Rihanna releases first song in 3 years for Smurfs soundtrack

Riri is back.Rihanna released her first new song in three years on Friday.The track is titled “Friend of Mine” and will feature prominently in the upcoming “Smurfs” movie, which is set to release in theaters on July 18.“Ooh, I think the word here is “déjà-vu” / Just met you tonight, but you feel like a friend of mine,” she sings.“How can so familiar be so brand new? / Just met you tonight, but you feel like a friend of mine.”Before the track’s official release, Rihanna, 37, whose real name is Robyn Rihanna Fenty, teased the new song on X alongside a fresh trailer for the upcoming animated flick.“New Smurfs trailer featuring ‘Friend of Mine’ from the Smurfs soundtrack out Friday,” the superstar singer wrote on May 14.

“Pre-save now.”Rihanna will star in “Smurfs” as Smurfette alongside Kurt Russell, John Goodman, Sandra Oh, Octavia Spencer, Nick Offerman, Dan Levy and James Corden.She is also a producer on the film, per Variety.The Chris Miller-directed kids’ movie will reportedly follow Rihanna’s character and the other Smurfs as they adventure out to save Papa Smurf (Goodman) from evil wizards.“I tried to get the Papa Smurf role, but it didn’t work out,” the “Umbrella” singer joked in 2023 when the film was announced.“Friend of Mine” marks Riri’s first new track since “Lift Me Up,” which was released on October 28, 2022, on the soundtrack for Marvel’s “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” superhero film.It quickly hit No.

2 on the Billboard Hot 100 that week and later went platinum.The “We Found Love” pop star has not released an album since 2016’s “Anti,” which featured the hit songs “Work,” “Needed Me” and “Kiss It Better.”“I’ve made a lot of songs that are really, really big songs,” she told MTV News after her eighth record was released eight years ago.“From the jump, they just blow up.

And I wanted to kind of get back to – not that they weren’t real music,...