biography rihanna singer

International popstar Rihanna released her first album in 2005 and is known for such No. 1 hits as "Umbrella," "SOS," "Diamonds," and "Work."

Who Is Rihanna?

Popstar Rihanna signed with Def Jam records at age 16 and in 2005 released her first album Music of the Sun , which sold more than two million copies worldwide. She went on to release more albums and an array of hit songs, including "Unfaithful," "Umbrella," "Disturbia," "Take a Bow," "Diamonds" and "We Found Love." A global pop star with an unrelentingly edgy image, Rihanna has also won multiple industry accolades, including Grammys and MTV awards.

Singer Robyn Rihanna Fenty was born on February 20, 1988, in St. Michael Parish on the Caribbean island of Barbados. She is the eldest of three children born to Monica Fenty, an accountant, and Ronald Fenty, a warehouse supervisor. Rihanna's childhood was marred by her father's struggles with addictions to alcohol and crack cocaine and her parents' marital problems — they divorced when she was 14 years old.

Rihanna also struggled with crippling headaches for several years during her childhood, a condition she attempted to hide from her friends and classmates so that they would not think she was abnormal. "I never expressed how I felt," she remembered. "I always kept it in. I would go to school ... you would never know there was something wrong with me."

Move to the United States

As a teenager, Rihanna turned to singing as a release from her troubles at home. She formed a girl group with two classmates; when they were 15 years old, they scored an audition with music producer Evan Rodgers, who was visiting the island with his Barbadian wife. Rogers was awed by the precociously beautiful and talented Rihanna, to the unfortunate detriment of her two friends. "The minute Rihanna walked into the room, it was like the other two girls didn't exist," he admitted.

Less than a year later, when Rihanna was only 16 years old, she left Barbados to move in with Rogers and his wife in Connecticut and work on recording a demo album. "When I left Barbados, I didn't look back," Rihanna recalled. "I wanted to do what I had to do, even if it meant moving to America."

"Pon de Replay," "Unfaithful" and "SOS"

Only eight months later, in August 2005, she released her first single, "Pon de Replay," a reggae-influenced club track that reached No. 2 on the Billboard singles chart and announced Rihanna as the next up-and-coming pop star. Her first album, Music of the Sun , released later that month, reached No. 10 on the Billboard albums chart and also featured the single "If It's Lovin' That You Want." Rihanna released her second album, A Girl Like Me , the next year, spawning two major hits in "Unfaithful" and "SOS," Rihanna's first No. 1 single.

"Umbrella"

In 2007, Rihanna effected a transformation from cute teen pop princess to superstar and sex symbol with her third album, Good Girl Gone Bad , fueled by its smash hit lead single "Umbrella," featuring Jay-Z. "It shows such growth for her as an artist," Jay-Z said about the track. "If you listen to the lyrics to that song, you know the depth and how far she's come."

"Don't Stop the Music," "Disturbia" and "Hate That I Love You"

"Umbrella" topped the Billboard singles chart and earned Rihanna her first Grammy Award for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration. The album reached No. 2 on the charts and also featured the singles "Shut Up and Drive" and "Don't Stop the Music," the latter featuring a sample of Michael Jackson 's "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'." Good Girl Gone Bad: Reloaded , released the following year, scored further hits in "Disturbia," "Take a Bow" and "Hate That I Love You."

"Only Girl (In the World)" and "S&M"

Continuing her onslaught of hit albums, Rihanna released Rated R in 2009 with the singles "Hard" and "Rude Boy." Her 2010 album, Loud , was once again a commercial success behind the songs "What's My Name," "Only Girl (In the World)" and "S&M."

Besides her own laundry list of hit songs, Rihanna collaborated on a host of popular songs by other artists from around this time, including Jay-Z's "Run this Town," Eminem 's "Love the Way You Lie," Maroon 5's "If I Never See Your Face Again" and Kanye West 's "All of the Lights."

"We Found Love"

In 2011, Rihanna released her sixth studio album: Talk That Talk . The album included "We Found Love," a track with DJ Calvin Harris that won the 2013 Grammy Award for best short-form music video.

"Diamonds" and "Stay"

On her Grammy-winning 2012 album Unapologetic , Rihanna turned out such hits as the No. 1 Sia Furler tune "Diamonds" and "Stay," featuring Mikky Ekko. (Interestingly, Unapologetic was the first Rihanna album to hit No. 1 on the pop charts.) She also worked with Coldplay on the track "Princess of China" and, the following year, reached No. 1 again with another Eminem collaboration, "The Monster."

Known for her sexually provocative imagery and wild style, Rihanna made headlines for the sheer dress she wore to the Council of Fashion Designers of America awards ceremony in June 2014. She was there to receive the CFDA's Fashion Icon Award and told the crowd that "Fashion has always been my defense mechanism," according to an Associated Press report. Rihanna acknowledged that there were some rules to fashion, but explained that "rules are meant to be broken." Around this time, the singer made a bold professional move as well: She switched from the Def Jam label to Jay-Z's Roc Nation.

"FourFiveSeconds"

In August 2015, NBC announced that Rihanna would be the key adviser on The Voice 's ninth season. That same year she contributed vocals to the single "FourFiveSeconds," a collaboration with West and famed Beatle Paul McCartney , as well as releasing "B**** Better Have My Money," a tune allegedly inspired by court wranglings with her former manager that also featured a highly controversial, violent music video. In 2015 Rihanna also became the first artist in history to have 100 million singles digitally downloaded and streamed.

"Work"

In late January 2016, Rihanna released the album Anti , allowing Jay-Z's online streaming site Tidal to exclusively feature the collection of tracks for a week. The gambit paid off for the struggling service, with one million trial subscribers joining Tidal in less than a day to partake in a download promotion for Anti . The album's lead single, "Work," featuring rapper Drake , earned two Grammy nominations. In 2017, Rihanna scored another No. 1 hit as a featured artist on DJ Khaled 's "Wild Thoughts."

Branching out to screen work, Rihanna co-starred in the sci-fi flick Battleship (2012) and later voiced the lead character in the animated blockbuster Home (2015).

In 2017, Rihanna made recurring appearances in season 5 of Bates Motel , and earned a prominent role in the science fiction flick Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets . That year, fans also got their first glimpse of the pop superstar alongside Sandra Bullock , Cate Blanchett and Anne Hathaway in trailers for Ocean's 8 , a female-led spinoff of the popular Ocean's Trilogy which hit theaters in June 2018.

The following spring, Rihanna co-starred with Donald Glover , aka Childish Gambino, in the Amazon musical Guava Island .

Philanthropy and Personal Life

In 2012, Rihanna launched the nonprofit Clara Lionel Foundation, named after her grandmother, which supports and funds education and early response programs around the world. For her philanthropic efforts, she was honored with the President's Award at the 2020 NAACP Image Awards.

Rihanna has also made headlines in her personal life, although often for circumstances beyond her control. She first made gossip column headlines in 2006 when rumors swirled that she was having an affair with her mentor, Jay-Z, though she and Jay-Z dismissed such allegations as ridiculous. Later, she was romantically linked to billionaire Saudi businessman Hassan Jameel, before their split was reported in early 2020.

In late 2020, Rihanna began dating rapper A$AP Rocky . In January 2022, it was revealed that the couple is expecting their first child.

Chris Brown

In 2009, Rihanna was the center of a media firestorm after a domestic violence incident in which her then-boyfriend Chris Brown assaulted her before an awards show. The incident sparked a huge public outpouring of support for Rihanna, and she became a spokesperson against domestic violence. "This happened to me," she said in an interview with Diane Sawyer. "It can happen to anyone."

"I put my guard up so hard," she said in a separate interview with Rolling Stone . "I didn't want people to see me cry. I didn't want people to feel bad for me. It was a very vulnerable time in my life, and I refused to let that be the image. I wanted them to see me as, 'I'm fine, I'm tough.' I put that up until it felt real."

In 2012, Rihanna appeared to be reconnecting with Brown. The pair worked together on the song "Birthday Cake" released that year. Rihanna also spoke very candidly with Oprah Winfrey about her relationship with Brown that August. She told Winfrey that Brown may have been the love of her life and she has developed "a very close friendship" with him. The two officially dated again for a time, with Rihanna maintaining in a Rolling Stone interview that Brown had changed and that any form of abuse would be unacceptable.

QUICK FACTS

• Birth date: February 20, 1988
• Birth Country: Barbados
• Best Known For: International popstar Rihanna released her first album in 2005 and is known for such No. 1 hits as "Umbrella," "SOS," "Diamonds," and "Work."
• Astrological Sign: Pisces
• Combermere School
• Nationalities
• Antiguan/Barbudan

Fact Check: We strive for accuracy and fairness. If you see something that doesn’t look right, contact us !

• When the whole worlds turning left, it's when I'm going right. I need someone to let me be just who I am inside.
• I believe in second chances, I just don't believe everyone deserves them.
• Love isn't complicated—people are.
• I'm rebellious through my music, through my fashion, tattoos and my hair.
• I have been conservative in my love life.
• Boys will be boys!!! 'Cause they can't be men!
• People think because we're young, we aren't complex but that's not true. We deal with life and love and broken hearts in the same way a woman a few years older might.
• I could never identify with that word, 'weak.' I couldn't have come out of this if I was weak. No way.
• After being tormented for so many years, being angry and dark, I'd rather just live my truth and take the backlash. I can handle it.
• I decided it was more important for me to be happy, and I wasn't going to let anyone's opinion get in the way of that. Even if it's a mistake, it's my mistake.
• You know, when I started to ... have my race be highlighted, it was mostly when I would do business deals. ... And, you know, that never ends, by the way. It’s still a thing. And it’s the thing that makes me want to prove people wrong. It almost excites me; I know what they’re expecting and I can’t wait to show them that I’m here to exceed those expectations.

Black History

10 Famous Langston Hughes Poems

5 Crowning Achievements of Maya Angelou

Ava DuVernay

Octavia Spencer

Inventor Garrett Morgan’s Lifesaving 1916 Rescue

Get to Know 5 History-Making Black Country Singers

Frederick Jones

Lonnie Johnson

10 Black Authors Who Shaped Literary History

Benjamin Banneker

Rihanna (I)

• Music Artist

IMDbPro Starmeter See rank

• Contact info
• 96 wins & 326 nominations total

• Petty Officer Cora 'Weps' Raikes

• Gratuity 'Tip' Tucci (voice)

• Smurfette (voice)
• Pre-production

• Marion Crane

• Composer (as Robyn Fenty)
• Composer (music by)

• In-development projects at IMDbPro

Personal details

• Apple Music
• Robyn Rihanna Fenty
• 5′ 8″ (1.73 m)
• February 20 , 1988
• Bridgetown, St. Michael, Barbados
• Children RZA Athelston Mayers
• Parents Monica Braithwaite
• Relatives Reginald Leslie Forde (Grandparent)
• Other works CD: "A Girl Like Me" (Def Jam)
• 3 Interviews
• 48 Articles
• 21 Pictorials
• 665 Magazine Cover Photos

Did you know

• Trivia In the United Kingdom, she became the only female; and the only artist in 52 years to have three top ten songs at once on the "UK Official Chart". She also became the first female artist; in the history of the chart, to have a number one in five consecutive years.
• Quotes I love the high-risk (guys). I don't like cream puff, corny guys. Usually, they are the nice guys, the ones that won't hurt you. They will pull out the chair for you and the whole nine yards. Everything is perfect and boring. I like the risk, I like the edge. That's the thrill for me.
• Trademarks Leather outfits and revealing outfits
• The Caribbean Queen
• The Barbados Babe
• The Bajan Beauty
• The Princess of Pop
• The Princess of R&B
• How old is Rihanna?
• When was Rihanna born?
• Where was Rihanna born?

Related news

Contribute to this page.

• Learn more about contributing

More to explore

Add demo reel with IMDbPro

How much have you seen?

Recently viewed

• Skip to main content
• Keyboard shortcuts for audio player

The 200 Greatest Songs By 21st Century Women+

Rihanna is the 21st century's most influential musician.

