Rihanna has been seen in Los Angeles this past week, but there’s a good reason why the singer did not attend this evening’s Grammys. She has no nominations this year, but her partner, A$AP Rocky, has one nod for Best Music Video for “Tailor Swif.” Given he is currently on trial, it is understandable that he skipped the awards show.
Neither Rih nor Rocky is a presenter or performer tonight, giving the couple no pressing need to attend.
It’s been years since Rihanna attended the music ceremony. She was last at the Grammys in 2018, and performed that year, too.
Next year’s ceremony may or may not be different for the couple. For Rihanna, it’s been nine years since she released her last album, 2016’s Anti. On January 28, Rihana marked its anniversary on Instagram, writing, “happy ANTIversary 🎈”
In June, she shared that she was going back to the drawing board on her long-awaited next album. She told Entertainment Tonight, “Music for me is a new discovery. I’m rediscovering things. I have been working on the album for so long that I kind of just put all that stuff aside. Now I’m prepared to go back into the studio. Now I’m prepared. So I’m gonna start–give me a second.”
She added that she is “starting over. But I don’t wanna neglect the songs that I have, so I wanna go back and listen to stuff with new ears with my new perspective and see what applies and what I still am in love with.”
Rihanna also spoke about her progress to Interview in April 2024. She said, “I have a lot of visual ideas. It’s weird. My brain is working backward right now. I usually have the music first, and the music leads me into all of these visual opportunities, and now I’m having all of these visuals, and I don’t have the songs for them yet, but maybe that’s the key, this time. Maybe the visual ideas are leading me to the songs that I need to make.”
