Rihanna Slams Donald Trump While Chiding Fans Over New Album Following $5 Million Donation to Coronavirus Relief

Rihanna fans are hungry for a new album from the singer, so much so that she had to remind fans [...]

By Daniel S. Levine

Rihanna fans are hungry for a new album from the singer, so much so that she had to remind fans there are much more important things going on in the world, like the coronavirus pandemic. In a fiery Instagram Live video Friday night, Rihanna told fans she was busy "trying to save the world" and criticized President Donald Trump's response to the crisis. The "Love On The Brain" singer has been among the most generous celebrities during the crisis, donating millions of dollars to different relief efforts.

The Instagram Live video started with the 32-year-old Rihanna dancing with her friends while in quarantine. Fans began asking her when her next album would be coming out, since she has still not released a follow-up to 2016's Anti. "If one of y'all (expletives) ask me about the album one more time when I'm trying to save the world unlike y'all president," Rihanna fired back, reports USA Today.

Fans have been impatiently waiting for a follow-up to Anti for more than four years now. Rihanna has said she planned to release an album called R9 in 2019, but it never surfaced. On Dec. 22, she shared a video of a dog dancing to House of Pain's "Jump Around" and teased fans waiting for new music. "Update: me listening to R9 by myself and refusing to release it," she wrote.

Rihanna has been busy in the past four years, focusing on her Fenty beauty lines and even appearing in Ocean's 8 in 2018. Lately, she has been donating millions to help those affected by the coronavirus pandemic. On March 22, her nonprofit Clara Lionel Foundation donated $5 million to several organizations, including Feeding America, Direct Relief, Patners in Health and the World Health Organization's COVD-19 Solidarity Response Fund.

That donation was just the tip of the iceberg though. On Thursday, The Hollywood Reporter confirmed Rihanna and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey joined forces to back a $4.2 million grant to the Mayor's Fund for Los Angeles. Rihanna's $2.1 million contribution will go to 10 weeks of expenses for shelter, meals and counseling for those suffering from domestic violence during the coronavirus pandemic.

"An estimated 10 million people experience domestic violence in the U.S. each year," the Clara Lionel Foundation said in a statement. "The Los Angeles Housing Authority has determined that dozens of individuals (and their children, in many cases) are being turned away from at-capacity domestic violence shelters every week as incidents have been on the rise since the Safer at Home Order was issued in March."

As of Saturday afternoon, there are more than 1.7 million confirmed coronavirus cases worldwide, reports Johns Hopkins University. The U.S. now has more cases and more deaths than any country in the world. There are more than 524,900 cases in the U.S., and over 20,380 deaths reported. Over 31,000 patients have reportedly recovered.

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