Rihanna became the first female musician to reach billionaire status
A girl who helped her father sell clothes from a Bridgetown street stall became one of the best-selling artists ever, with estimated sales above 250 million records. Rihanna then turned beauty and fashion into a second empire, becoming the first woman in music to be worth a billion dollars.
Robyn Rihanna Fenty was born on February 20, 1988, in Saint Michael, Barbados, to an Afro-Guyanese accountant and a Barbadian warehouse supervisor. She grew up in a three-bedroom bungalow in Bridgetown during a hard childhood shaped by her father's addictions, and suffered such intense headaches that doctors once suspected a tumour; her health improved after her parents divorced when she was 14. At 11 she joined the Barbados Cadet Corps, where the future singer Shontelle was her drill sergeant. She listened to reggae artists such as Sizzla and to Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey, and left school at 16 to chase music.
Signed to Def Jam, she debuted with Caribbean-flavoured albums in 2005 and 2006, and her single SOS reached number one in the US. A more grown-up image and a turn to dance-pop and R&B came with Good Girl Gone Bad in 2007, whose hits included Umbrella. The rock-tinged Rated R in 2009 explored more personal ground before the upbeat Loud and Talk That Talk. Unapologetic topped the Billboard 200 in 2012, and after moving to Roc Nation she released the eclectic Anti in 2016, her second chart-topping album. Since then she has released music only occasionally, while acting in films including Ocean's 8.
The numbers are formidable: nine Grammys, fourteen number-one singles on the Hot 100, eight diamond-certified singles, and the title of highest-certified female digital singles artist in the United States.
Her business ventures include the cosmetics line Fenty Beauty and a fashion label under LVMH, and she set up the nonprofit Clara Lionel Foundation. Barbados made her an ambassador in 2018 and declared her a National Hero in 2021.
Source: Rihanna
