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Rihanna has returned to the stage. Well, kind of. After stepping back from music in recent years, the singer surprised fans by singing at a karaoke event over the weekend. She chose to perform two of her own songs. While the thought of her putting on a mini-concert made everyone excited, footage from Rihanna’s karaoke performance left much to be desired.
Rihanna’s Karaoke Performance Goes Viral For All the Wrong Reasons
We wished we were kidding. However, it’s true. Rihanna’s karaoke performance was deemed lackluster by many of her fans online.
While appearing at Manhattan’s Girls Love Karaoke event on Saturday, Rihanna performed her songs “Needed Me” and “Sex With Me.” They’re both from her eighth studio album, Anti, which dropped in January 2016. In videos shared on X, Rihanna could be seen singing the fan-favorite tracks in an intimate red-lit room while surrounded by onlookers. She wore an oversized graphic t-shirt and a fuzzy hat for the outing. Although she looked amazing, fans think she sounded “horrible.”
“The mic was bleeding,” one person wrote after watching a clip from Rihanna’s karaoke performance. “Is this really Rihanna? My cat can sing better,” another comment read. One fan even dissed her singing by calling her notes “flatter than a pancake.”
While the overwhelming reaction toward Rihanna’s karaoke performance was negative, some people defended the singer. The positive comments praised her for singing live. One fan also pointed out that she was just having fun and not performing seriously. After all, it was just karaoke. “RIHANNA IS OFF THE CLOCK!!! SHE AIN’T TRYNA IMPRESS Y’ALL,” they said.
When Is She Releasing New Music?
Anti was the last album Rihanna released before going on a music hiatus. Since it’s been nearly a decade, fans have been wondering when she’ll drop another record. The star has teased it repeatedly over the years. However, the longer she takes to release it, the more likely fans think it’ll never see the light of day.
A recent quote from Rihanna fueled those theories. “Music was the thing that got the attention, but God had other plans for me,” she said during a Fenty Beauty event in November. “I was able to create in ways that were very sincere and genuine, or organic and authentic to the things that I love.”
Rihanna talking about her music career in past tense made some believe she was done with singing for good.
So, will R9 ever drop? Hopefully, 2025 is the year fans finally get an answer.
