Where have you been, Rihanna?

In the mid 2000’s, Jay Z took the chance of a lifetime signing an unknown artist from Barbados to a six album record deal. Rihanna released her debut single “Pon de Replay” in 2005 and followed up with her first studio album, “Music of the Sun” later that summer and by 2012 had released six more albums and fifty-seven more singles, thirteen of which going went number one on the Billboard Hot 100.

From 2005-2012, Rihanna released seven albums, one in each year except 2008, and fans became spoiled in a sense by their “queen” and almost began to expect new music annually. After four consecutive album releases in the month of November from fourth album, “Rated R,” to seventh album “Unapologetic” in 2012, music lovers were confused when Rihanna didn’t release a new single to hype her next LP in 2013.

“It’s weird that she hasn’t [released new music] and she has such great music,” senior and Rihanna fan Olivia Belfiore said. “I wish she would release more of it sooner.”

After a much longer drought in Rihanna music than anyone expected, the teasing of her eighth album, which was later dubbed “R8” by members of her fan base, began in October 2014 when she posted a picture in the studio working on it. A month later, Rihanna stated that the album would come out “very soon,” which clearly now angers fans, considering it has been over a year and the album still has not dropped.

It looked as though the wheels had finally started turning when Rih Rih released the Kanye West and Paul McCartney assisted single “FourFiveSeconds” in late January 2015. The song received a reasonable amount of promotion with a Grammy performance and accompanying music video. However, the single was Rihanna’s first lead single from an album since “Rated R” to not be a number one hit. Because the first single was out, aficionados figured the album was right around the corner to look forward to and they didn’t seem to be disappointed when the second single of the album, the explicit “B***h Better Have My Money,” was released in March, however, they were wrong.

“American Oxygen,” the album’s third single, was released exclusively to Jay Z’s Tidal streaming service, giving it an already messy start. The song was yet another miss for Rihanna, becoming her all time lowest charting single from an album and the promotion of R8 was suddenly halted after a promising first half of 2015 and the teasing of tracks speculated to be on the album such as “Only if for a Night” and “Higher.”

Until recently, it seemed as though Rihanna had completely forgotten about the album. In October, she (finally!) spilled some of the beans on the album and released the title, “ANTI,” and artwork of the album which features a young Rihanna holding a balloon with a crown covering her eyes complete with red and white coloring and the typical braille writing for which the era has become known so far. However, the date of which the album would come out was not told and Rihanna stated herself that the album was not complete, angering fans and casual music listeners alike.

“I was disappointed [to hear of the cancellation of Rihanna’s Victoria’s Secret fashion show performance] because I was looking forward to hearing music from her new album,” senior Olivia Abele said.

With rumors rampantly running around the internet as to when ANTI is going to drop, November 27, according to PerezHilton.com, it truly is anyone’s guess. If Rihanna is going to drop the album, the clock is ticking because people seem to be getting impatient.

Regardless of when ANTI drops, it will hopefully be worth the wait, and satisfy fans who have been waiting for its arrival since 2012.

“I’m very excited [for new Rihanna music] because she hasn’t released new music in a long time,” Abele said.

Will ANTI, when and if it is released, live up to fans’ expectations and mark another milestone in Rihanna’s long line of successes?  Ultimately, fans will simply have to wait and see.