A Rihanna 2023 tour could be coming

Rihanna’s return to music is finally under way, but despite us getting two whole new tracks from the Black Panther score in 2022, it may not play out as you might expect. In an interview with the Associated Press, Rihanna set the record straight about her forthcoming Super Bowl performance: that fans should see the performance as an unconnected, entirely separate event to the arrival of a new album. “Super Bowl is one thing. New music is another thing. Do you hear that, fans?” she said. “The second that I announced this, I said, ‘Oh, my God, they’re going to think my album is coming. I need to get to work.’”

But while it may still be a little while yet before we get the follow up record to 2016’s acclaimed Anti, The Sun reports that insiders close to the Fenty Founder say she plans to announce a tour of both North America and Europe after her halftime performance! This may be your last chance to hear Rihanna perform live in a long time though, with the source adding: “she wants her next global outing to be swift and easy as she plans to refocus on Fenty Beauty and Savage X Fenty after her brief return to music.” No, take that back!!!

Subscribe to i-D NEWSFLASH. A weekly newsletter delivered to your inbox on Fridays.

There’s also a documentary six and a half years in the making that is directed by Friday Night Lights executive producer Peter Berg and recently sold to Amazon Studios that we can expect to indulge in soon too. 2023, it seems, will be the year of Rihanna supremacy. Here’s everything we know about her Super Bowl performance, the tour, a documentary and R9. Come on gays, let’s break it down.

What will Rihanna perform at her 2023 Super Bowl halftime show?

While there is no word on what songs Rihanna will perform, a trailer for the performance showed Rihanna nonchalantly posing in a furry lime-green coat, black bodysuit and a sculptural hairdo, as different voice overs ask where the new music is play over the top. Rihanna then puts a silencing finger to her lips, and “Needed Me”, from 2016’s Anti, begins to play. Perhaps, this is a clue to one of the songs that will be included in her set? With Riri having teased fans with a return to music for years though, some are gearing up for an event that looks something like this: 

We jest! But even without new music, Rihanna has the back catalogue to put on one legendary half-time performance.

How do I get tickets to see Rihanna at the Super Bowl?

Tickets for the following year’s Super Bowl go on sale shortly after the event happens in February, so die-hard football fans have had the chance to snag tickets to the event for seven months now. But following Rihanna’s announcement as the half-time performer, there was an unprecedented surge in ticket interest. According to AceOdds.com, who picked through Google Trends data, there was a search increase of 9900% for Super Bowl tickets in the 24 hours after she posted that cryptic football pic.

If you’re looking to head down IRL, instead of watching it on TV like the rest of us, you better be prepared to fork out serious cash! Ticketmaster have a series of VIP packages that currently lead to dead links, which makes us think they’ve sold out completely.

There are, as always, resale tickets via VividSeats — but they’re not cheap. Nosebleed stadium seats are currently going for around $4800, if you fancy seeing Rih-ANT-a. Tickets for the lower pitch levels are priced between $15,000 and $40,000.

What’s the next Rihanna album called?

While elusive artists like Frank Ocean and Lorde have peppered teasers on social media, enough for fans to start at least making wild guesses at what’s coming next, Rihanna fans have nothing for Rihanna’s next standalone record. It’s unlikely her music will bear any of the same titles of her fashion or beauty ranges.

What will Rihanna’s next album sound like?

Now this we have heard hints about. Speaking at a Savage x Fenty show this time last year, RiRi told journalists: “You’re not going to expect what you hear.” Genre-wise she’s done it all, from EDM to rock-pop to R&B. She told Vogue, back in October 2019, that the record would be reggae inspired, which would align with her more recent statements.

In terms of collaborators, well, Rocky is with her in the studio, so a feature wouldn’t be a huge surprise. In pre-COVID times, she also posted on Instagram Stories alluding to being in the studio with The Neptunes, the production duo of Pharrell and Chad Hugo. One of Rihanna’s most recent vocal features was, of course, with N.E.R.D. on “Lemon”. That was so long ago that that music might have been scrapped, but knowing they’ve worked well together before, it’s likely Pharrell will be involved somehow. 

What is the next Rihanna album’s release date?

Every time Rihanna has loosely dated new music, saying it’s coming “soon” or, as she said in 2018, “next year”, it’s never materialised. So it’s best to stop hoping quite so hard for a solid timeline. Speaking around a Savage x Fenty launch, Rihanna told Access Hollywood that “In the past, I’d shoot out an album in three months, but now, I don’t have the luxury of doing that because I have this other baby.” The baby she was referring to was Savage x Fenty; now she has an actual baby. But with her first live performance in nearly half a decade lined up, who knows whether it will inspire Rihanna to finally drop the much-anticipated R9.

When will Rihanna’s upcoming tour start?

Although we don’t have an exact date, The Sun’s sources claim the tour will be announced after her Super Bowl halftime performance, with the North America dates being within 2023. Perhaps Rihanna will chose to set her dates later in the summer so as not to clash with Taylor Swift, Beyoncé and Madonna who are all doing major tours this year. Again, this is The Sun we’re talking about. So perhaps take these rumours with a pinch of salt.

What cities will Rihanna’s tour visit?

In the same article, a source claimed: “Her plan is to set up mini residencies in major cities rather than visit multiple places” and that “it will be a matter of time before European dates are announced for 2024.” If that source is reliable, it’s realistic to predict that Rihanna will end up performing in a few key stadiums, making the time on tour and travelling far less chaotic for her and her son.

When can I watch the Rihanna documentary?

This is a tricky one – the film is finished, but according to director Peter Berg, Rihanna still needs to approve the final cut. “It’s done and sold, and Amazon’s ready,” Peter told The Hollywood Reporter in a recent interview. “She’s a perfectionist, so we keep adding. It’s been six and a half years of filming, so, yeah, it’s ready to come out. We’re just waiting on her to say, ‘Yeah, let’s do it.’ I don’t know. Maybe it’ll be a 10-year project.” No Peter, don’t say that! But the filmmaker isn’t all that worried about getting RiRi’s blessing: “When Rihanna asked me to make a doc, I thought she was joking. My work tends to be a bit more masculine, at least on the surface. But this has allowed me to dip in and out of her life while I’m doing other things.”

He continues, “I’ve loved it — watching her in the studio, seeing her turn Fenty into this billion-dollar entity and, now, being a mom. It’s such an enriching experience, I don’t really care how long it takes.” So when can you watch the Rihanna doc? The TL;DR version is: whenever mother says.