Is Rihanna Releasing New Music This Week?

Is Rihanna releasing new music this week? To be more specific: Is Rihanna releasing an entirely new album to iTunes all at once, a la Beyoncé, this week?? That’s the rumor that’s circulating online right now, and I hope it turns out to be true. But is the world really ready for new music from Rihanna? The complete and total radio takeover? The endless and unstoppable chart domination? The childish but often hilarious bad Twitter behavior?? Batten down the hatches, y’all, ‘cause Hurricane Rih is COMING! … Maybe.

Okay, so this whole thing started last Thursday when music industry news site Hits Daily Double posted a rumor that “the biz” was “buzzing about a possible surprise release” from a “superstar” this week. The phrase, “pulling a Beyoncé” was used, indicating that the release could be an entirely new album and not just one song. Of course, no further details were provided, leaving pop music fans to endlessly speculate about who it might be, clinging to any tiny scrap of evidence that could indicate their favorite artist.

Now, I realize that this is all getting a bit tiresome. As you’ll probably recall, back in March, Digital Music News posted a similar “surprise release” rumor that never came to fruition. For a brief time, we believed the mystery artist to be Mariah Carey, but then she changed her mind and decided to release her new album the good old fashioned way, instead. Interestingly, the aforementioned Digital Music News article does say that the album in question would likely be preceded by a “well-orchestrated, pre-release notification to fans” rather than being a “flat-out surprise.” Hmm…

On Monday morning, the official Twitter account for the Hard Rock Café tweeted THIS:

WHAT IS THIS ANNOUNCEMENT ALL ABOUT, RIH? A new single? A new album? What is it?? Tell me! The rumors, the suspense! It’s almost too much to handle.

Fan site RihannaDaily.com reports that the announcement is a part of a “special press conference” that will take place at the Hard Rock Café in Paris on Thursday, June 5. Fans can even enter a contest to attend the event. This does kind of sound like it could be a big deal, but I’m trying not to get my hopes up. I can totally see Rihanna arriving on Thursday and announcing that she’s launching her own line of fashion toasters exclusively for Kohl’s and my heart instantly exploding into a thousand pieces.

Additionally, let’s not forget that one of Rihanna’s producers revealed in an interview last week that they were “right in the middle” of recording her new album. So, unless they’ve been working non-stop since then (which we know is not the case because Rih showed up to the CFDA Awards last night wearing this stunning see-through ensemble), the timeline here is kind of impossible. But wouldn’t summer 2014 be so much more magical/enchanting/amazing with new Rihanna music? Why yes, yes it would.

So is Rihanna releasing new music this week? Hell, I don’t know. It could happen. There is evidence to support the idea, but we have no official confirmation. Such is the life of a pop music fan — so many rumors, so many secrets, and so many hopes cruelly DASHED (but honestly, I wouldn’t trade it for the world).

All will be revealed on Thursday.

Image: meanplastic/tumblr