Jenny Gathright

Rihanna performs on stage at the BRIT Awards in 2016. Photo Illustration: Ian Gavan/Getty Images and Angela Hsieh/NPR hide caption

Rihanna performs on stage at the BRIT Awards in 2016.

It's not enough to make list after list. The Turning the Tables project seeks to suggest alternatives to the traditional popular music canon, and to do more than that, too: to stimulate conversation about how hierarchies emerge and endure. This year, Turning the Tables considers how women and non-binary artists are shaping music in our moment, from the pop mainstream to the sinecures of jazz and contemporary classical music. Our list of the 200 Greatest Songs By Women + offers a soundtrack to a new century. This series of essays takes on another task.

Turning The Tables

Women Are The Fabric Of 21st Century Pop

The 25 arguments writers make in these pieces challenge the usual definitions of influence. Some rethink the building legacies of popular artists; others celebrate those who create within subcultures, their innovations rippling outward over time. As always, women forge new pathways in sound; today, they also make waves under the surface of culture by confronting, in their music, the increased fluidity of "woman" itself. What is a woman? It's a timeless question on the surface, but one deeply engaged with whatever historical moment in which it is asked. Our 25 Most Influential Women Musicians of the 21 st Century illuminate its complexities. –Ann Powers

The cover of Rihanna 's 2016 album ANTI , created by artist Roy Natchum and commissioned by Rihanna, features the singer as a young child with a crown that's fallen down over her head so that it covers her eyes. She holds a balloon and red paint drips down over her from the top corner of the canvas. Overlaying the entire painting is a poem rendered in Braille, written by the poet Chloe Mitchell in collaboration with Rihanna and Natchum.

"I sometimes fear that I am misunderstood," it starts. "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. What I choose to say is of so much substance that people just won't understand the depth of my message..."

Rihanna at the album artwork reveal for ANTI in 2015. Christopher Polk/Getty Images for WESTBURY ROAD ENTERTAINMENT LLC hide caption

Rihanna at the album artwork reveal for ANTI in 2015.

What does it mean to think of Rihanna, global superstar, as unheard? Her music has soundtracked most of this century, and that kind of ubiquity is easily taken for granted, like air. She released a full-length studio album every single year between 2005 and 2012, save for a one-year break in 2008. Of the 61 Rihanna songs on the Billboard Hot 100, 14 of them were No. 1 hits, and 31 of them were top 10 hits. No album has landed as many No. 1 songs on Billboard 's Dance Club Songs chart as ANTI , the album Rihanna released in 2016 after an unprecedented (for her) hiatus.

For most of my life, there has been a Rihanna single — or multiple Rihanna singles, or multiple songs defined by a Rihanna hook — playing prominently on Top 40 radio. So it's not enough to say Rihanna is the air. Rihanna shaped the texture and taste of the air by consistently doing what pop, at its very best, is supposed to do: taking disparate genres — rock, EDM, dancehall, trap and even dubstep — and turning them into something that makes sense to us, to everyone. If she's not seen as taking musical risks, it's only because so many of them paid off.

Rihanna is the most important pop artist of the century because of these contributions to music — and her music is beloved. It's still worth asking, however, how we as an audience can adequately love Rihanna the person.

When Rihanna received the Video Vanguard Award at the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards, Drake introduced her. His speech is memorable for his cute, unsurprising and ultimately distracting faux-confession: "She's someone I've been in love with since I was 22 years old." Equally instructive, though, are the parts of Drake's speech that were about Rihanna and not Drake. He mentioned her achievements in music but ultimately asserted that what was "most impressive" was Rihanna the person.

"She succeeds by doing something that no one in this music industry does, which is being herself," Drake said. "We love the music, which can change styles from album to album, we love the videos, which change their artistic vision from year to year, but most of all, we love the woman, who hasn't changed since day one."

Rihanna was gracious in her acceptance speech. She spoke about how her success is never just about her — it's about Barbados, her family, her fans and "women, black women." She also went on to thank the directors who went along with her "crazy ideas" — her subtle way of asserting what Drake did not: that she is pop music's vanguard, and that the work itself is where her prowess lies. Drake's speech focuses on the product : It was the music that changed styles and the videos that changed artistic vision. The only thing Rihanna did, according to this syntactical choice, was remain the same.

Rihanna performs during the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards. Michael Loccisano/Getty Images hide caption

Rihanna performs during the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards.

In her lead essay for the first iteration of Turning the Tables, a list of the 150 greatest albums by women in the pop era, Ann Powers notes that descriptions of greatness are often gendered: "Women are linked to the natural and the timeless, while men innovate and make history. Men build civilizations and create great works, while women animate spaces and connect people with their nurturing souls and alluring energy."

Those who claim to love Rihanna often say it's because of her soul, or her energy. Miranda July wrote about this phenomenon in her 2015 profile of the pop icon , where she describes how various people responded when she asked them about Rihanna: "A lesbian art history professor told me that she's 'the real deal.' Others used the words 'magic' and 'epic.' But when I tried to get anyone to pinpoint things she had said or done — particular interviews or incidents — everyone became lost in inarticulacy." When July told her Uber driver he was taking her to interview Rihanna, he responded, "You kidding? That's my girl," he said. "I love her. She's so down-to-earth."

But after meeting Rihanna, words fail July, too. Her final observation of the star is about her soul: "Souls don't really care about good or bad, right or wrong — they're just true. Everlasting. It makes you sound dumb to talk about this stuff, which is why no one could tell me exactly what it was about Rihanna. But millions of fans don't seem to need it explained to them. A soul just knows a soul."

"My understanding, from the moment she sat down, was that we were in love," July continues. It is a bold presumption of emotional access.

In a 2012 profile for GQ , Jay Bulger says Rihanna comes across as more authentic than her peers: "She sometimes gets grouped with theatrical pop stars like Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, and Nicki Minaj. But those are one-woman masquerade balls, their real selves hidden behind the next costume change. Rihanna, on the other hand, comes off as wild, weird, unfiltered, a little unhinged, which just makes everyone else go all unhinged."

The scholar Esther L. Jones has argued that as Rihanna established more and more narrative authority over her public image, she began to author a woman "simultaneously ordinary and exceptional, intimate and distant, known and inaccessible." Her social media feeds exemplify this: She promotes her wildly successful global fashion brands, but she also loves to post memes . For MTV News, Doreen St. Felix wrote that "a cultivation of lifestyle — her trips back home to Barbados, her tattoos, her laughter, her love of family, her social media presence — in the moment that every other person of her caliber is trying out reclusivity, and the secondary group is trying out diva-hood, makes Rihanna the last rock star."

It matters that Rihanna comes across as genuine, that her sense of self appears unshaken by celebrity , that she feels accessible to her fans. But this, as Jones and St. Felix are getting at, is not a persona that occurs without effort. Rihanna has been performing what it means to be in the thick of things — not above them, not outside looking in, not past them — for her whole career. That takes emotional and intellectual work, especially when you consider — as Jones does in her essay "'What's My Name?': Reading Rihanna's Autobiographical Acts" — that the public-private distinction Rihanna had spent years cultivating was shattered in 2009, when Rihanna's then-boyfriend Chris Brown physically assaulted her just ahead of the Grammys and the photo evidence spread across the Internet.

To really love Rihanna, one must respect that what we so often find lovable about her — her so-called relatability, the way she's able to de-emphasize the significant social and artistic distance between herself and her fans — is also her work.

"We Found Love," released two-and-a-half years after Chris Brown attacked Rihanna, is classic dance pop with an edge. It's meant to sound like joy, but the lyrics are vague enough to account for a whole range of human feeling. In the video, Rihanna chooses darkness. It's about two people who are not good for each other. There are fights that look unhealthy. There are plenty of drugs. It starts with an opening monologue about a relationship gone wrong. "When it's over, and it's gone," the English actress Agyness Deyn reads, "you almost wish that you could have all that bad stuff back so that you could have the good."

In a New Yorker profile, director Melina Matsoukas says it was completely unintentional that Rihanna's on-screen partner in the video looked eerily like Chris Brown — lightskinned, blonde. But she says the plot took inspiration from "[her] terrible love life and obviously [Rihanna's] terrible love life and every woman's terrible love life."

Matsoukas also told The New Yorker 's Alexis Okeowo that Rihanna was on board: "She was open to taking it there ... and with being honest and showing what life really is."

Rihanna had been taking it there for a while. "Russian Roulette," the lead single from her 2009 album Rated R , is about love with life or death stakes, with a video whose imagery comes a bit too close for comfort to police reports from Chris Brown's physical assault of her. Brown's assault of Rihanna took place in a car. A speeding car appears in the video multiple times; at once point, it hurtles towards a standing Rihanna.

When asked about the demand that she be a role model, Rihanna told Vogue : "That title was put on me when I was just finding my way, making mistakes in front of the world. I didn't think it was fair." The videos for "We Found Love" and "Russian Roulette" are not about looking back on hard moments that you've gotten over. They're about being in the messy present. It's not clear that this is what people are talking about when they call Rihanna "down-to-earth," but this too is evidence of the work of being real — dealing with patriarchy and racism and making art through it.

In the video for "S&M," which Matsoukas also directed, Rihanna wears a dress made of newsprint. She's immobile, bound up in plastic wrap as her body's literally covered in media commentary. "Rihanna's 'enjoyment' of the public flagellation with words and accusations is her attempt to speak back to the larger forces of dominance and power, forces that uphold Chris Brown's assault on her by prolonging it for their own entertainment and profit," writes scholar Donna Aza Weir-Soley in the paper "From 'F Love' to 'He Is the One'?: Rihanna, Chris Brown and the Danger of Traumatic Bonding."

As for Rihanna, she told Spin about the song: "I don't think of it in a sexual way, I'm thinking metaphorically ... People are going to talk about you, you can't stop that. You just have to be that strong person and know who you are so that stuff just bounces off."

On the album Unapologetic , which came out as rumors of Rihanna and Chris Brown's romantic reunion swirled ( they were later confirmed ), critic Jessica Hopper wrote for Pitchfork: "She's quite a distance from the tidy narrative we'd like, the one where she's learned from her pain and is back to doing diva triumph club stomp in the shadow of Beyoncé. Unapologetic rubs our faces in the inconvenient messy truth of Rihanna's life which, even if it were done well, would be hard to celebrate as a success."

But Unapologetic was also home to " Pour It Up ," the song and video in which Rihanna plays both the dancer and the client in a strip club. It's a meditation on financial independence and an assertion of control.

Rihanna's realness is not just about her carefree Instagram posts, or her habit of taking wine to-go . Her realness is popular art that cuts to the hard questions. She stretched the boundaries of genre, of course, but she also demanded that her vast audience grapple with the complexity of her inner life — both when it was empowering and when it was difficult. The worry that often accompanies this kind of bravery is that it won't be legible to your audience — or that you'll be misunderstood.

Last year, Jamila Woods , another artist who thinks a lot about authorial control, told me she was thinking about something Sonia Sanchez said: "I shall become, I shall become a collector of me. And put meat on my soul."

When your ears are always burning, I imagine it must be important to write against the stories you believe others are telling about you. "Sometimes a person looks at me and sees dollars. They see numbers and they see a product," Rihanna told GQ in that same 2012 profile. "I look at me and see art. If I didn't like what I was doing, then I would say I was committing slavery."

My favorite Rihanna moment is the line in "B**** Better Have My Money" where she sings, "Turn up to Rihanna while the whole club f****** wasted." It's an acknowledgement that she has the privilege of living in the sonic landscape she created herself — that she is a collector of herself. That line is delivered in the archetypical "Rihanna voice," which is, as Jayson Greene argued for Pitchfork , the most influential vocal of the past decade in pop.

"Umbrella" was the song that showed me all that a single note, sung on "eh," could contain. Rihanna sings the word "uuhm-buh-rella" like she invented it: unafraid of emphasis, letting each part of the word travel into the next. Her voice is so engaging that on "Live Your Life," which came out a year later in 2008, when she sings "live your life" all on the same D, then hovers around the neighborhood of that D for the majority of the hook, it doesn't feel dumb or boring at all.

Greene wrote of the title lyric in "What's My Name": "Who knows how many dozens of times Rihanna practiced that vocal take until she had distilled all of those competing emotions — pleading and playful, weary and sensual, even a little mocking — into three goddamn syllables, looping perfectly."

