and now I’m trying to figure out how I can even create visuals to that. That’s a challenge as well. But I love challenges so, you know, I’m gonna get it done.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Rihanna discussed which direction she took with the upcoming release, saying she’s asking herself some tough questions in order to figure out her sound: “What do I feel personally? What do I want to put out, and as an artist, how do I want to play it with my art? How do I want to interpret that?” she asks. “How do I want to reimagine it because it’s been so structured before,” Rihanna said, adding: “You do pop, you did this genre, you do that, you do radio, but now it’s just like, what makes me happy? I just want to have fun with music. Everything is so heavy. The world that we live in is a lot. It’s overwhelming every single day. And with the music, I’m using that as my outlet.”