Rihanna Is Releasing a New Song for ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,’ ‘Lift Me Up’
From the mid-2000s to the mid-2010s, Rihanna reigned over pop music as she racked up No. 1 hit singles and sold smash albums around the world. In the late 2010s, Rihanna turned her focus away from music as she worked to build her business empire with ventures like her Fenty Beauty cosmetics line and Savage X Fenty lingerie brand. In advance of her Super Bowl halftime show in 2023, however, the Grammy-winning singer is returning to music with a new song on the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever soundtrack.
Rihanna has stepped away from music in recent years
After the release of her hit album Anti in 2016, Rihanna had achieved true artistic greatness with her most unique album to date. Fans were eager to see what she would do next and what her next album would sound like. The following year, however, she launched her Fenty Beauty makeup brand, and gradually moved away from releasing music.
Rihanna hasn’t released a song as a lead artist since the Anti era, and 2017 marked the last year of her making several appearances on other artists’ songs. She appeared on N.E.R.D.’s “Lemon,” DJ Khaled’s “Wild Thoughts” (which she took to No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart), Future’s “Selfish,” and Kendrick Lamar’s “Loyalty.” Her last appearance on a song was on “Believe It” from PartyNextDoor’s album Partymobile.
Rihanna is releasing a song on the ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ soundtrack
In October 2022, Marvel Studios seemingly confirmed that Rihanna would be back with new music with a new song on the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever soundtrack. The tweet shared by the official Marvel account simply contained an eyes looking emoji, and the video was an animation that showed the film’s title before finally revealing the letter “R” and a date of October 28, 2022.
Fans immediately concluded that Rihanna is the “R” the video is talking about. The “announcement” comes days after rumors first began swirling that Rihanna would be making her grand return to music on the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever soundtrack.
Then, on Oct. 26, Rihanna took to Twitter with a Spotify pre-save link for a song titled “Lift Me Up” along with the date “10.28.22,” confirming fan suspicions.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever opens in theaters on November 11, 2022.
She’s set to perform at the Super Bowl halftime show in 2023
Rihanna appears to be beginning her return to the world of entertainment with the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever soundtrack. In September 2022, the Barbados-born singer confirmed that she would be headlining the Super Bowl LVII halftime show in 2023. She’ll be following in the footsteps of recent iconic Super Bowl halftime show performers like Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige, Kendrick Lamar, Eminem, The Weeknd, Shakira, and Jennifer Lopez.
Rihanna signing on to do the Super Bowl is a reversal from her position just a few years prior. In 2019, she told Vogue that she turned down the opportunity to perform at the legendary show because of the NFL’s treatment and blackballing of quarterback Colin Kaepernick.
“I couldn’t dare do that. For what?” the singer said at the time. “Who gains from that? Not my people. I just couldn’t be a sellout. I couldn’t be an enabler. There’s things within that organization that I do not agree with at all, and I was not about to go and be of service to them in any way.”