Rihanna's 'Birthday Cake': Reasons To Listen

I love Rihanna's voice mostly because I have always heard within it the feeling of mustering, an acknowledgement that being comfortable in our skin is possible with intention and effort. Apparently, she wears a chain with the word "Savage" on her neck, or at least she did for that Vogue interview. "Savage is really about taking complete ownership of how you feel and the choices you make," she says. "Basically making sure everybody knows the ball is in your court."

ANTI is this hard-fought confidence embodied. There's confidence, of course, in the lyrics (see: "Sex With Me" and "Needed Me"). But there's also confidence in the delivery: Rihanna stretches her voice to its breaking point on songs like "Higher" and "Love on the Brain," letting it crack in ways we haven't heard before, or linger in falsetto for longer than we're used to. In moments like this, when she takes the vocal template she designed to uncharted places, Rihanna becomes, according to Greene, "both the vandal and the monument."

The question I asked was about whether Rihanna's audience has ever adequately loved her — whether we've given her the kind of love that respects both what she's created and all the labor that went into creating it. But the answer Rihanna gives, through ANTI , is that Rihanna probably doesn't care about the question to begin with.

Rihanna Launches College Scholarships For Foreign Students

In a promotional video for ANTI , Rihanna is given a crown from a child who we can only assume is that same child on the album cover, a young Rihanna. The whole video leads up to this moment, when Rihanna takes the crown and places it on her head. The moment is a lesson: You can wait — wait for ANTI to get the Grammy it deserved, wait for the world to give the genius of your work its due — or you can crown yourself.

Welcome to Rihanna's Revolution

At 32, Robyn Rihanna Fenty is already an icon. But the secret to her success in the beauty business might lie in how she has reimagined what it means to be one.

Meeting a megastar for the first time can be nerve-racking. You never really know what to expect. So, naturally, even as I looked out over the calming Hudson River from the rooftop of a Manhattan photo studio, I was a little antsy. Then the elevator rang, the door opened, and out walked Rihanna.

It was 2007. I was an assistant beauty editor at the time. Rihanna was fresh off the release of her wildly successful third album, Good Girl Gone Bad . She was one of the hottest artists in the world. So I watched intently as she casually strolled in as if she’d just hopped off the A train, rocking an oversize hoodie, jeans, and a skully, with two of her girls from Barbados in tow.

She shook hands with our production staff, greeting each person with a smile. When she turned to me, I sat my notepad down, expecting a handshake. To my surprise, she walked right up and gave me a hug. “Hey, I’m Robyn,” she said.

Instantly I knew what kind of person Rihanna was. Underneath the veil of this superhero-ish, ultramagnetic, über-swaggy star, Robyn Rihanna Fenty was a real one—not fake real, but real real: a Black girl who wasn’t so caught up in her own celebrity that she couldn’t recognize another Black girl on the come up. Sure, it was just a hug. But the gesture was bigger than that. Rihanna gave off the type of down-to-earth vibe you’d expect from a homegirl you’ve known since middle school.

Despite her fame, Rihanna has somehow always managed to stay down—for the cause, for her people. It has always felt like she is one of us.

Rihanna’s position as a global celebrity with more than 85 million Instagram followers has certainly helped her forge inroads where others have met roadblocks. But she has never shied away from using that platform to speak truth to power.

In 2018, Rihanna turned down an invitation to perform at the Super Bowl halftime show to stand in solidarity with free-agent NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who was effectively sidelined from the league after taking a knee during the national anthem to protest systemic racism and police brutality. In her acceptance speech at this year’s NAACP Image Awards, she called for friends and allies of the Black community to “pull up,” to be part of the movement and stand on the side of justice. This spring, as the Covid-19 pandemic devastated communities—and, in particular, Black communities—across the United States, her Clara Lionel Foundation, the nonprofit she founded in 2012 and named after her late grandmother Clara Braithwaite, and her 91-year-old grandfather, Lionel Braithwaite, and its partners committed more than $36 million to emergency response efforts. And Rihanna was one of the first celebrities to speak out about the brutal killing of George Floyd: “If intentional MURDER is the fit consequence for ‘drugs’ or ‘resisting arrest’... then what’s the fit consequence for MURDER???!” she wrote on Instagram.

Fast-forward 13 years from our first meeting, and in addition to the blockbuster albums and world tours, Rihanna has built a behemoth of a fashion and beauty empire, which includes a makeup line, Fenty Beauty; a Paris-based fashion house that she created in partnership with luxury conglomerate LVMH, Fenty; an inclusive intimates collection, Savage X Fenty; and the highly anticipated new skin-care line she dropped in July, Fenty Skin.

Successfully pivoting from one industry to another is a feat very few people have been able to pull off—let alone Black women. Think about it: Other than Oprah, how many Black women have managed to take multiple industries by storm? The list is very short, and Rihanna’s name is unquestionably near the top—an achievement made more remarkable by the way she has done it. Rihanna’s swag bleeds through every product, campaign image, Instagram caption, and shade name (Cuz I’m Black).

That’s why I wasn’t the least bit surprised by how quickly Fenty Beauty exploded after its launch in 2017. According toForbes, the brand raked in a reported $100 million in sales in its first six weeks, reaching more than $550 million in its first full year alone.

By developing a truly inclusive makeup collection, Rihanna provoked change in an industry that had historically—and almost exclusively—catered to white women. Fenty Beauty launched with 40 shades of foundation, more than double the number offered by many other leading brands at the time. (It inspired what has come to be known as the Fenty Effect: Forty shades is now considered the benchmark for foundation ranges.)

But Rihanna’s approach to Fenty Beauty resonated with people in a deeper way. Beyond providing people in communities of color starved for accessible foundation that actually matched their complexions, the move seemed to communicate, I see you when no one else does.

“Rihanna’s unapologetic determination to make beauty an inclusive industry—and her insistence that beauty be democratic—changed the game,” says actress Tracee Ellis Ross, who last year launched her own beauty brand, Pattern, with a range of products and tools designed for natural hair. “She seems to imagine from a world where there are no limits, inviting us all to do the same.”

With Fenty Skin, Rihanna is looking to bring that same sensibility to skin care. More than two years of development went into the line, which led to a tightly curated collection of three multitasking two-in-one products: makeup remover/cleanser, serum/toner, and an SPF moisturizer. “I’ve always seen the Fenty brand as more than just makeup, and I knew I wanted to make skin care from the very beginning,” Rihanna says. “It was just about getting it right. You have to live with the formulas for awhile and test them in different ways. It’s very different from makeup in that sense. It takes a long time.”

Rihanna has never abided by limitations. But her outward success in the beauty space is a testament to something far more inward that is less about how her fans have embraced her and more about how she has embraced them.

Back when we first spoke in 2007, while munching on fried rice from a local restaurant, Rihanna shared a story about her mom, who had worked at a makeup store similar to Sephora. “She knew everything about perfume, skin care, and makeup,” Rihanna told me. “She never let me wear makeup, but I was secretly fascinated. So when she’d leave home, I would play around with hers.”

Rihanna understood early on that beauty is about much more than appearances: It’s about discovery, identity, and how you feel as much as how you look. Her impact on the beauty world is a microcosm of a shift in the world itself—a world that is now finally expanding beyond the prototypical tall, thin blonde to include the full-figured, dark-complexioned, and natural in its notions of strength, success, and, yes, beauty. Rihanna has opened doors for women of all races, sizes, orientations, and creeds to be both seen and heard, which is not just a concept she has grasped and capitalized on but a reality she has lived. Like the hug from one Black girl to another, you can’t fake that. Not with all the foundation or concealer in the world.

Art director: Oliver Shaw; Executive Producer: Shelby Beamon; Entertainment Booker: Christopher Bartley; Hair: Ursula Stephen; Makeup: Priscilla Ono, Fenty Beauty Global Makeup Artist; Manicure: Kimmie Kyees; Local Producer: Gabe Hill for GE Projects; Digital Technician: Dale Gold; Set Designer: Spencer Vrooman; Tailor: Jim Tanner; Production Assistant: Sasha Bar-Tur; Photo Assistant: Jared Zagha; Printing:Arc Lab Ltd. Special thanks to Ron Hartleben and Jahleel Weaver.

This article originally appears in the September 2020 issue of Harper's BAZAAR, available on newsstands September 8.

.css-lihu0l{-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;text-decoration-thickness:0.0625rem;text-decoration-color:inherit;text-underline-offset:0.25rem;color:#fff;-webkit-transition:all 0.3s ease-in-out;transition:all 0.3s ease-in-out;word-break:break-word;display:inline-block;background:linear-gradient(to bottom,#f5f5f5 0,#f5f5f5 100%);-webkit-background-size:0 0;background-size:0 0;background-repeat:repeat-x;-webkit-background-position:0 100%;background-position:0 100%;padding:0.625rem 1.25rem;background-color:#000000;width:auto;font-family:helveticanowtextmedium,helveticanowtextmedium-upcase-roboto,helveticanowtextmedium-upcase-local,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;text-transform:uppercase;border:0.0625rem solid transparent;font-size:0.70028rem;line-height:1.2;font-weight:500;border-radius:6.25rem;letter-spacing:0.045rem;}.css-lihu0l:hover{color:#000;text-decoration-color:border-link-body-hover;-webkit-background-size:0.625rem 3.125rem;background-size:0.625rem 3.125rem;background-color:#f5f5f5;border:0.0625rem solid black;}.css-lihu0l:focus-visible{outline-color:body-cta-btn-link-focus;}.css-lihu0l svg{fill:#ffffff;}.css-lihu0l svg>path{fill:#ffffff;} get the latest issue of bazaar, cover stories.

Akon Changkou on Appreciating Your Own Beauty

Paris Hilton Is Dropping the Act

Jamaica In My Own Words

The Radical Hope of Patti Smith

Emily Ratajkowski Doesn’t Need Your Approval

Charlize Theron Knows Hollywood Could Be Better

These Are BAZAAR’s 2022 Icons

Florence Pugh Is Just Being Honest

Bad Bunny Makes the World Listen

Amanda Gorman Has Big Dreams

Hailey Bieber Is Ready for Anything

• Latest News

‘Point Of Departure’: Andrew Hill’s Classic Took Jazz To A New Destination

Musicians who are poets: 12 game-changing lyrical masters, pioneering women in early rock ‘n’ roll, ‘lullabies to paralyze’: ‘metal that swings’ by queens of the stone age, ‘rubycon’: how tangerine dream crossed over into new territory, ‘nick of time’: bonnie raitt beats the clock to win grammy glory, roger hodgson and supertramp in 20 songs, quavo announces $100k ‘spark grants’ program to support minimizing gun violence, records from guns n’ roses, donna summer, and more inducted into grammy hall of fame, mercury studios shares ‘mississippi goddam’ documentary on nina simone’s protest anthem, billie holiday, chet baker, nina simone, and more featured in 2024 acoustic sounds series, amy winehouse biopic soundtrack, ‘back to black,’ available for pre-order, olivia rodrigo announces ‘guts’ deluxe edition, ‘guts (spilled)’, stephen marley announces additional ‘old soul unplugged’ tour dates.

Rihanna is one of the most famous and successful pop artists of the 21st century, with critically acclaimed albums and massive hit singles.

Published on

Forbes Magazine once had what feels like the perfect description of Rihanna:“(She) may be the perfect embodiment of the modern pop star. The Barbados native churns out radio hits like “We Found Love” and “ Diamonds ” and collaborates with some of the biggest names in the business like Jay Z and Eminem . But she also uses social media better than almost anyone. Her Twitter and Instagram feeds allow her to connect with her fans in a way that feels honest and unfiltered and they love her for it.” That is all true.

And that ability to parlay commercial success into a media-friendly image that connects with a core audience is one reason why Rihanna is such hot property. She doesn’t make the news, she is news.

Ross Lynch, Lorde, And Timbaland: Currently Trending Songs

Maggie rogers shares ‘so sick of dreaming’ ahead of new album ‘don’t forget me’.

