Justin Bieber is just as bummed as fans are that he didn’t get to see Rihanna‘s latest impromptu performance.
Over the weekend, RiRi made a pitstop at Manhattan’s Girls Love Karaoke, where she took over the stage to perform “Needed Me” and “Sex With Me” from her 2016 album Anti.
“Missed seein u sing Queen,” he wrote on his Instagram Story Friday (Jan. 3) with the goat, crown and shocked reaction emojis over a clip he reshared of his Def Jam labelmate performing “Needed Me.”
“Don’t do too much because, you know, I got five minutes. My battery’s about to burn out. There’s a lot of cameras. I didn’t come here for this s–t,” Rihanna said in a video recap of the event posted to Girls Love Karaoke’s Instagram.
The last time the “Work” hitmaker delivered a full concert was in March, when she performed during the pre-wedding celebration for Anant Ambani, the son of Asia’s richest man Mukesh Ambani, and Radhika Merchant in Jamnagar, India. It was the first time she put on a full show since her Anti World Tour in 2016. Coincidentally, Bieber performed at another of the same couple’s pre-wedding celebration months later, marking the “Sorry” singer’s first performance since he canceled the remainder of his Justice World Tour in 2023 due to health concerns.
Both superstars have been quiet on the music front and have prioritized starting their own families, but Rihanna previously teased that she and her partner A$AP Rocky have been cooking up something new. “I already got stuff that I feel like I could make hits out of,” she told Entertainment Tonight in April. “Me and Rocky are really trying to figure out who’s gonna use what because it’s so good.”
SZA has teased the possibility of releasing two albums of “peaceful children’s music” to complete her current contractual requirements.
The singer and rapper released ‘Lana’ last month after almost a year of speculating about its release. Rather than a standalone album, it exists as a deluxe version of her 2022 LP ‘SOS’, her second studio record.
Now, just weeks after it became available, SZA has suggested that she is ready to move on from its slick R&B aesthetic and onto a very different vibe, even hinting that she is tempted to seek a quieter life after fulfilling her current obligations.
Writing on X on Saturday (January 4), SZA wrote: “To fulfill my last 2 album requirements I think I just wanna make peaceful children’s music n get outta here. Then go be a farmer n donate the produce to underserved communities.”
Both ‘SOS’ and its 2017 predecessor ‘Ctrl’ were released as part of SZA’s deal with Top Dawg Entertainment and RCA Records. It is not clear how many more albums she is signed up for as part of the deal, but her comments would suggest that there are two remaining full-lengths expected as part of the contract.
‘Lana’ added an extra 15 tracks to ‘SOS’ existing 23 songs, bringing the overall number of tracks associated with the project to 38. However, last week, SZA told fans that “all updated mixes” and “new songs” are due to be added on Monday (January 6), “when the label comes back from holiday”.
When it was eventually shared on December 20, ‘Lana’ included a Kendrick Lamar feature on ‘30 For 30’, as well as production from Lil Yachty and Benny Blanco on one track each.
Lamar’s feature comes after SZA appeared on his surprise album ‘GNX’, and the pair and labelmates have announced a joint North American tour for this year.
The singer also revealed on Christmas Day that she had parted ways with Terrence “Punch” Henderson, who she has worked with since 2011. Henderson, the co-president of Top Dawg Entertainment (TDE), had been heavily involved in the making of ‘Lana’.
When ‘SOS‘ was first released, it received acclaim from critics, as well as nine Grammy nominations. It hit Number One on the Billboard 200 and Number Two on the UK Single Chart, also being certified 3x Platinum in the US.
In a five-star review of ‘SOS’, NME described it as “a comeback album well worth the wait,” adding: “’I’m making the best album of my life for this next album,’” SZA told Flaunt in 2020 and ‘SOS’ is just that – a phenomenal record that barely puts a foot wrong and raises the bar even higher than she set it before. That quote, though, came with a caveat: ‘Because it’s going to be my last album.’ Here’s hoping SZA reneges on that declaration but, if this is the last we hear from here, at least she’s going out on the highest of highs.”