Rihanna answers rumours of rivalry with Beyonce: 'I can only do me'

Rihanna’s interview in Vogue sets out the fashion designer and singer as a trailblazer whose latest album was declared a new genre of music. It also addresses rumours of a rivalry between her and another incredibly successful superstar: Beyonce.

Beyonce’s influence has pervaded almost every aspect of popular culture over the last decade.

The singer dropped "Formation", an instant hit and her most politically charged song to date, a day before the Superbowl.

Formation’s release was also at the time Anti was climbing the charts, sending gossip mills into overdrive with whispers of a rivalry between the two. Tabloids love nothing more than placing two icons at odds with each other, especially when both are women.

But Rihanna dismissed any attempts at constructing tension between the two by insisting that she is too unique to be in direct competition with anyone else.

“They just get so excited to feast on something that’s negative,“ she said. ”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.”