Her successes are so wide-ranging that she fits the current demand for a singer to become an entrepreneur. With interests in fashion, acting, design, and songwriting, of course, Rihanna fits that bill. Her recorded triumphs are what drive the image and since her debut Music of the Sun went gold she has scaled greater heights on an annual basis. A Girl Like Me , the edgier sensuality of Good Girl Gone Bad , and Rated R , have all propelled Rihanna to become one of the hottest names in R&B/pop. Loud , Talk That Talk , and Unapologetic then bossed the current decade: one where everything is Platinum, and global surrender to her beat a given.

Born in Saint Michael, Barbados in 1988, Robyn Rihanna Fenty comes from Afro-Guyanese stock on her mother’s side and Bajan/Irish on her father’s. She grew up in Bridgetown listening to reggae music and aimed for a career in the music business as a teenager. Producer Evan Rogers heard of her prowess and invited her to audition, not quite on a whim but definitely out of curiosity:  anyhoo – she performed Destiny’s Child’s “Emotion” and Mariah Carey’s “Hero”. Evan is convinced. Rogers took Rihanna and her mother to New York where the girl demo’d and then won a contract aged 16 having won over an initially sceptical  Jay Z who did the smart thing and rewarded the starlet with a six-album deal on Def Jam Recordings.

Her debut single, the track that had floored  Jay Z, was “Pon de Replay”, a cut that would go on to sell over 2 million copies in time.  Jay Z knew the song was strong but feared it would make Rihanna a one-hit-wonder. Err, nope.

The breakout album is Music of the Sun where producers including Rogers, The Carter Administration, Carl Sturken, StarGate and others help mould the dancehall fusion of pop and R&B that will make Rihanna’s name sing. If you’re most familiar with her later work this is well worth discovery since it’s a remarkably assured and prodigiously precocious start that pays homage to her Caribbean roots and locates the contemporary heart and soul of urban dance-pop.

The hit “If It’s Lovin’ that You Want” and a great cover of Dawn Penn’s “You Don’t Love Me (No, No, No)” – written by Bo Diddley   – are evident highlights. The UK bonus track edition also includes “Should I”, featuring J-Status and pointer to a new direction.

A Girl Like Me (2006) is where Rihanna soars. The hits are plentiful: “SOS” is a chart-topper made memorable by its sample of Gloria Jones singing “Tainted Love”,  “Unfaithful” and “Break It Off” follow in hot pursuit. Recording in a variety of American and Jamaican studios Rihanna finds her voice here, abetted by Sean Paul, Cory Gunz and fellow Barbadian Dwane Husbands. You can hear her linking disparate musical cultures and revelling in the introduction of a full string section. The Deluxe edition features five other cuts with the remix on “Unfaithful” being guaranteed floor filler.

In 2007 the planet starts to succumb to Rihanna’s third album Good Girl Gone Bad  – worldwide sales thus far are in excess of 10 million. A #1 in the UK this is the moment being seized by an artist on top of her game. Cue her: “I basically took the attitude of the bad girl and I really got rebellious and just did everything the way I wanted to do it—I didn’t want to listen to anybody. I didn’t consult with anybody. I just want to have a little more fun with my music and be a little more experimental in terms of my image and my sound. I just reinvented myself.” We love the results.

The story-telling “Hate That I Love You” (featuring Ne-Yo ) is a highlight but you can’t ignore  “ Umbrella ” where Rihanna and  Jay Z nail the groove on a song that topped the UK charts for ten consecutive weeks – during a flood season! – and turned the girl into daily celebrity gold. Everyone from Biffy Clyro and Taylor Swift to Manic Street Preachers and McFly has covered it; the mark of a classic, “Umbrella” is one of those season-defining tunes.

With neat samples from Lionel Richie , New Order, Sly Dunbar and Michael Jackson via Manu Dibango, this is also Rihanna at her most eclectic.

Various bonus formats are available, including Dance Remixes on the Deluxe edition. And being onto such a good thing what better way to keep it bubbling than with Good Girl Gone Bad: Reloaded (new songs include “Disturbia” and “If I Never See Your Face Again”) and Good Girl Gone Bad: The Remixes , where a sharper electronic bite transposes Rihanna from the radio to the dance floor and gives her genuine female icon status.

Rated R drew the singer into the production booth where she is credited as Robyn Fenty. As such, she sat in with Brian Kennedy and will.i.am and came up with a moody, atmospheric set that doesn’t shy away from the personal experience of violence and brutality in soured love affairs. With Latin and reggae rhythms filtering throughout the most talked-about cut is “Cold Case Love” where all the critics came onside for an awesome epic that is perfectly realised by the singer, the production crew and the original writing team – including Justin Timberlake, an avowed fan.

By contrast “Rockstar 101” has Slash ’s lead guitar soldering a metal slide to a chilly slab of hip-hop (Rihanna famously plays Slash in the video). “Te Amo” is lovely Electro-Latin and “Rude Boy”, recorded at Metropolis Studios in London, struts on a gritty urban ragamuffin style. The Remixed accompaniment is heavily drenched in house music with extra synthesisers and smart bodywork from Chew Fu.

Back to the studio for album #5. Loud is like it says. “California King Bed” rocks Rihanna right out and “Cheers (Drink to That)” is a celebratory party anthem that is aimed at the weekend. It samples Avril Lavigne’s “I’m with You”. Also, check the gangster tune “Man Down”, a nod at Bob Marley ’s “I Shot the Sherriff”, the saucy  “S&M” and “Raining Men”, a rap face-off between Rihanna and Nicki Minaj : sisters in arms.

Eight million copies of the Loud  event later Rihanna decided not to follow the reload/remix path but concentrate on her new work. Talk That Talk is the result with the title track returning  Jay Z to the mic and Ri to the top of the charts. Characterized as Rihanna’s naughtiest  – an alternative title would be Rated X – we love “You da One” for the dubstep groove and the East London filmed video nodding at A Clockwork Orange. “Cockiness (Love It)” is more down and dirty dancehall while “We Found Love” is written, produced and features Calvin Harris. This track is a story all by itself. Not only has it sold nigh on 11 million copies on single and download formats it’s also reckoned to be one of the best selling singles of all time. Happy Mr Harris! Covers on this come from Jessie J and Coldplay – Chris Martin being another high-profile Rihanna aficionado – join the club, mate.

Rihanna: In-Depth Features

‘talk that talk’: when rihanna got her freak on, ‘loud’: how rihanna became pop’s favorite party girl, ‘good girl gone bad’: charting rihanna’s daring transformation, ‘anti’: when rihanna rejected the pop paradigm, ‘rated r’: rihanna’s fearless journey to the darkside, 20 of the best rihanna songs.

The talk having been talked Rihanna was Unapologetic in 2012 and her seventh studio album made the top slot in the vital German market, also Canada, the UK and US, meaning that in seven short years she has gone from being an unknown artist to a formidable brand. The internationalism is hammed home by the hits “Diamonds” and “Stay” and a selection of her most sophisticated music elsewhere. Rihanna’s vocals are exemplary throughout and she grabs the zeitgeist of 20-something youth culture, emerging as the perfectly formed diva.

It has been a steady and logical evolution. Rihanna hasn’t drastically veered away from what she does best but she has kept up an incredibly high standard in the most demanding and unforgiving of arenas. Subtle tweaks along the way, like using David Guetta on Unapologetic  and bringing rising UK star Labrinth into the fold are evidence that someone is doing something right. There are careful switches being flicked too on the Deluxe edition where we hear a far more experimental and introspective artist tackling Emeli Sandé ’s “Half of Me”, an unexpectedly dark gaze into the mirror of superstardom.

Album eight was the super smash Anti (2016), which included the seminal multi-platinum singles “Work” (which featured Drake and shot to No.1) and “Love On The Brain”. As ever, it’s a far-ranging slab of artistry that deals with everything from drugs and sex to the disturbing outer reaches of desire. Check the deluxe edition for another detour into the darkness on “Goodnight Gotham”, co-written by Rihanna, Florence Welch and Paul Epworth. Ever radical, Anti did enormous business in a year blighted by music star deaths. There was some succour here.

Later in 2016, Rihanna capped off the massive success of Anti by receiving the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award at the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards. Drake presented the award, and the lifetime achievement honor cemented RiRi’s status as a living legend. The following year, with Rihanna still basking in the glow of her 2016 LP, she hopped on a few chart-topping singles from other artists, including DJ Khaled’s “Wild Thoughts” and Kendrick Lamar’s “Loyalty,” which earned the two artists Grammy Awards at the 60th annual ceremony. While Rihanna was quiet as a solo artist after the arrival of Anti , she stayed more than busy as a public figure and businessperson.

The origins of her Fenty fashion empire can be traced back to 2017, when she launched Fenty Beauty under influential fashion house LVMH’s Kendo Brands. The following year she expanded the company with the arrival of lingerie brand Savage X Fenty, which offered a more inclusive approach to female undergarments. While the fashion brand was growing at an impressive clip, 2018 also saw Rihanna get appointed by the government of Barbados to be an Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary. Somehow, during this time, Rihanna also found time to star in the all-female cast Ocean’s reboot, Ocean’s 8 . In 2021, it was announced that Rihanna was the world’s wealthiest female musician with an estimated net worth of $1.7 billion, thanks in large part to her Fenty brand. The following year, Rihanna released the lead single from the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever soundtrack, “Lift Me Up.” In February 2023, she headlined one of the biggest stages in all of music: The Super Bowl halftime show.

Rihanna: Studio Albums

Music of the sun (2005), a girl like me (2006), good girl gone bad (2007), rated r (2009), loud (2010), talk that talk (2011), unapologetic (2012), anti (2016).

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Rihanna   Biography

Robyn Rihanna Fenty was born in Bridgetown, Barbados, on February 20, 1988. She is a well-known singer, songwriter, model, dancer, actress, fashion designer, entrepreneur, and music producer of Barbadian and American nationality.

Rihanna is the daughter of Monica Braithwaite, a retired public accountant, and Ronald Fenty, a commercial supervisor from both Barbados and Ireland. She has two brothers of his parents and three half-brothers by his father side. She went to Charles F. Broome School, where she attended elementary school, and Combermere School, where she won both the talent contest and the beauty pageant in 2004. As a child, she suffered from severe headaches, associated with the constant arguments her parents maintained due to Ronald Fenty’s addiction to cocaine. However, when Rihanna was 14 years old, they divorced, and the headaches ceased.

Her musical career began when she formed a musical trio with two of her classmates in 2003 . By that time, the American music producer Evan Rogers was vacationing with his wife in Barbados. A friend of Rihanna contacted his wife and told him about her. Convinced by his wife, Evan called the trio to an audition, in which Rihanna prevailed before her two companions with her voice, singing Emotion , of the band Destiny’s Child, and Hero , of the singer Mariah Carey. Evan Rogers then arranged a second audition, but this time without her partners and with the presence of her mother. Pleased with what he heard, he invited Rihanna to record a demo in the United States, which was sent to different record companies.

This model went through several hands, up to rapper Jay-Z, who had just obtained the position of president and CEO of the label Def Jam. Jay-Z was only able to listen to Rihanna singing Pon de Replay to feel enthusiastic, although he had his doubts. So, he called Rihanna for an audition in New York, where he convinced both Jay-Z and L.A. Reid that they wanted her in Def Jam. After signing with the label, Rihanna rejected the other offers she had and went to live with Evan Rogers and his wife in the United States.

In 2005, his song Pon de Replay was in the top five of the summer music charts of fifteen countries, among which we can mention the UK Singles Chart and the Billboard Hot 100. She even reached the number one spot in the Hot Dance Club Songs. By August of that same year, Rihanna released her first album, Music of the Sun, with which she obtained the gold certification of the Association of the record industry of the United States because it sold more than half million units. Rihanna also sang her album at the pre-gala of the MTV Premios Vido Music Awards that same year.

The following year she released her second album, A Girl Like Me , which was very well received as well, as it was ranked number five of the most listened to songs in the United States and the United Kingdom, and in Canada ranked first. On May 31, 2007, Rihanna releases her third album Good Girl Gone Bad. It was with this that she achieved global recognition because beyond the numerous sales of the album made all over the world, which today totals more than 6 and a half million copies , she took it on a tour with more than 80 presentations both in Europe and in North America. In addition to giving her the nomination of several Grammy Awards in 2008, of which she won the Best Collaboration of Rap/Sung.

