Rihanna “open to exploring weird” things that “might not ever make sense to my fans” on new album
Rihanna has said that she is open to “exploring, discovering and creating” new music which she said fans may find “weird” compared to her previous sounds.
As announced last year, the pop star will make her live comeback this Sunday (February 12) at the State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona for Super Bowl LVII. Rihanna has previously called it “an entertainer’s dream” to play the show.
Appearing at a press conference ahead of the show, the artist said: “I’m feeling open to exploring, discovering, creating things that are new, things that are different, things that are off, weird, might never make sense to my fans. I just want to play, I want to have fun with music.”
She also said she had already changed her Super Bowl Half Time show setlist 39 times. The show will run 13 minutes, but Rihanna has a career that spans eight albums and 17 years.
“Some songs we have to lose because of that, and that’s going to be OK,” she told the press conference. “We did a pretty good job at narrowing it down. There’s probably been about 39 versions of the setlist right now. We’re on our 39th. Every little change counts.”
She added: “The Super Bowl is one of the biggest stages in the world. As scary as it was, because I haven’t been on stage in seven years, there’s something exhilarating about the challenge of it all. It’s important for me to do this year. It’s important for my son to see that.”
In 2018, Rihanna was offered the chance to headline the 2019 Halftime Show. She turned the offer down in a bid to show solidarity with Colin Kaepernick, the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback, who was the first NFL player to take a knee in protest against police brutality in 2016.
Notably, Rihanna hasn’t released an album since 2016, when she dropped her eighth studio album ‘Anti’. The artist hasn’t performed live since her appearance at the 2018 Grammy Awards.
Last year’s Super Bowl was headlined by Dr. Dre with special guest performers Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, Snoop Dogg and Mary J. Blige.
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Arusa Qureshi
NME