Rihanna's long-awaited ninth studio album is to be released in December, according to various French reporters.
Several French reporters took to Twitter to on Sunday the reveal the news was shared to them whilst attending Universal Music France's Open Session event.
One of the tweets by journalist Steven Bellery is translated as: "The new album of
@Rihanna will be released in December! #OpenSessionUniversal (sic)"
The 31-year-old singer has been keeping fans waiting for her ninth record since the release of "Anti" in 2016.
The last update came in June, when she said was still working on recording the new material and didn't have a release date in mind yet.
When asked how much longer fans would have to wait, she said: "I wish I knew. I have blocked off a solid period of time for the studio next month."
The "Work" hitmaker said it "sucks" that she can't just put her new music out into the world, but insisted she didn't want to "rush" the process.
She added: "It really does suck that it can't just come out, because I'm working on a really fun one right now. I'm really happy with a lot of the material we have so far, but I am not going to put it out until it's complete. It makes no sense to rush it, but I want it out. I've gotten to the point where I'm like, "Even if I don't have the time to shoot videos, I'm going to put an album out.'"
Rihanna also admitted her business empire is partly to blame for the lengthy time between records, as she's having to divide her energy between her music career, as well as her fashion and beauty lines.
She said: "It's the reason why an album isn't being spat out like it used to. I used to be in the studio, only the studio, for three months straight, and an album would come out. Now, it's like a carousel. I do fashion one day, lingerie the next, beauty the next, then music the next. It's like having a bunch of kids and you need to take care of them all."