Reports that singer Rihanna has inked a multi-year contract with Live Nation are “bogus” a source tells Billboard, pouring cold water on news that a live comeback for the superstar singer is imminent.
On Sunday, the London-based Daily Mirror reported that the “Anti”-singer was planning a major world tour through 2024 and 2025 as part of a 32 million pounds ($39 million) deal with Live Nation. On Monday (Oct. 23), ET also ran a report saying Rihanna was “planning a world tour for 2024/2025 after striking a deal with Live Nation.”
But a high-level source who would be involved such the talks said the 32 million pounds figure sounds made up and noted that “no tour has been confirmed for Rihanna.”
While promoters like Live Nation, or their competitive rival AEG, would be more than happy to book and a promote a global Rihanna tour, the source says “Bitch Better Have My Money” singer hasn’t yet committed to any touring projects for 2024.
As well, Live Nation has not placed any holds on venues for a potential tour. Typically, when a promoter begins booking a tour for a major artist, they will call different venues on the tour route and ask venue bookers to reserve various dates on their calendar to accommodate different routing scenarios for an upcoming tour. If Rihanna and Live Nation were to sign a deal, it would likely take several months to hammer out a potential tour route.
The demand for a Rihanna tour, and new music, is arguably unparalleled. She is one of the most commercially successful artists of all time, with 14 No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, a record surpassed only by Mariah Carey and The Beatles. Her last album was 2016’s Anti and her last tour was the one that followed that year. It generated more than $110 million in sales worldwide, and since its final stop in Abu Dhabi on Nov. 27, 2016, she has not performed a commercial concert. She has since only performed three times, including at the Super Bowl halftime show in 2023 and the 2023 Oscars.
While a new global tour would surely net hundreds of millions in ticket sales and merchandise, Rihanna doesn’t exactly need that money. A March 10 story from the Wall Street Journal estimated Rihanna’s business empire to be worth $1.4 billion, thanks to the success of her record sales and cosmetic company Savage X Fenty, which she owns in partnership with luxury brand LVMH.
She also has a compelling reason not to want to hit the road – in August, she gave birth to her second child Riot Rose, whom she shares with rapper A$AP Rocky. The couple’s oldest son RZA was born in 2022.
