The world is going to have to wait a bit longer for the release of Tinashe’s new album, “Joyride.”
On April 5, the 23-year-old pop star announced she was postponing her international tour dates to focus on finishing the hotly-anticipated follow-up to 2014’s “Aquarius.”
For now, however, fans can get their fix with Snakehips’s sterling new single, “All My Friends.” The song, which features Tinashe and Chance The Rapper, seamlessly blends elements of pop, R&B and rap. (Check out the video for the single above.)
Praising the song’s “introspective” vibe, Tinashe told The Huffington Post, “I really loved the message, so when they approached me a while back, I was really excited to be a part of it.”
Album release delays aside, Tinashe has been earning raves for her live performances in the U.S., where she’s been compared to Beyoncé and Janet Jackson. Like those icons, the star has quickly garnered a queer following, which she described as “one of the favorite parts of her fanbase” in an interview with Out magazine last month.
“I get really, really great energy [from my queer fans],” she told HuffPost. “When I see everyone in the crowd singing, dancing and having a great time, I can feel that energy, and that always pumps me up so much.”
When it comes to her own sexuality, Tinashe has always been coy. In 2011, she tweeted:
"I don't necessarily want to put a title on it, 'cause as soon as you put a title on it, people, you know, put it into a category where it has to be 50/50," she clarified in a 2012 Tumblr post. "But I definitely know that I have an attraction to everyone and I love everybody."
She told HuffPost that she hasn't felt any additional pressure since then to label her sexuality.
"I feel, like, nowadays, people are a little bit more understanding of the fact that other people don't necessarily want to assign themselves one particular thing or another," she said. "That's all a part of how we're growing and progressing as a society. I think it's exciting that we don't have to be so black and white, because the world isn't black and white."
She is mostly tight-lipped about the specifics of "Joyride," other than to say that the album "really shows where I am in my career."
As to whether or not she felt the need to top the critical success of "Aquarius," she added, "Yeah, absolutely. I think I put a lot of that pressure on myself. I have huge goals and things that I want to accomplish. So I definitely full-on want myself to create the best music that I possibly can."
If Tinashe has her way, her future will also include a collaboration with Britney Spears.
"It would sound like 'Toxic,' '...Baby One More Time,' and everything that's amazing put together," she quipped. "We'd have all of the amazing outfits that she's ever worn, and we'd make the best video ever. I'm just putting that out there."
That distant sound you hear are the heads of her queer fans collectively exploding.
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