Rihanna has confirmed that her first song in three years will be released this week.
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The ‘Umbrella’ singer took to social media yesterday (May 14) to break the news. The song is titled ‘Friend Of Mine’, and is due out on Friday (May 16). You can pre-save the song now.
‘Friend Of Mine’ was written for the Smurfs Movie soundtrack. It was first teased in February, when a trailer promised to feature new music from Rihanna, who has been cast in a major voice role.
new #SmurfsMovie trailer 🩵 featuring “Friend Of Mine” from the Smurfs soundtrack out friday. pre-save now. 🪩🎵 pic.twitter.com/c2keWCVwYN
— Rihanna (@rihanna) May 14, 2025
‘Friend Of Mine’ will mark Rihanna’s first song in nearly three years. Her last release was the October 2022 hit ‘Lift Me Up’, which she had written and recorded for the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever soundtrack.
Prior to that, her last output was a string of collaborations with the likes of Drake, DJ Khaled, PARTYNEXTDOOR and Kendrick Lamar over several years.
Rihanna’s last album was 2016’s ‘Anti’, and she has long been at work on its follow-up, dubbed ‘R9’. After admitting that she’s scrapped years of work and was “starting over” with a “new perspective”, she in February shared an update on the album, saying: “I know it’s not going to be anything that anybody expects. And it’s not going to be commercial or radio, digestible. It’s going to be where my artistry deserves to be right now. I feel like I’ve finally cracked it, girl!”
Most recently, after revealing that she’s pregnant with her third child with partner A$AP Rocky, she shed light on progress on ‘R9’: “I can sing.”
In other news, the singer recently revealed that 2016’s ‘Anti’ is the only album of hers that she can listen to without “shame”.