By November 2009, released her fourth album, Rated R, with which she began her tour The Last Girl on Earth, which featured 57 shows that started in Europe and ended in Australia. The following year she collaborated with Eminem on the song Love the Way You Lie , which was the best-selling song of 2010 in the United Kingdom. That same year, she released her fifth album, Loud , which contained the single Only Girl (In the World) , with which she won the Best Recording Dance Award at the Grammys. In 2011, she released another successful album, Talk That Talk, and in 2012 she collaborated with Coldplay on Princess of China and with Drake on Take Care.

She was also chosen as the best international artist at the Brit Awards for the second consecutive time and won the MTV Music Award for the best video of 2012, being the first woman to receive it several times. In September, she released her seventh album Unapologetic , and in 2013 she won the Grammy for Best Short Music Video thanks to We Found Love . By 2015, the Recording Industry Association of the United States revealed that the artist had sold more than 100 million copies. In 2016, Rihanna released her eighth album and last so far, Anti .

Beyond her musical career, Rihanna participated in 2006 as an actress in Bring it On All or Nothing , although with terrible criticism. She also produced the Styled to Rock series in 2012. She also participated in This Is the End , 2013; Home, of 2015; and It is known that she will appear in the Bates Motel series. She has acted in commercials for Kodak and Samsung, has launched her own fragrance, Rebelle, and has helped in multiple charity events.

You may like

Natanael Cano

Paulina Rubio

Yahritza y Su Esencia

Fernando Botero

Fernando Botero Biography

Fernando Botero Angulo (April 19, 1932 – September 15, 2023) was a sculptor, painter, muralist, and draftsman, hailing from Medellín, Antioquia, Colombia. He was a Colombian artist known and celebrated for infusing a substantial volume to human and animal figures in his works.

Early Years and Beginnings

Fernando Botero was born into an affluent Paisa family , composed of his parents, David Botero and Flora Angulo, along with his older brother Juan David, who was four years his senior, and his younger brother, Rodrigo, who would be born four years after Fernando, in the same year that their father passed away. In 1938, he enrolled in primary school at the Ateneo Antioqueño and later entered the Bolivariana to continue his high school education. However, he was expelled from the institution due to an article he published in the newspaper El Colombiano about Picasso , as well as his drawings that were considered obscene. As a result, he graduated from high school at the Liceo of the University of Antioquia in 1950.

In parallel to his studies, Fernando attended a bullfighting school in La Macarena at the request of one of his uncles. However, due to an issue related to bullfighting, Botero left the bullring and embarked on a journey into painting. In 1948, he held his first exhibition in Medellín. Two years later, he traveled to Bogotá where he had two more exhibitions and had the opportunity to meet some intellectuals of the time. He then stayed at Isolina García’s boarding house in Tolú, which he paid for by painting a mural. Once again in Bogotá, he won the second prize at the IX National Artists Salon with his oil painting “Facing the Sea” .

“Ephemeral art is a lesser form of expression that cannot be compared to the concept of art conceived with the desire for perpetuity. What many people fail to understand is that Picasso is a traditional artist”- Fernando Botero

Due to the prize from the IX Salon and the sale of several of his works, Fernando Botero traveled to Spain in 1952 to enroll at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in Madrid. There, he lived by selling drawings and paintings in the vicinity of the Prado Museum. In 1953, he went to Paris with filmmaker Ricardo Irrigarri, and later, they both traveled to Florence. Here, he entered the Academy of San Marco, where he was heavily influenced by Renaissance painters such as Piero della Francesca, Titian, and Paolo Uccello.

Career and Personal Life

In 1955, Botero returned to Colombia to hold an exhibition featuring several of his works created during his time in Europe, but it was met with a lukewarm reception from the public.

Woman With a Mirror / Foto:Luis García (Zaqarbal) / Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Spain (CC BY-SA 3.0 ES)

In 1956, he married Gloria Zea, with whom he would later have three children: Fernando, Juan Carlos, and Lina. The couple traveled to Mexico City, where Fernando Botero was eager to see the works of Mexican muralists, but this experience left him disillusioned. Consequently, he began searching for his own artistic style, drawing influence from both the Mexican artist Rufino Tamayo and the Colombian artist Alejandro Obregón . In this quest, he started experimenting with volume, initially in still lifes, and gradually extending this approach to other elements.

In 1957, he successfully exhibited in New York, showcasing his new artistic sensibility. The following year, he returned to Bogotá, where he was appointed as a professor at the School of Fine Arts at the National University of Colombia . He presented his work “La Camera Degli Sposi” at the X Colombian Artists Salon , winning the first prize and becoming the country’s most prominent painter. This piece sparked some controversy as it was initially censored for being almost a parody of Andrea Mantegna’s “La Cámara de los Esposos”. However, it was later reinstated in the exhibition on the advice of Marta Traba. Subsequently, Fernando Botero exhibited his works in various spaces in the United States, where a businessman from Chicago purchased “La Camera Degli Sposi” .

“Fernando Botero and his works are the finest ambassadors of our country in this land of navigators and discoverers, of poets and fado singers”- Juan Manuel Santos

In 1960, Botero separated from Gloria Zea and traveled to New York. He led a modest life here as the New York art scene was primarily inclined towards abstract expressionism. Consequently, Botero was influenced by artists like Pollock, which led him to experiment with color, brushwork, and format, to the point of nearly abandoning his distinctive style characterized by the manipulation of volume. Aware of this, Botero returned to his usual style of flat colors and figurative representations.

Starting in 1962, he began a series of exhibitions in both Europe and the United States, as well as in Colombia. By 1970, the year his son Pedro was born to his second wife, Cecilia Zambrano, Fernando Botero had already become the world’s most sought-after sculptor. However, in 1974, his son Pedro tragically died in a traffic accident, leading to his second divorce and leaving significant marks on his artistic endeavors.

In 1978, the Colombian painter married Sophia Vari , a renowned Greek artist with whom he shared a significant part of his life, until sadly, she passed away in May 2023.

Since 1983, Fernando Botero has been exhibiting his works and donating them to various cities around the world. As a result, we can find his pieces in the streets of Medellín, Barcelona, Oviedo, Singapore, and Madrid, among others. In 2008, the Autonomous University of Nuevo León in Mexico conferred upon him an honorary Doctorate.

Renowned Colombian artist, Fernando Botero, died on September 15, 2023 , in Monaco at the age of 91 due to pneumonia . His artistic legacy will endure forever. In his hometown, seven days of mourning were declared.

Pedrito a Caballo, Fernando Botero (1975).

Top 10 Famous works by Fernando Botero

Some of the most recognized works by Colombian painter and sculptor Fernando Botero:

• “Pedrito on Horseback” / “Pedrito a Caballo” (1974): This is an oil painting on canvas measuring 194.5 cm x 150.5 cm. For Botero, this work is his masterpiece and a refuge during a personal tragedy. The child depicted is Pedro, his son from his second marriage, who tragically passed away in an accident when he was young.
• “Mona Lisa at 12 Years Old” / “Mona lisa a los 12 años” (1978): This piece stands out as a unique version of Leonardo da Vinci’s famous painting, the Mona Lisa . Painted in oil on canvas and measuring 183 cm x 166 cm, Botero incorporates his characteristic style of voluptuous and rounded figures into this work, which has become one of his most distinctive pieces.
• “Woman’s Torso” / “Torso de Mujer” (1986): It is a majestic bronze sculpture that rises to an impressive height of approximately 2.48 meters. It is often affectionately referred to as “La Gorda” (“The Fat One”). This artwork finds its home in Parque de Berrío, located in the captivating city of Medellín.
• “Woman with Mirror” / “Mujer con Espejo” (1987): An imposing bronze sculpture weighing 1000 kg. It is located in Plaza de Colón, in the heart of Madrid, Spain. The artwork captivates the gaze with the portrayal of a woman peacefully lying face down on the ground, holding a mirror in her hands. Her expression reflects deep introspection and enigmatic melancholy.
• “The Orchestra” / “La Orquesta” (1991): In this oil on canvas artwork, measuring 200 cm x 172 cm, Botero presents a band of musicians with a singer, all immersed in a spirit of celebration. The artist aims to convey a sense of harmony and joy through his portrayal.
• “Woman Smoking” / “Mujer Fumando” (1994): It is a creation executed in watercolor, spanning dimensions of 122 cm x 99 cm. In this work, Maestro Botero skillfully captures the essence of a woman elegantly holding a cigarette between her fingers. His meticulous focus on voluptuous forms, posture, and the serene expression of the figure masterfully combine to emphasize the sensuality and profound intimacy of the moment captured in the artwork.
• “Man on Horseback” / “Hombre a Caballo” (1996): This bronze sculpture is one of the most iconic works in the artist’s career. It depicts a rider in a majestic and proud posture. Over the years, this imposing work has been exhibited in multiple cities around the world, solidifying its place as a prominent piece in the sculptor’s body of work.
• “The Horse” / “El Caballo” (1997): This iconic sculpture showcases a horse of majestic presence and a distinctive rounded form, sculpted in bronze and measuring approximately 3 meters in height. This masterpiece reflects Botero’s profound passion for horses while also serving as a powerful representation of the mythical Trojan Horse.
• “The Death of Pablo Escobar” / “La muerte de Pablo Escobar” (1999): This artwork, created using the oil on canvas technique, has dimensions of 58 cm x 38 cm. While not considered a masterpiece, this artistic piece represents one of the most significant moments in Colombia’s history. Fernando Botero captures, in his distinctive style, the moment of the death of the drug lord Pablo Escobar , addressing issues related to violence and criminality that have marked the country’s history. An interesting detail is that, although Pablo Escobar admired Fernando Botero’s art, it cannot be said that the admiration was mutual. The painter created two works depicting the death of the drug trafficker.
• “Boterosutra Series” / “Serie Boterosutra” (2011): This work by Botero is part of an erotic art collection called Boterosutra , marking a milestone in the history of Colombian art as the first artistic representation of sexual intimacy between lovers. This series comprises around 70 small-sized pieces created using various techniques, including colored drawings, watercolors, brushstrokes, and also black and white, all of which constitute one of the most contemporary works by the painter.

Ryan Reynolds

Biography of Ryan Reynolds

Ryan Rodney Reynolds was born on October 23, 1976 in Vancouver, Canada, and he is a well-known actor. When Ryan was born, his mother, Tammy, was a student and a salesperson, while his father, Jim, worked in wholesale food sales and also excelled as a semi-professional boxer. In addition, Ryan has three older siblings.

He studied in his hometown of Vancouver until 1994 when he decided to join a theater group as an extracurricular activity while attending Kwantlen College. However, his passion for acting became a vocation, and Ryan dropped out of college to devote all his time and energy to his acting career.

Debut as an actor

He quickly landed small roles in successful and memorable TV series such as “Sabrina the Teenage Witch” and “The X-Files”. In 1998, his big break came with the series “Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place”, which ran until 2001 and catapulted him to fame. The show became very popular thanks to its great comedic content, an area where Reynolds demonstrated perfect skill, but this was not the first time that Ryan had made a name for himself in a Hollywood comedy, as he had already been in “Life During Wartime” in 1997.

After working in several minor jobs, Ryan got his first major role as a protagonist in the crazy “Van Wilder – Animal Party”, where he played a college party organizer. The success of the film opened doors for him to work alongside Michael Douglas in “Till Death Do Us Part”, support Wesley Snipes in “Blade Trinity” or star in the horror movie “The Amityville Horror”. However, at this stage of his career, Ryan stood out mainly as a protagonist in comedies such as “Just Friends”, “Waiting” and “Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle”. This led him to want to leave his comedic side behind, getting involved in different projects such as the thriller “Smokin’ Aces”, the independent film “Adventureland” and the action film “X-Men Origins: Wolverine”. Later on, he also participated in romantic films such as “The Proposal” and “Definitely, Maybe”. However, recognition of his acting ability did not come until Ryan was nominated for a Goya Award for his demanding role in “Buried”. It is worth noting that he also brought to life the comic book hero “Green Lantern” and the renowned “Deadpool”.

