Rihanna has given fans another reason to hope for her long-awaited musical comeback after revealing she has at least 170 unreleased songs sitting in her music vault.
The singer made the revelation during a Fenty Beauty livestream, where she was asked about the amount of music she has recorded but never released.
Rather than give a direct answer, Rihanna compared her collection of unreleased tracks to a Fenty Beauty product collection.
“If there are 10 products in a vault, then I have at least — at least, AT LEAST — 17 vaults,” she teased.
Rihanna. Photo credit: DFree, Shutterstock
Her answer suggests she could have at least 170 songs recorded and waiting to be released, although she did not confirm an exact number or say how many of the tracks might feature on her next album.
The revelation has reignited excitement among fans who have been waiting more than a decade for a new Rihanna album.
The 38-year-old released her last studio album, ANTI, in January 2016. The record featured some of her biggest hits, including Work, Needed Me and Love on the Brain, and earned her widespread critical acclaim.
Since then, speculation about her next album, unofficially known as R9, has become a story in its own right, with Rihanna offering occasional hints but keeping most details under wraps.
For a singer who once released albums at an almost annual pace, her extended absence from the music industry has been a major change.
Between 2005 and 2012, Rihanna released seven studio albums, including Music of the Sun, Good Girl Gone Bad and Unapologetic. She became one of the defining pop stars of the era, scoring global hits and collecting numerous awards along the way.
She has won nine Grammy Awards, alongside multiple Billboard Music Awards and American Music Awards, and remains one of the most successful artists of her generation.
However, after the release of ANTI, Rihanna gradually stepped away from releasing full-length music projects and focused on building her business empire.
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Her beauty brand, Fenty Beauty, launched in 2017 and became a major force in the cosmetics industry, particularly for its emphasis on inclusive foundation shades.
She later expanded into lingerie with Savage X Fenty and continued to develop her fashion and beauty businesses.
The singer has also embraced motherhood with partner A$AP Rocky.
The couple have three children together, with family life becoming another major focus during her time away from albums.
Rihanna and A$AP Rocky. Photo credit: Fred Duval, Shutterstock
Despite her absence from the charts with new album releases, Rihanna has never disappeared completely.
She released Lift Me Up in 2022 for the film Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, earning an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song. In 2023, she returned to the stage for the Super Bowl halftime show, performing a medley of her biggest hits while revealing she was pregnant with her second child.
She also released Friend of Mine in 2025 for the Smurfs soundtrack.
Still, fans have been waiting for a full album, and Rihanna has repeatedly teased that new music is on the way without committing to a release date.
In a 2018 interview, she suggested her next project would be influenced by reggae, but her plans appear to have evolved over the years.
Rihanna. Photo credit: Andrea Raffin, Shutterstock
Speaking to Harper's Bazaar in February 2025, she said she had finally found the right direction for her next body of work after spending years trying to figure out what she wanted to create.
“I think music is my freedom. I just came to that realization. I just cracked the code on what I really want to do for my next body of work,” she said.
She also warned that the album might not sound like what people expect from her.
“It's not going to be anything that anybody expects. And it's not going to be commercial or radio digestible,” she said, explaining that she wanted the project to reflect where she was as an artist at this stage of her life.
Her comments suggested that the long wait has been partly down to her desire to get the music right rather than simply release an album to satisfy demand.
Rihanna and A$AP Rocky. Photo credit: Fred Duval, Shutterstock
In August, A$AP Rocky said Rihanna was back in the studio and working on new material, offering another encouraging update for fans.
However, neither the singer nor her representatives have announced an official release date, confirmed a tracklist or revealed which songs might make the final album.
It also remains unclear whether the 170 songs suggested by her latest comments are completed recordings, unfinished ideas or a mixture of material created over the years.
For now, Rihanna appears content to keep fans guessing.
