FEATURE:
Lift Me Up
Rihanna at Thirty-Five: An Ultimate Playlist
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IT has been a busy and exciting time…
PHOTO CREDIT: Samir Hussein
for Rihanna recently. In addition to confirming at her Superbowl performance that she is expecting her second child with A$AP Rocky, there is talks about a new album. Her last, 2016’s ANTI, is among her best. Rihanna herself hopes to get an album out this year but, with motherhood very much taking priority, it may be delayed. I wanted to get to a playlist of her best work, as Rihanna is thirty-five on 20th February. I have done a Rihanna playlist before but, as she has this big birthday coming up, I want to do another one. Before that, British Vogue recently interviewed Rihanna. The talk turned to the subject of a new album:
“With dawn still an hour away, now seems as good a time as any to face the moment all interviewers must face. The moment you ask Rihanna about her plans to release a new album. Anti, her last, came out in 2016, and in the years since she has fluctuated between blind optimism and borderline anger in the face of incessant fan and media questioning. But I’ve never seen her so up for it. “You can ask!” she says when I broach the subject.
She’s been thinking a lot about her process lately. “When you come off of an album like Anti…” she begins cautiously, then visibly decides to just spit it out. “In hindsight, it really is my most brilliant album. I say that because in the moment, I didn’t realise it. But it always felt like the most cohesive album I’ve ever made. When you break it down and you realise this album goes from ‘Work’ to ‘Kiss It Better’ to ‘Needed Me’ to ‘Love on the Brain’ to ‘Sex with Me’ to ‘Desperado’.” She beams. “And somehow it all fits and not for a second did you glitch?”
PHOTO CREDIT: Inez & Vinoodh
The variety is exquisite. “Right? It’s like a DJ’s worst nightmare,” she says. “But there’s this pressure that I put on myself. That if it’s not better than that then it is not even worth it.” That’s such a toxic pressure. “It is toxic. You’re right. It’s not the right way to look at music because music is an outlet and a space to create, and you can create whatever. It doesn’t have to even be on any scale. It just has to be something that feels good. It could just be a song that I like. It literally could be that simple.”
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She sits up tall. “So I realised 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.”
Rihanna never stopped recording. The past years are littered with songs she’s fallen in and out of love with. She says that listening back to an unreleased song is “almost like trying to dress like you used to dress. It’s like, ‘Ew, no. I would never wear those again.’ Your taste changes, your vibe changes.” But all being well, I venture, a new album this year?
“I want it to be this year,” she says, at this stage very much unaware she is pregnant again. “Like, honestly, it’d be ridiculous if it’s not this year. But I just want to have fun. I just want to make music and make videos.” She misses the visuals almost more than music. “And I need the right background music with the visuals. I can’t just go shoot a video to me talking,” she says, laughing once again.
You seem very happy, I marvel, taking her in: cosy, comfortable, fully relaxed now. The night is still as inky black as when we sat down but we’ve both enjoyed being lit up by her diamonds. “I am very happy!” she says. Do you think you’ll want more children? “Well…” she says. Well, indeed. In a few short weeks, pregnant and oh so powerful, her bump encased in cardinal red Loewe, a futuristic empress in a sweeping Alaïa cloak, she will float on a glass-effect platform high above State Farm Stadium in Arizona, letting close to 120 million live television viewers know in unison that baby number two is on the way. Only Rihanna.
And why stop at two? You told this magazine in 2020 that… “Wait, what did I say?” she squeals, faux panicking. That you wanted three or four. “Oh shit,” she says, laughing. “You really gotta be careful with your mouth.”
“Listen, I’m down for whatever. My wish would be I would like to have more kids but whatever God wants for me, I’m here.” I guess now Rocky’s got his son, you can have whatever you like next? “I’m open,” she says. “Girl, boy. Whatever.” And with that, she beams once more”.
To celebrate a possible new Rihanna album this year, mark her recent Superbowl Half Time performance and also, crucially, pay tribute to her ahead of her thirty-fifth birthday, below are some hits and deeper cuts that showcase her amazing music through the years. There is no confirmed date of a ninth studio album – although it is likely to come later in the year. As artists go, there are few that can match Rihanna. It is clear that she is…
A true legend.