Rihanna signs lucrative tour deal - report

Pop star Rihanna has landed a lucrative $25 million sponsorship deal for her next tour, according to a report.

The Umbrella singer has teamed up with technology giant Samsung to back her next trek and her upcoming album Anti, according to the New York Post.

Editors of the publication report the deal is one of the most lucrative music sponsorship agreements of recent years, and comes just days after reports suggested British singer Adele had lined up a $30 million deal with rival firm Apple for her first world tour.

Rihanna's new album is expected to debut before the end of the year (15), but it does not yet have a confirmed release date.

She recently unveiled Anti's cover art with a spectacular event at a gallery in Los Angeles, showing off her collaboration with Israeli artist Roy Nachum.

Fans were invited to the MAMA Gallery to check out Roy's Braille art pieces and they were given blindfolds to feel the works, until Rihanna arrived and removed black curtains to reveal the front and back cover of the follow-up to her 2012 record Unapologetic.

The cover art features a childhood photograph of Rihanna holding a balloon, with her eyes covered by a gold crown and a poem by Chloe Mitchell which is written in Braille.

"I sometimes fear that I am misunderstood, It is simply because what I want to say, What I need to say, won't be heard, Heard in a way I so rightfully deserve," the poem reads.

"He see things beyond the surface which is why I decided to collaborate with him," Rihanna previously said of Roy. "He really interpreted it in his own way, with exactly the message I wanted... The whole idea behind the Braille is that people who have sight are sometimes the people who are blindest (sic)."

A potential tour to support the album is expected to kick off next year (16), her first trek since her joint tour with rapper Eminem. The Monster Tour ran in August last year (14) and followed on from her previous solo shows on her 2013 Diamonds World Tour.