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The upcoming seventh studio album by Barbadian recording artist Rihanna is currently scheduled to be released in late November 2012 by Def Jam Recordings. The album's lead single "Diamonds" made its premiere on iHeartRadio on September 26. To support the album, Rihanna will embark on the Diamonds World Tour beginning in March 2013.

Background
Following the release of Rihanna's fifth studio album, Loud (2010), the singer revealed via Twitter that the album would be re-issued with new songs and released in the fall of 2011. In September 2011, Rihanna again took to the social networking site to confirm that the plans had been scrapped and that she would release a full new album instead. Rihanna's sixth studio album, Talk That Talk, was released in November 2011. It received mainly positive reviews from music critics assigning an average score of 64 based on 27 reviews at Metacritic. The album spawned a total of six singles, including the commercial success "We Found Love" which topped the charts in more than 20 countries worldwide including the US Billboard Hot 100. In March 2012, Rihanna revealed that although she had not yet begun recording, she started "working on the new sound" for her seventh studio album.

Recording
In June 2012, Rihanna worked with producers Nicky Romero and Burns in London, whilst Rihanna was there to perform at the Hackney weekend. Rihanna revealed in July 2012 that: "Right now we're working on collecting and creating the sound first before we even start working on the lyrical direction or melodies. I kind of have an idea though, and it's very rough right now. So I'm very eager to start that." On July 6, 2012 Def Jam executive No I.D. revealed that he had begun working with Rihanna on the album. On July 10, 2012 British singer and producer Labrinth revealed to Capital FM that he had been working with Rihanna on the album. On July 13, 2012 Sean Garrett confirmed that he had been in the studio with French DJ David Guetta working on Rihanna's album. On August 21, American songwriter Claude Kelly revealed that he had been writing songs for Rihanna whilst she was performing in London. In September, it was confirmed that Rihanna worked with Eric Bellinger, Sean Garrett and Swedish House Mafia for her seventh album. On September 21, 2012, Ne-Yo confirmed that he had been working with Rihanna and that two songs he had wrote would make the album's final track listing. Sean Garrett spoke on the album's sound saying it was "a great mish-mash of genres".

Singles
Following her performance at the iHeartRadio music festival in September 2012, Rihanna revealed that "Diamonds" would be released as the lead single from her upcoming seventh studio album. She described the track as "happy and hippy", elaborating: "It's laid-back but it's hopeful. It's a record that... gives me such a great feeling when I listen to it. The lyrics are very hopeful and positive, but it's about love." "Diamonds" premiered on September 26, 2012 on the Elvis Duran and the Morning Show and was made available for digital download one hour later on iTunes. The song was co-written by Australian singer-songwriter Sia Furler, in collaboration with Benjamin "Benny Blanco" Levin and StarGate (Mikkel S. Eriksen, Tor Erik Hermansen); the production was completed by the latter two. StarGate has produced Rihanna's previous singles such as "Don't Stop the Music" and "Only Girl (In the World)". The cover artwork for the song was revealed on September 24, 2012 and features Rihanna rolling diamonds on a piece of paper. Chris Witherspoon of The Grio noted that the artwork features the same paper used for rolling marijuana.