Contracts, curiosities

Prestigious brands like Hugo Boss have not been oblivious to Ryan Reynolds’ popularity, charisma, and good looks, offering him contracts to be the face of one of their fragrances : Boss Bottled Night, a fragrance that, through great advertising, managed to convey an irresistible seductive effect.

Two curiosities can be highlighted from his work: first, the nearly 10 kilos of solid muscle he gained thanks to rigorous physical training to bring Hannibal King to life in “Blade: Trinity”; and second, his appearance on the animated TV series Zeroman, in which he lent his voice to the character Ty Cheese. In addition, like many Hollywood stars, Ryan Reynolds has an eccentricity outside the world of entertainment: a great passion for motorcycles , of which he owns three collector’s items, one of which was designed exclusively for him and is none other than a Harley Davidson.

Romantic relationships

Regarding his personal life, Ryan Reynolds was in a romantic relationship with singer Alanis Morissette from 2002 to 2007. The couple got engaged in 2004, but in July 2006, People magazine reported that they had separated, although neither of them officially confirmed the news. Shortly after, in February 2007, they decided to end their engagement by mutual agreement. In May 2008, Reynolds announced his engagement to actress Scarlett Johansson , and they got married on September 27 of the same year. However, in December 2010, the couple announced in a statement to People magazine that they had decided to end their marriage.

So, on September 9, 2012, he married the actress Blake Lively in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. In October 2014, they announced that they were expecting their first child, and in December of that same year, Ryan Reynolds and his wife Blake Lively became parents with the birth of their daughter: Ines. Later, on April 14, 2016, his wife’s second pregnancy was confirmed, and on September 30, 2016, he became a father for the second time to a boy named James.

Biography of Tom Hanks

Thomas Jeffrey Hanks, born July 9, 1956 in Concord, California, United States, is an actor known as Tom Hanks. Hanks was raised by his father Amos Mefford Hanks, who worked as a cook of English food, and his mother Janet Marylyn, a nurse. He was raised with the values of the Catholic and Mormon religion. During his time at Skyline High School in Oakland, he attended theater classes with his best friend. During his adolescence, Hanks demonstrated his acting talent and won the Best Theater Actor award at his institute. Later, he enrolled in Chabot College in Hayward, California and two years later did a exchange at California State University, Sacramento.

1981 – Debut as an actor

In 1979, the Hanks family moved to New York, which gave Tom the opportunity to debut as a supporting actor in the horror film “Sabe que estás sola” in 1981. Two years later, he landed a lead role in another film. Additionally, he did his first television work in the comedy series “Bosom Buddies.” Later, he decided to move to Los Angeles to participate in “Despedida de soltero” in 1984, although the film was not very successful, it allowed him to be discovered by Ron Howard, who later contacted him to offer a role in “Splash” in 1984.

Since then, Tom starred in several comedy films such as “Amigos del alma” (1980), “Esta casa es una ruina” (1986), “Big” (1988), “No matarás… al vecino” (1989), “Socios y sabuesos” (1989), and “Joe contra el volcán” (1990). His father was always very important in his career, constantly encouraging him to keep fighting for his dream. On several occasions, he helped him to get small roles. He also supported his participation in the Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival in Cleveland, Ohio. Tom had already made some appearances in series like “Vacaciones en el mar”, “Happy Days”, “Taxi”, or “Family Ties”.

“The King of Comedy”

After a small role in the horror film “He Knows You’re Alone” (1980) directed by Armand Mastroianni, he starred in several comedies that typecast him in comedic roles. His charming personality and natural talent contributed to his growing popularity. Definitely his consecration came in the eighties, he was cataloged as the king of comedy . Thanks to “Big” (1988), he achieved great success for his performance, receiving the Los Angeles Critics Award and an Oscar nomination . Although he had a bit of a downfall after that, he regained momentum as a disillusioned former baseball pitcher who trains a women’s team in “A League of Their Own” (1992).

Tom considered it appropriate to change direction and tackle other stories, to move away from comedy a little. So, he eagerly sought more intense themes where he could showcase his versatility. With his work in “The Bonfire of the Vanities” (1989), directed by Brian de Palma, he attempted to take the first step to break away from light comedies, but the result was not as expected. However, his career took off again with his portrayal of an AIDS-stricken lawyer in “Philadelphia” (1992), directed by Jonathan Demme, an intense character that was quite a challenge. His effort was rewarded with an Oscar. He renewed his commercial success with “Sleepless in Seattle” (1993), directed by Nora Ephron, where he teamed up with Meg Ryan, and worked with her again in “You’ve Got Mail” (1998).

Some of his most acclaimed performances

In the mid-90s, Hanks established himself as one of Hollywood’s brightest stars. It’s worth mentioning that his career enjoyed significant success. For his role in Robert Zemeckis’ “ Forrest Gump ” (1994), this has been one of the most striking films of the decade, he was again deserving of an Oscar , a prize that increased, turning him into one of the best-paid actors in Hollywood. With the comedy “The Wonders” (1996), he made his directorial debut.

Later, he did the same in the field of production with the TV series “From the Earth to the Moon,” a work that took him several years. Hanks had the lead role in the feature film “Saving Private Ryan” (1997), directed by Steven Spielberg , with this role he was nominated for the Academy Award, although the film received five Oscars. In 2000, he worked with Robert Zemeckis again in the film “Cast Away,” a film in which his solo performance was praised, for which he received an Oscar nomination.

Between 2003 and 2004, he repeated his collaboration with Spielberg in “Catch Me If You Can” and also in “The Terminal.” In 2006, he starred in the hit film “The Da Vinci Code,” the cinematic version of Dan Brown’s controversial work. Starting in 2014, Hanks’ films have grossed over 4.2 billion in countries such as the United States and Canada, and over 8.4 billion in the rest of the world, he is definitely an actor who ensures great success for films. His fame is such that the asteroid (12818) Tomhanks bears his name.

Marriages, children.

The actor has had several marriages throughout his life. His first marriage was to Samantha Lewes in 1978, from which two children were born: Colin Hanks in 1977 and Elisabeth Ann in 1982. However, the couple divorced in 1985. Later, in 1988, he married actress and producer Rita Wilson , with whom he had two additional children: Chester Marlon in 1991 and Truman Theodore in 1996. In recent years, the actor has been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, which requires a strict diet and daily care to maintain his health.

Marc Anthony

Biography of Marc Anthony

Marc Anthony (born September 16, 1968) is an American salsa singer and actor , born in New York. His real name is Marco Antonio Muñiz Rivera . From a young age, he has been involved in music, growing up with rock and rhythm & blues. His parents, Felipe Muñiz and Guillermina Rivera, discovered his passion and musical ability when he was a child. During his teenage years, to earn money, he began singing at bars and nightclubs , and quickly gained popularity. He was contacted by one of the members of the Latin Rascals group, and their producer Louie Vega invited him to record several albums with the Atlantic Records label.

Beginnings as a singer

One of Marc Anthony’s most successful musical products was the album “Rebel”, which achieved some success on the disco music charts. In 1992, his career in the salsa world took off when the famous Tito Puente took him as an opening act for a concert at Madison Square Garden. A year later, he recorded a salsa version of a song by Juan Gabriel that received excellent reviews and great popularity in the musical circles of New York. Soon, Marc Anthony appeared in several television productions and began to receive offers for concerts. After a few years, he was recognized as the new “king of salsa”. During the 1990s, his lyrics occupied the top position in Latin America and also in the United States.

The new “musical phenomenon”

Marc Anthony became a massively successful musical phenomenon , comparable to the success of Héctor Lavoe. At the same time, he continued to develop his acting career, appearing in films such as “Bringing out the Dead” directed by Martin Scorsese; “Big Night” directed by Stanley Tucci; “Hackers,” and “The Capeman,” a Broadway musical directed by singer and songwriter Paul Simon. He also performed the main theme of the soundtrack of “The Mask of Zorro” (1998), in which Antonio Banderas was the lead actor.

Third salsa album “Against the Stream”

That same year, he worked on the production of his third salsa album: “Contra la Corriente,” undoubtedly many salsa critics and aficionados affirm that it was the best album of his career, for which he received a Grammy for Best Latin-Tropical Album. In 1999, he released the album “Marc Anthony” to the market, this album undoubtedly demonstrates a new stage in his musical career, as it combined salsa with pop and also featured songs in English, in order to reach and conquer the Anglo-Saxon audience and market.

The first single, “I Need to Know,” put him in the top positions of the North American charts: it remained in the Top 10 of the Billboard for eleven weeks and eight more weeks in the Top 40. He also released the Spanish version, titled “Dímelo.” With this song, he won the Grammy for Best Latin Song of the Year and was number one on the Latin Billboard chart. He quickly released the second single, “You Sang to Me,” repeating the success of the previous one and selling over two million copies of the album.

Starting the new millennium, he released a greatest hits salsa album titled “Desde el principio.” After that, Marc Anthony went on a extensive tour that took him through the United States. All magazines and press talked about his triumphant concert at Madison Square Garden. Then he was in Canada and Central America. At that time, Marc Anthony received the admiration of his fans when he helped with his charitable work for the victims of Hurricane George, in sum, he founded a foundation that bears his name.

International tours

In 2011, he started the Dos Mundos Tour, with the company of Alejandro Fernández , a concert across Latin America. The following year, he was in Colombia at the Manacacías Summer Festival, many people from different parts of the country traveled to attend his concert. He had a significant participation in the 53rd International Song Festival of Viña del Mar, Chile, where he sang the song “¿Y cómo es él?” from his album “Iconos”. He received the highest distinction.

On March 3, 2012, Marc returned to Uruguay after 17 years and gave his performance at the Charrúa Stadium in Montevideo with an attendance of 25,000 spectators. In the GIGANT3S TOUR, he performed in several North American cities alongside Chayanne and Marco Antonio Solís . In 2013, he released his album 3.0. In 2014, he was the big winner of four of the five awards for which he was nominated at the Premios Lo Nuestro. Additionally, his career was recognized as one of the most successful Latin music artists. In 2016, he released a song called “Deja que te bese” with the collaboration of Spanish singer Alejandro Sanz, the song has over 50 million views on Youtube.

In September 2016, he carried out his “Marc Anthony Live” tour which included 5 dates at Radio City Music Hall. His private life has been somewhat controversial and has been exposed to various comments. He had his first daughter in 1994, Arianna Rosado-Muñiz, a product of his relationship with a former police officer from New York. In 2000 he married for the first time to Dayanara Torres, with whom he had two children. He later helped Jennifer Lopez in the production of the song “Sway” for the soundtrack of the movie Shall We Dance?. They then fell in love and after only one month of relationship, they got engaged in March 2004.

The couple had twins and Jennifer sold the exclusive photos of the children to People Magazine. However, after a few years, the couple decided to end their marriage on April 9, 2012. It is said that everything started when Jennifer Lopez met dancer Casper Smart and began a relationship with him two months after her separation from Marc. Later, Marc started a relationship with Venezuelan model Shannon de Lima, whom he married in 2014. Despite this, his relationship with Jennifer, the mother of his children, is harmonious, and he even participated in her song “Olvídame y pega la vuelta” in 2016. Two years earlier, the Puerto Rican singer made an impact with the hit song “Flor Pálida”.

On January 28, 2023, he married Nadia Ferreira in an incredible wedding surrounded by stars from film, music, and sports. The ceremony took place at the Perez Art Museum in Miami, with David Beckham as the best man.

  Ver esta publicación en Instagram   Una publicación compartida por Nadia Ferreira (@nadiatferreira)

Paul McCartney

Biography of Paul McCartney

Paul McCartney (born June 18, 1942) is a singer. He was born in Liverpool, England. His mother, Mary Patricia, was a nurse, while his father, James McCartney, was a volunteer firefighter. During Paul’s birth, his father was not present as he was fighting in the Battle of England during World War II. Paul grew up in a religious and strict environment, with his mother Catholic and his father Protestant, but later became agnostic. After returning from the war, his father devoted himself to selling cleaning products and, in his free time, played in bars.

