Rihanna is Vogue's November cover star; talks new music, Fenty, Trump & more

Singer and Fenty founder Rihanna is the celebrity that graces Vogue’s November cover.

In her interview with Vogue’s Abby Aguirre, published on Wednesday. 9th October 2019 on the Vogue website,  Rihanna touched on a number of subjects everyone would want to hear her opinion about such as music and Fenty. She also talked about the US president, Donald Trump. No surprise there as Rihanna has been a vocal critic of the US president.

Abby Aguirre does a good job of presenting the interview in an easy-to-read manner. Even her confession that she came to the interview unprepared without notes comes across as a natural journalistic norm – it’s not but we can forgive her – is woven so expertly into the narrative. As is her narration of Fenty – its history, its philosophy and direction.

Did you know that Rihanna doesn’t consider herself to be the face of Fenty? But nevertheless, the fashionista wants every piece to be something that she could wear. She calls herself the “muse“. And she’s never been afraid to take risks, crediting her risk appetite to have successes so far.

Rihanna hasn’t forgotten music either even though it does seem like music has taken the back seat in the list of her priorities but nothing could be farther from the truth.

Here is how Rihanna describes it: Music is my “first pen pal–ship to the world. To cut that off is to cut my communication off. All of these other things flourish on top of that foundation.”

Her ninth studio album is still in the works. Her music fans call it R9. According to Rihanna, the album is “reggae-inspired or reggae-infused.” Not your every day reggae music but “you’re going to feel the elements in all of the tracks.” And according to Rihanna, reggae feels right because it’s in her “blood“.

But there is no release date yet even though the album is nearly finished.

And on politics, Rihanna is no fan of the US president, Mr Donald Trump, whom she says is the “most mentally ill human being in America right now.”

The comment was in response to Trump labelling gunmen at the centre of an August shooting spells in US cities of El Paso and Dayton, as mentally ill.

Asked about that incident and the president’s reaction Rihanna says:

“It is devastating. People are being murdered by war weapons that they legally purchase. This is just not normal… Put an Arab man with that same weapon in that same Walmart and there is no way that Trump would sit there and address it publicly as a mental health problem. The most mentally ill human being in America right now seems to be the president.”

Rihanna also confirmed she’s in a loving exclusive relationship. She also confirmed that she rejected NFL’s offer to headline the Super Bowl halftime show, which she rejected in solidarity with Colin Kaepernick.

Her words: “I couldn’t dare do that. For what? Who gains from that? Not my people. I just couldn’t be a sellout. I couldn’t be an enabler. There’s things within that organization that I do not agree with at all, and I was not about to go and be of service to them in any way.”

You can read the whole interview here.