Rihanna Opened Up About Her "Overwhelming" Year Before Appearing To Announce That She's Taking A Break

    After a busy year, it looks like Rihanna might be taking a well-deserved break, writing on Instagram: "This year has been quite an overwhelming one, and I'm working on that ish called balance."

    Ben Henry
    by Ben Henry

    BuzzFeed Staff

    It would be an understatement to say that it's been one hell of a busy year for Rihanna.

    Angela Weiss / Getty Images

    From the jump, it's been pedal to the metal for the former singer, who's been working tirelessly on expanding her ever-growing empire.

    Paras Griffin / Getty Images

    This year alone, Rihanna has:

    - Released dozens of new Fenty Beauty products, all of which she has a major role in designing and producing.

    - Grown her Savage X Fenty lingerie line, including throwing a New York Fashion Week extravaganza that was streamed on Amazon Prime.

    - Dropped a new coffee table book/bible which included more than 1000 pictures over more than 500 pages.

    - Started her own FASHION EMPIRE, becoming the first black woman in history to head a fashion house in collaboration with LVMH. It was also the first brand new fashion house created by LVMH since Christian Lacroix back in 1987.

    - Ms Fenty has also graced a whole bunch of magazine covers, including her 25th Vogue cover.

    - Oh, and apparently she's been recording music. However, despite saying a brand new album would drop before the end of 2019, we have yet to see the fruits of this labour. We live on in hope.

    So, with all of that in mind, it might come as no surprise that Rihanna just appeared to announce that she's taking a well-deserved break.

    James Devaney / GC Images

    Jumping on Instagram, Rihanna briefly opened up about her "overwhelming" year, noting that she's even struggled to respond to close friends and family recently.

    "Please forgive me," she wrote. "This year has been quite an overwhelming one, and I'm working on that ish called Balance."

    instagram.com

    Then came the kicker. Signing off the message, Rihanna simply said: "BRB." WHAT DOES IT MEAN?!

    Roc Nation

    Well, technically it means "be right back", which would suggest that Rihanna is indeed going somewhere and will return in the near future AKA is going on a break.

    Now, I know what you're going to ask, and Rihanna probably does too because we've been asking her every day for almost four years — what about the new album?

    AE

    Fortunately for us, Rihanna's close friend Jahleel Weaver asked just that. She quickly responded though, and...well, just look for yourself.

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    So, I guess that's that on that. In the meantime, BuzzFeed has reached out to reps of Rihanna for comment. We'll update you when we know more!