Death of his mother

That’s why his son developed a deep love for music. He stood out in school for his intelligence and discipline and studied at Liverpool Institute secondary school, a good free secondary school. In 1954, he met George Harrison, with whom he quickly formed a strong friendship. At the time, McCartney’s mother was the one who kept the household and for work reasons they moved to Allerton, where they lived until 1964. On October 31, 1956, when McCartney was 14 years old, his mother died from a stroke.

After his mother’s death, McCartney was devastated. It took some time for him to return to normal. H is father saw music as a refuge to help his son feel better, so he took him to listen to the Jim Mac’s Jazz Band, where his father played trumpet or piano. He also gave him a trumpet, but when rock and roll became popular, he chose an acoustic guitar. The first song he composed was “I Lost My Little Girl” on that guitar, a Zenith. He also composed “When I’m Sixty-Four” on the home piano.

1957 – Met John Lennon

He met Lennon on July 6th, 1957. McCartney joined The Quarrymen, a school band led by Lennon, in 1958 as the lead guitarist. The band mixed rock and roll and skiffle, a popular music style, with jazz and blues. After several name changes, the band decided to call themselves The Beatles in August 1960 and recruited drummer Pete Best for their move to Hamburg. In 1961, one of its members, Sutcliffe, left the band and McCartney was forced to take over as bassist. They recorded as a backing band for English singer Tony Sheridan on the single My Bonnie.

1963 – “Beatlemania”

They managed to attract the attention of Brian Epstein, who became their manager in January 1962 and a key figure in their later success. With their first hit, “Love Me Do” in 1963, the “Beatlemania” began. John Lennon and Paul wrote a large number of songs together, but later their egos collided and they preferred to write separately. In 1970, The Beatles disbanded. But Paul continued his successful career with songs that reached number one. He recorded his first solo LP, “McCartney”, with songs very different from those that Lennon would write, with commercial melodies for varied tastes.

1980 – Paul McCartney Guinness Records

In 1980, he entered the Guinness Book of Records as the highest-selling songwriter in the world. His theme Yesterday , one of the most celebrated by The Beatles , has around 2,500 versions in the most diverse musical styles. Some of his solo hits are: Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey, Live and Let Die for the James Bond film received the Oscar for best musical theme; Coming Up from his solo album Paul McCartney II. He joined George Martin and Ringo Starr in 1982 for the recording of Tug of War. On Press to play, his next album, was recorded with Eric Stewart.

Awards, arrest, record.

Winner of 18 Grammy Awards, including two Lifetime Achievement Grammy Awards (one with the Beatles and another as a solo artist). He is a vegetarian and an animal rights advocate. He was arrested for marijuana possession in Tokyo in 1980 and was briefly in jail. He participated in the “Live Aid” concert against hunger in Ethiopia in 1985. I n 1990, he achieved the record for the largest attendance at a concert with 184,000 people in Rio de Janeiro. Since 1997 he is Sir Paul McCartney, invested as a knight by Queen Elizabeth II.

2013 – Other awards, marriages.

On February 10, 2013, he received a Grammy for “Best Traditional Pop Album” for his album “Kisses On The Bottom”. Later, he received a special award from PRS for Music in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the composition of his most famous song, “ Yesterday “. These songs, as well as “And I Love Her,” “You Will Not See Me,” and “I’m Looking Through You,” were written inspired by his relationship with British actress Jane Asher. After five years of engagement, the couple broke up due to his infidelity with Francie Schwartz. He married Linda Eastman on March 12, 1969, and together they formed the musical group Wings after the dissolution of the Beatles . In 1999, he presented his collection of poems entitled “Blackbird Singing: Poems and Lyrics (1965-1999)”. After the death of his wife, McCartney experienced deep sadness.

In 2002, Paul McCartney married former model Heather Mills in an Irish castle. After a long legal battle in the London Supreme Court, in 2008 Mills was authorized to collect one fifth of the 250 million dollars she had demanded from McCartney for their four-year marriage. In 2011, McCartney married Nancy Shevell in a civil ceremony in London on October 9th of that year.

Relevant aspects of his life and musical career

• With 60 gold records and the sale of over 100 million albums and singles as a solo artist and with The Beatles, McCartney is recognized as one of the most successful composers and artists of all time.
• As a solo artist in 1999 and as a member of The Beatles in 1988, he has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice.
• As a solo artist and with The Beatles, he has been recognized with twenty-one Grammy Awards.
• 32 of the songs that McCartney has written or co-written have reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100.
• As of 2014, he had sold over 15 million certified units by the RIAA in the United States.
• In 1997, McCartney was elevated to the rank of knight for his services to music.
• In 1965, McCartney, Lennon, Harrison and Starr were named members of the Order of the British Empire .
• He has been married three times and is the father of five children.
• He has participated in projects to help international charities related to issues such as animal rights, seal hunting, landmine cleaning, vegetarianism, poverty and musical education.
• He ranks 11th on Rolling Stone’s list of 100 Greatest Singers.
• He ranks first on Rolling Stone’s list of 100 Greatest Artists as a member of The Beatles.
• He ranks third on Rolling Stone’s list of 100 Greatest Bassists.
• Only surpassed by Bob Dylan , he ranks second on Rolling Stone’s list of 100 Greatest Songwriters.

Celebrities

Nicola Porcella

Nicola Porcella Biography Nicola Emilio Porcella Solimano (February 5, 1988), better known as Nicola Porcella, is an actor and TV...

Wendy Guevara

Wendy Guevara Biography Wendy Guevara Venegas (August 12, 1993), better known as Wendy Guevara, is an influencer, actress, singer, and...

Paris Hilton

Paris Hilton Biography Paris Whitney Hilton (February 17, 1981), better known as Paris Hilton, is a socialite, businesswoman, model, DJ,...

Leonardo DiCaprio

Biography of Leonardo DiCaprio Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio is a renowned actor and film producer who has won numerous awards within...

Denzel Washington

Biography of Denzel Washington Denzel Washington is an African American actor born on December 28, 1954 in Mount Vernon, New...

Biography of Ryan Reynolds Ryan Rodney Reynolds was born on October 23, 1976 in Vancouver, Canada, and he is a...

Biography of Brad Pitt William Bradley Pitt, better known as Brad Pitt, was born on December 18, 1963 in Shawnee,...

Entrepreneurs

Luciano Benetton

Luciano Benetton Biography Luciano Benetton (May 13, 1935) Born in Ponzano, Treviso, Italy. An Italian businessman and fashion designer, co-founder...

Louis Vuitton

Louis Vuitton Biography Louis Vuitton (August 4, 1821 – February 25, 1892) businessman and fashion designer. Founder of the leather...

Peter Drucker

Peter Drucker biography Peter Drucker (November 19, 1909 – November 11, 2005) writer, consultant, entrepreneur, and journalist. He was born...

Paul Allen biography Paul Gardner Allen (January 21, 1953) entrepreneur, business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. He was born in Seattle,...

Nik Powell biography Nik Powell (November 4, 1950) businessman and co-founder of the Virgin Group. He was born in Great...

Most Popular

Henri Fayol

Walt Disney

Taiichi Ohno

Philip B. Crosby

Kaoru Ishikawa

Ariana Grande

Adolf Hitler

Rihanna - Biography

The barbadian singer is one of the biggest-selling female artists in history..

Who is Rihanna?

Robyn Rihanna Fenty, better known by her stage name Rihanna , was born in Barbados in 1988. Her childhood was deeply affected by her parents' marital problems and her dad's battle with drug and alcohol addictions, which eventually led to their divorce when she was 14. 

After his recovery, father and daughter grew close again and Rihanna still refers to him as the "coolest person on the planet". As a teenager Rihanna turned to music to escape her home troubles and formed a musical trio with two of her classmates. 

Rihanna's rise to fame

Her big break came in 2003 when friends introduced her and fellow bandmates to record producer Evan Rogers, who was on holiday in Barnados with his wife. When the group auditioned for Evan, he later told Entertainment Weekly that "the minute Rihanna walked into the room, it was like the other two girls didn't exist." 

Over the course of the next year, Rihanna travelled to Rogers' home in Connecticut to work on her demo album. With the help of songwriter Carl Sturken she made a four-song demo that included "Pon de Replay" which would become her first hit single. Rihanna officially relocated when she was 16.

 "When I left Barbados, I didn't look back," she said. "I wanted to do what I had to do, even if it meant moving to America." Soon after, her demo fell into the hands of recording company Def Jam. She auditioned for them and legendary rapper Jay-Z, who was so impressed he signed her almost immediately. "We made a little Godfather joke," recalls Jay-Z. "We said the only way she could leave was through the window."

Eight months later Rihanna released her debut album, Music of the Sun , which went platinum despite less-than-rave reviews from Rolling Stone magazine who deemed it "lacking of ingenuity and rhythm." Her follow-up album, A Girl Like Me , fared better with critics in 2006 and included the hit SOS . Rihanna went through a total transformation from teen pop singer to ultimate superstar with her third album Good Girl Gone Bad . It featured hit single Umbrella that won her her first Grammy Award. She flaunted her sex symbol status in her next four albums, with songs entitled "Hard", "Rude Boy", "S&M" and the like, and frequently topped Sexiest Women Alive lists for her raunchy stage performances and music videos. 

Which awards has Rihanna won? 

Rihanna has been labelled one of the most consistent hit makers in pop music for her chart-topping seven albums and collaborations with legends Jay-Z, Enimen, Kanye West and Calvin Harris. She has won countless awards including Grammys, Brits, MTV awards and World Music Awards among others. 

Rihanna's dating life

Her love life has been somewhat less plain sailing than her music career. Rihanna started dating Chris Brown late 2007 and the couple remained intensely private about their relationship. But just after midnight on February 8, a 911 call was made after a pre-Grammy party that the pair had attended. When the police arrived on the scene, Rihanna was found distressed and hurt. 

It was reported that she had found texts from another girl on his phone and after repeatedly pressing him on the subject, an argument sparked which left Rihanna assaulted, even losing consciousness at one point. After the incident, Rihanna admitted feeling vulnerable. "I put my guard up so hard," she said. "I didn't want people to see me cry or feel bad for me. It was a very vulnerable time in my life, and I refused to let that be the image." 

How many children does she have?

The 'Umbrella' singer, 35, and partner A$AP Rocky welcomed their first child  — a boy whose name remains a mystery — in May 2022, and are awaiting the second soon. 

The award-winning singer confirmed her second pregnancy to the world in 2023 via an internet-breaking performance at the Super Bowl Halftime Show.

Rihanna's charity work

She is eager to put her fame and fortune to good use, and is involved in many charity ventures. She created The Believe Foundation in 2006 to help terminally ill children, joined H&M for their Fashion Against AIDS campaign, and was the face of the Gucci UNICEF campaign.

Discover more about Rihanna here . 

More Profiles

Madonna - Biography

Drew Barrymore - Biography

Coleen Rooney - Biography

Cara Delevingne - Biography

Jessica Chastain - Biography

Bruce Springsteen - Biography

Andre Agassi - Biography

Kristen Stewart - Biography

Sarah burton - biography, charlie sheen - biography, katherine hooker - biography, jennifer lawrence - biography.

In Celebration of the Human Voice - The Essential Musical Instrument

Rihanna Biography

Specialty Arrangements

Christian | Musicals | Doo Wop | Barbershop | World | Choral | Contemporary | Vocal Jazz

Vintage | Musical Theater | Disney | Standards | Personality | Part Predominant CDs

Groups | Directors | Composers | Songwriters | Arrangers | Vocal Coaches

Arrangements | Solo Voice | Christmas | DVDs | Instructional for Singers | New Additions

The Harmony Sweepstakes A Cappella Festival

FAQ | Site Map

Regional A Cappella

This item will be permanently removed and cannot be recovered. Delete anyways?

All Rights Reserved   All Content, page design, CGI Copyright © United Singers International

Rihanna: The Multifaceted Icon Who Redefined Stardom

Rihanna ( born 20 February 1988) Robyn Rihanna Fenty is a Singer, Fashion designer, Songwriter, Model, Actress, and businesswoman. She is famous for Diamonds, Umbrella, Disturbia many more

Groundbreaking Film and Television

Philanthropy and advocacy.

• You can read this about Lady Gaga.

