#BajanVibes – The wait goes on . . . R9 album seems on hold

A British newspaper has reported that Rihanna has reportedly shelved plans for her ninth studio album to concentrate on “becoming a beauty billionaire”.

According to The Sun, the singer, 32, who hasn’t released an album since 2016, has decided there’s more cash in fashion and cosmetics than in music — especially after COVID-19’s disruption in the arts world.

The publication writes that Rihanna has trademarked a new line called Buff Ryder, with insiders saying: “Rihanna’s ninth album is on hold indefinitely. She wants to make her millions with beauty and is planning a new skincare line to go alongside her Fenty Cosmetics range. Her lingerie range has gone down so well too that she feels she needs to strike while the iron’s hot. Whenever she drops pictures of her modelling the gear, sales go up.”

The singer has amassed a fortune of an estimated BDS$1,216 million and, despite releasing a new album annually in her musical heyday, has cooled off on the singing front in recent years.

The story states: “Fans hopes for [a ninth album] will be kept on hold while Rihanna builds her beauty empire as she plots to become the next beauty billionaire. She’s realised there is more money in the beauty game than music as record sales die down and live touring faces big competition.”

Fans have been desperate for new music since she released Anti — her eighth album— four years ago.

And Rihanna has only egged them on, teasing new musical projects over the months, originally announcing at the end of 2018 that she would release a new album by the end of 2019. That didn’t happen; but she hinted to fans in December 2019 that she had recorded it and was just keeping it back.

“Update: me listening to R9 by myself and refusing to release it,”  the singer wrote in the caption of a video she posted a few days before 2019 came to a close. R9 was an obvious reference to her much-anticipated ninth album. (IMC)