Rihanna-Beyoncé Feud: ‘Work’ Singer Addresses Rumors Of A Rivalry After Reports She Dissed ‘Formation’

Rihanna is finally clearing up rumors she’s had a longstanding feud with Beyoncé. The “Work” singer addressed the gossip in a new interview, revealing that she has no interest in trying to compete with other singers.

“Here’s the deal. [People] just get so excited to feast on something that’s negative,” she told Vogue. “Something that’s competitive. Something that’s, you know, a rivalry. And that’s just not what I wake up to. Because I can only do me. And nobody else is going to be able to do that.”

It’s been rumored for years that the two artists allegedly do not get along. The speculation re-surfaced recently after Beyoncé released her single “Formation” without warning in the same week Rihanna dropped her album, “Anti.”

The feud rumors escalated when the 28-year-old Barbadian singer was accused of dissing “Formation” by liking a tweet a fan posted comparing the song with “Desperado,” one of the singles from “Anti.”

As previously reported, the tweet was eventually deleted but read: “The fact that ‘Desperado’ is HIGHER on the Bubbling Under chart than a single performed to a global audience.” Even though the Twitter post didn’t mention Beyoncé or her song by name, many assumed that it was referring to “Formation,” which Beyoncé performed in front of millions of people at Super Bowl 50.

It’s believed that Rihanna and Beyoncé’s rumored beef stems back to 2005 when reports surfaced that Jay Z cheated on the 34-year-old “Diva” singer with Rihanna. In October 2015, former publicist Jonathan Hay, who worked closely to people connected to Rihanna, confessed to starting the rumor in order to help Rihanna’s first single, “Pon de Replay,” get a boost on the charts.

“That PR stunt that I did was out of desperation to help break ‘Pon de Replay,’” he wrote in an email to the New York Daily News. “It was reckless and I didn’t think it was going to work. I was just throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what would stick.”