Rihanna Covers “Heaven Is a Place on Earth”

Rihanna goes blue as Smurfette in the new trailer for the upcoming Smurfs movie, in which she not only debuts her new character, but also sings “Don’t Stop the Music” and “Heaven Is a Place on Earth.”

After an introduction from Rihanna, the clip begins with a mash-up of the original Smurfs theme and “Don’t Stop the Music” as the “coolest Smurf in the whole village” dances alongside her buddies. Their idyllic existence gets shattered, however, when Papa Smurf (John Goodman) is kidnapped and Smurfette must lead them into the real world.

A sleepy cover of Belinda Carlisle’s “Heaven Is a Place on Earth” — which gets rudely interrupted by DJ Khaled yelling over it — soundtracks their journey, which results in a somewhat amusing introduction to Papa Smurf’s irascible brother (Nick Offerman) and the Paris Neighborhood Watch Smurfs. Check out the full trailer below.

While announcing her role back in April 2023, Rihanna also revealed that she would be writing and performing original music for the movie, but it appears we’ll have to wait a while longer until we get a preview of those songs. “I tried to get the Papa Smurf role, but it didn’t work out,” she joked at the time.

Directed by Chris Miller (Shrek the Third, Puss in Boots) off a script by Pam Brady (South Park), Smurfs features a star-studded voice cast also including Natasha Lyonne, Amy Sedaris, Nick Kroll, Octavia Spencer, Sandra Oh, Hannah Waddingham, James Corden, Alex Winter, and Kurt Russell.

Serving as a reboot of the Sony Pictures Animation film franchise, Smurfs opens in theaters on July 18th.