Rihanna Seemingly Dropping New Song on Friday, Tied to 'Black Panther: Wakanda Forever'

Ashley Turner

10/26/2022 10:13 pm EDT

Rihanna fans and followers are ecstatic over the announcement that the pop star is making her long-awaited return to music with "Lift Me Up," the lead single on the Marvel sequel Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. The song is a tribute to the late Chadwick Boseman, who portrayed T'Challa, the lead Black Panther from the first film. Boseman lost his battle with colon cancer at 43 in 2020. The song will be released on Oct. 28, before the movie opens on Nov. 11.

Little information is known about the exact style and sound of "Lift Me Up." However, fans have anticipated new music news since the announcement that Rihanna would perform for the upcoming 2023 Super Bowl LVII halftime show. Instead of teasing a new song over her hiatus, Rhianna still has yet to release any new material, keeping the main focus on her beauty brand, Fenty Beauty. While some fans speculated that her 14-minute halftime show would be nothing more than a makeup demo, others are expecting a full-on album announcement. Once people saw the news of "Lift Me" online, they didn't hesitate to share their happiness about the artist rejoining the music industry with what is sure to be a moving tribute to Boseman. The star hasn't released an album since Anti in 2016, with some fans proclaiming they've made it through the "Rihanna drought," and some declaring "Rihanna didn't stop the music after all." These are some of the best memes and reactions to Rihanna's announcement.

AFTER 6 YEARS

A gif of a notorious scene from Michael Jackson's music video for "Earth Song," in which the singer is holding on to two small trees while battered by the desert wind, was apparently the only meme appropriate enough to express this user's excitement.

'She'll be doing a waterproof make up'

One Twitter user joked about the simple but eye-catching social media teaser, writing, "all that just to find out she'll be doing a waterproof make up for Okoye to fight [half-Atlantean Marvel villain] Namor."

'The baby'

One fan literally credited the birth of Rihanna's child to the release of new music. "Wow. The baby really made her reconsider her retirement lol."

'She's gonna eat on that track'

Another fan has high hopes for the project, with a low barrier, tweeting, "coming for #1 and a oscar. I already know she's gonna eat on that track based of those hums."

'Rihanna beat GRRM'

The winner for best George R.R. Martin shade goes to this tweet: "Well it finally happened, Rihanna beat GRRM to the "who will complete their forever project" challenge."

'Gets into time machine'

This Navy (Rihanna fandom name) can hardly weight the two days for the song to get here: "Guys it's the richest, hottest, woman in the world!! I cannot wait for this. *Gets into time machine."

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