Rihanna's new song branded 'unlistenable' by angry fans as 'god awful' single draws savage backlash
Written for the new Smufs movie, in which Rihanna voices Smurfette, the number is the first song she has dropped in three years.
The 37-year-old's last single was Lift Me Up for the 2022 Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and she has not put out an album since the 2016 release Anti.
After all the buildup, the public was in for a bitter disappointment, slamming every aspect of Friend Of Mine from the vocals to the tune - and pouring particular scorn on the repetitive lyrics, which consisted mainly of the title said over and over.
'Rihanna needed 7 writers for Friend of Mine...,' wrote an incredulous fan. 'I can't take this anymore. 20 years in the Rihanna Navy and the disrespect I am given...'
'This comeback "song" is unlistenable!!' raged another. 'Rihanna should seriously never come back to music since she has nothing to offer other than mediocrity.'
'Friend of Mine just being that long a** intro, annoying instrumental, and the same line being repeated for three minutes,' scoffed a third. 'Girl bye @rihanna.'
'Just listened to friend of mine and now I get why rihanna hasn't released an album all those years,' quipped a third on X, formerly Twitter.
One listener accused the song of being 'AI generated,' as others groaned online: 'Just keep the album girl' and 'Girl this is horrible.'
'Oh Rihanna…,' sighed another social media user: 'you either sold your voice to an AI company or they didn't pay you enough for this movie so you said 'Friend of Mine' into a mic once and they just copied and pasted it over a beat with an electronic filter because this Smurfs' 'song' was pure garbage.'
'The navy is "lost for words" so was Rihanna & the SIX others that wrote "friend of mine,"' wrote one as another erupted that the single was her 'worst song ever omfg.'
'Girl, imagine giving credit to your writing skills with 3 words. "FRIEND OF MINE,"' joked a fan as another wrote in disbelief: 'rihanna is not serious with friend of mine.'
Music producer Jon Bellion, one of the many writers of Friend Of Mine, said the song was concocted over three days at his Hamptons vacation home last summer.
'It was a bunch of people having a blast, doing a music camp together, jamming on some DJ s*** and playing chords and just having fun,' he told Billboard.
'And I think that that's probably why it ended up sounding so new. It just felt like a natural thing, with a bunch of guys who like being around each other and want to make great s***,' added the singer-songwriter.
The Smurfs movie features Rihanna in a voice cast that includes John Goodman as Papa Smurf, as well as names like Sandra Oh, Nick Offerman and James Corden.
Rihanna revealed her third pregnancy on the Met Gala red carpet last week, which she attended in support of her longtime love A$AP Rocky.
Rocky was one of the chairs of this year's Met Ball, which was structured around the menswear theme Superfine: Tailoring Black Style.
As news of her impending baby joy went public, she took pains to reassure her fans that her untitled ninth album would not be delayed by her pregnancy.
'I can still sing!' she insisted, explaining that only 'a couple of videos' might be postponed by the arrival of her third child, via Entertainment Tonight.
The remarks come three months after Rihanna finally offered fans a few tantalizing hints about the upcoming album - her first since 2016.
'I've been in the studio the whole eight years. But it didn't hit me. I was searching for it,' she explained in an interview with Harper's Bazaar.
'I went through phases of what I wanted to do. "This kind of album, not that album." I know it's not going to be anything that anybody expects,' she teased.
'And it's not going to be commercial or radio, digestible. It's going to be where my artistry deserves to be right now. I feel like I've finally cracked it, girl!'
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