“You don’t have to worry about that,” Donald Glover said of Childish Gambino’s retirement, “He’ll be back”.
Donald Glover has spoken on whether his musical alter ego Childish Gambino will return to the studio, during a recent interview on the 2023 Golden Globes red carpet. The actor and musician, who was attending the ceremony after being nominated for his role in the FX drama series Atlanta, was asked whether he’d been working on new material now that the show’s fourth season had wrapped.
“I’m making music right now,” Glover confirmed. “I love it. I’m in the studio, I’ve been bringing people in, secret people, and working on things.” The singer went on to explain his current writing process as “fun”, before revealing that, in regards to a new project, “something will happen [soon] I promise.” When asked whether the music would be released under his Childish Gambino moniker, Glover said “You don’t have to worry about that. He’ll be back.”
The confirmation follows years of Glover’s on-again-off-again relationship with Gambino, following the release of latest project “Awaken, My Love!” in 2016. In an interview one year after that album — Gambino’s third overall — Glover announced that he would retire the alter ego, explaining that reprising the moniker would feel “like a third sequel, like a third movie and we’re like, ‘again?’”.
He doubled-down at the 2018 Grammys, telling reporters at the time that he “stand[s] by” the decision to hang up Gambino’s microphone. Glover later backtracked on the retirement, however, telling Jimmy Kimmel that he “[wasn’t] quite sure” whether Gambino was done for good. Thankfully, Glover’s latest music update signals a welcome return for the This Is America singer.
Under his own name, Glover’s last album, 3.15.20, arrived in 2020. Elsewhere, he’s contributed to the soundtrack of the 2016 live action remake of The Lion King, and written a television series with Barrack Obama’s daughter, Malia.
