Rihanna fans who have been waiting patiently for a little drop of new music from the star – and they’re in luck.
The Umbrella hitmaker, 37 – who just announced she’s expecting her third baby – is releasing Friend of Mine on Friday three years after her last music drop, which came in the form of Back Panther: Wakanda Forever’s Lift Me Up.
However, those hoping for an album will be disappointed, as the Barbadian singer’s clubby track is coming as a package deal with the new Smurfs film. Of course.
Rihanna dropped the trailer for the film on her social media page, which showed a snippet of Friend of Mine, which will feature on the film’s soundtrack.
Alongside the trailer, Rihanna wrote: ‘New #SmurfsMovie trailer featuring Friend Of Mine from the Smurfs soundtrack out Friday. pre-save now.’
While lots of fans expressed their excitement, others took this as a glimmer of hope that new music is on the horizon, however distant.
‘At least she’s in the studio,’ said sharanguru in a comment that was liked 31,000 times.
‘This is the closest so we’ll take it babe,’ said mushi_nana, while ryannavyrih added: ‘Rih in a studio.. do my eyes trick me?’
Rihanna was indeed in the studio in the clip, as she wore an aptly blue jacke, blue beads in her hair, and looked to be getting suitably into the task in hand.
Friend of Mine sees the Fenty mogul singing, ‘You’re looking like a friend of mine,’ over an Afrobeats-esque dance track.
In the film, set to hit cinemas on July 18, Rihanna voices Smurfette alongside John Goodman, James Corden, Nick Offerman, Sandra Oh and others.
The soundtrack also includes Higher Love, which dropped in February, by DESI TRILL, DJ Khaled, Cardi B, Natania, and Subhi. This track includes a sample of Belinda Carlisle’s 1987 classic Heaven Is a Place on Earth.
The teaser for the film – also produced by Rihanna – shows the outline of the plot, which will see residents of Smurf Village travel to the real works to save Papa Smurf after he’s kidnapped.
This comes after Rihanna showed up to the Met Gala on May 5 with her partner of five years A$AP Rocky and revealed she is pregnant with their third child, after the couple welcomed son Rakim Athelaston Mayers in 2022 and their second son, Riot Rose, the following year.
When asked by Entertainment Tonight whether baby number three was going to put Rihanna’s follow up to her eighth studio album Anti – released a whopping nine years ago – on pause for longer, she gave a teasing response.
‘No, maybe a couple of videos… I can still sing,’ she said on the red carpet.
Speaking to reporters, A$AP Rocky confirmed the news they were expecting again after Rihanna unveiled her baby bump: ‘It feels amazing, you know. It’s time that we show the people what we was cooking up. And I’m glad everybody’s happy for us ’cause we definitely happy, you know.’
He went on to tell AP: ‘Honestly, it’s a blessing nonetheless. Because you know how like some people in other situations at times can be envious of other people. But we’ve been seeing love for the most part. And we real receptive to that and appreciate that, you know what I mean? That’s love. Love is love.’
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