Rihanna Biography and Musical Facts

In the kaleidoscope of entertainment, few stars shine as brilliantly as Rihanna. Born on February 20, 1988, in Barbados, Robyn Rihanna Fenty has transcended traditional boundaries of fame and fortune. She is a singer, fashion designer, songwriter, model, actress, and businesswoman, known for her chart-topping hits like “Diamonds,” “Umbrella,” and “Disturbia.” This article explores the life and influence of Rihanna, an artist who has mastered the art of reinvention.

Early Ambitions and Musical Genesis

Rihanna’s journey began in the picturesque Barbadian town of St. Michael, where her musical aspirations took root. She was discovered by a record executive at just 16 years old, and her debut single “Pon de Replay” in 2005 marked the emergence of a sensational talent. From the outset, her distinct blend of Caribbean rhythms and R&B stylings set her apart from the musical mainstream.

Chart-Topping Hits and Musical Evolution

Rihanna’s discography is a treasure trove of hits that have left an indelible mark on the music industry. From the infectious “Umbrella” to the captivating “Diamonds” and the electrifying “Disturbia,” her songs have topped charts and resonated with millions worldwide. Rihanna’s willingness to experiment with genres, from reggae to dancehall, has continually refreshed her sound and kept her at the forefront of popular music.

Fashion and Business Empires

Rihanna’s influence doesn’t stop at music; she’s a fashion trailblazer and business mogul. Her foray into fashion design with Fenty, her own luxury fashion house, shattered barriers by offering diverse, inclusive collections. Her lingerie line, Savage X Fenty, champions body positivity and inclusivity in the fashion world. Rihanna’s success as a businesswoman extends to her makeup brand, Fenty Beauty, which disrupted the cosmetics industry with its extensive shade range.

Beyond music and fashion, Rihanna has showcased her acting prowess in films like “Battleship,” “Ocean’s 8,” and the acclaimed “Guava Island.” Her performances have garnered critical acclaim and solidified her as a multifaceted entertainer.

Rihanna’s advocacy and philanthropy efforts have sparked positive change. She founded the Clara Lionel Foundation, dedicated to global education and disaster relief. Her unwavering support for social justice

and racial equality has elevated her to the status of an influential activist.

Rihanna’s journey from a young Barbadian dreamer to a global icon is a testament to her unparalleled talent, tireless work ethic, and indomitable spirit. Her music, fashion, and business ventures have reshaped entire industries, while her advocacy has inspired positive change worldwide.

As we continue to be mesmerized by her musical innovations, fashion-forward designs, and unapologetic advocacy, Rihanna’s legacy as a trailblazer, visionary, and advocate will endure for generations to come. She has not only left an indelible mark on the entertainment and fashion industries but also set a standard for inclusivity, empowerment, and excellence that will continue to shape the world.

Please leave a comment below if you have any questions about the article above. We’ll try to answer them as best we can.

You can read this about Lady Gaga .

Share your love, about the author.

Kelvin S. Koka

Related posts.

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

• facebook-rs

Rihanna on New Album: ‘I Want It to Be This Year’

By Daniel Kreps

Daniel Kreps

Rihanna briefly talked about her much-anticipated new album — but did not reveal any concrete plans to release her ninth LP — in the singer’s new interview for her Vogue UK cover story , which hits stands days after Rihanna’s career-spanning ( and pregnancy-revealing ) Super Bowl halftime show .

In the interview, seemingly conducted both before and after Rihanna found out she was pregnant with her and A$AP Rocky’s second child, Rihanna said of the now-mythic R9 , “I want it to be this year. Like, honestly, it’d be ridiculous if it’s not this year. But I just want to have fun. I just want to make music and make videos… And I need the right background music with the visuals. I can’t just go shoot a video to me talking.”

View this post on Instagram A post shared by badgalriri (@badgalriri)

Sex Jokes, Massage Requests, and Humiliation: A Timeline of Nickelodeon’s Dark History

Trump's 'lunatic' abc lawsuit is about bullying the media, not winning, priscilla presley’s payout from lisa marie presley’s estate and burial plans near elvis approved by judge, meet the lady carnivores taking over tiktok with butter and raw meat.

“So I realized that if I keep waiting until this feels right and perfect and better, maybe it’s going to keep taking forever and maybe it’ll never come out and no, I’m not down to that,” Rihanna told Vogue UK . “So I want to play. And by play, I mean I have my ideas in my head, but I can’t say them out loud yet.”

Our AI-Generated Blues Song Went Viral — and Sparked Controversy

• By Brian Hiatt

Anitta Teases New 'Funk Generation' Album With Single 'Double Team'

• By Tomás Mier

Elvis Act Signed Into Tennessee Law to Protect Musicians From AI Deepfakes

• Leading the Way
• By Charisma Madarang

Drive-By Truckers to Journey Through the Past, Playing 'Southern Rock Opera' on Tour

• By Kory Grow

See Chappell Roan Transform NPR's Tiny Desk Into a Drag Prom Fantasy

• Pink Pony Club

Most Popular

Over 1,000 jewish creatives and professionals have now denounced jonathan glazer’s 'zone of interest' oscars speech in open letter (exclusive), bill maher fires caa after oscar party snub (exclusive), rose hanbury just broke her silence on the prince william affair rumors, kobe bryant's parents face backlash after putting championship ring on the auction block, you might also like, cinematographers, art directors reach craft-specific tentative agreements with amptp as editors guild bargaining gets underway, the luxury beauty brand that keeps runway models looking freshly rested during fashion week has great deals on amazon luxury stores today, the best yoga blocks to support any practice, according to instructors, the best action movies of the 21st century, fanatics executive fires back at draftkings in court battle.

Rolling Stone is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2024 Rolling Stone, LLC. All rights reserved.

Verify it's you

Please log in.

Who Is Rihanna - Singer & Billionaire: Biography, Personal Life, Net Worth

Who Is Rihanna: Biography

Rihanna, byname of Robyn Rihanna Fenty, (born February 20, 1988, St. Michael parish, Barbados), Barbadian pop and rhythm-and-blues (R&B) singer who became a worldwide star in the early 21st century, known for her distinctive and versatile voice and for her fashionable appearance. She was also known for her beauty and fashion lines.

With sales of over 250 million records worldwide, Rihanna is one of the best-selling music artists of all time. She has earned 14 number-ones and 31 top-ten singles in the US and 30 top-ten entries in the UK. Her accolades include nine Grammy Awards , 13 American Music Awards, 12 Billboard Music Awards, and six Guinness World Records. Time named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2012 and 2018. Forbes ranked her among the top ten highest-paid celebrities in 2012 and 2014; as of 2021, she is the wealthiest female musician, with an estimated net worth of $1.7 billion.

Aside from music, Rihanna is known for her involvement in humanitarian causes, entrepreneurial ventures, and the fashion industry. She is the founder of the nonprofit organisation Clara Lionel Foundation, cosmetics brand Fenty Beauty, and fashion house Fenty under LVMH. Rihanna has also ventured into acting, appearing in major roles in Battleship (2012), Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017), and Ocean's 8 (2018). She was appointed as an ambassador of education, tourism, and investment by the Government of Barbados in 2018.

Rihanna: Early Life

Robyn Rihanna Fenty was born on February 20, 1988, in Saint Michael, Barbados. She is the daughter of accountant Monica (née Braithwaite) and warehouse supervisor Ronald Fenty. Her mother is an Afro-Guyanese, while her father is a Barbadian of African and Irish descent. Rihanna has two brothers, Rorrey and Rajad Fenty, and two half-sisters and a half-brother from her father's side, each born to different mothers from his previous relationships. She grew up in a three-bedroom bungalow in Bridgetown and sold clothes with her father in a stall on the street. Her childhood was deeply affected by her father's alcoholism and crack cocaine addiction, which contributed to her parents' strained marriage. Rihanna's father used to physically abuse her mother, and Rihanna would try to get in between them to break up fights.

As a child, Rihanna had many CT scans for the excruciating headaches she suffered, recalling, "The doctors even thought it was a tumor, because it was that intense." By the time she was 14, her parents had divorced, and her health began to improve. She grew up listening to reggae music. She attended Charles F. Broome Memorial Primary School and Combermere School, where she studied alongside future international cricketers Chris Jordan and Carlos Brathwaite. Rihanna was an army cadet in a sub-military programme, where the later Barbadian singer-songwriter Shontelle was her drill sergeant. Although she initially wanted to graduate from high school, she chose to pursue a musical career instead.

Rihanna: Career

Come May 2005, Def Jam rolled out "Pon de Replay," Rihanna's first single and the lively introduction to the full-length Music of the Sun. Produced almost entirely by Rogers and Sturken, the song synthesized Caribbean rhythms with pop-R&B songwriting. "Pon de Replay" caught fire almost immediately and peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100, denied the top spot by Mariah Carey's "We Belong Together." Music of the Sun, released that August, spawned a Top 40 placement with "If It's Lovin' That You Want" and ranged stylistically from a remake of Dawn Penn's rocksteady-styled crossover hit "You Don't Love Me (No, No, No)" (featuring dancehall star Vybz Kartel) to the Beyoncé-like "Let Me" (co-produced by emergent duo Stargate). Music of the Sun was only eight months old when Rihanna followed up in April 2006 with A Girl Like Me. It showed that the singer wasn't a fluke success and could also stretch out, laced with three dissimilar hits. "SOS," high-gloss dance-pop with a sample of Soft Cell's version of "Tainted Love," topped the Hot 100. "Unfaithful," her first big ballad, and "Break It Off," an electro-dancehall hybrid (with Sean Paul), became her third and fourth Top Ten pop singles.

Superstar status was attained with Good Girl Gone Bad, an album that built on Rihanna's commercial momentum and developed into a blockbuster. Released in May 2007 and "reloaded" with additional material the following June, its lengthy promotional campaign yielded several chart-topping singles and boasted collaborations with A-listers such as Jay-Z, Ne-Yo, Timbaland, and Justin Timberlake. Lead single "Umbrella," co-written by the-Dream and Christopher "Tricky" Stewart, sounded like nothing else on the airwaves and shot to number one, as did "Take a Bow" and "Disturbia," while "Hate That I Love You" and "Don't Stop the Music" added to the tally of Top Ten entries. "Umbrella" gave Rihanna her first Grammy win for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration. The album was on its way to triple platinum status by October 2009, when Rihanna set the dark and provocative tone for fourth album Rated R with "Russian Roulette," another Ne-Yo collaboration and Top Ten single. Abused lover, dominatrix, and murderer were among the perspectives Rihanna offered throughout the album, released that November.

Annual studio albums, each one with a November release date and a broad range of light and dark material covering EDM, contemporary R&B, adult contemporary, dancehall, and straight-up pop, continued well into the following decade. In 2010, just after Eminem featured her on the diamond platinum "Love the Way You Lie," there was Loud. Led by the Stargate-produced "Only Girl (In the World)," eventually a Grammy winner for Best Dance Recording, it was sustained with additional Hot 100 toppers "What's My Name?" (featuring Drake) and "S&M." Talk That Talk was heralded in 2011 with Rihanna's most triumphant single, "We Found Love," on which she collaborated with Calvin Harris. After she nabbed yet another Best Rap/Sung Collaboration Grammy, this time for her role on Kanye West's "All of the Lights," the streak concluded, and culminated, with the 2012 set Unapologetic. Her first LP to top the Billboard 200 (after all of the previous six had gone Top Ten), it also became her first to win a Grammy for Best Urban Contemporary Album. "Diamonds," the anthemic and inspirational standout among some of Rihanna's brashest moments, became her tenth number one pop hit and 18th to peak within the Top Ten.

Within a span of three years, Rihanna had released her fourth through seventh album s. An equal amount of time passed prior to the release of her eighth full-length. In 2013, she lengthened her list of chart accolades as a featured artist with an assist on Eminem's "The Monster," which became her 25th Top Ten hit as a lead or featured artist, went to number one, and led to her fourth Best Rap/Sung Collaboration Grammy. No longer with Def Jam -- a deal had been signed with Roc Nation via Jay-Z, who left Def Jam several years earlier -- Rihanna released non-album singles throughout 2015, beginning with the unembellished "FourFiveSeconds," an unlikely matchup with Paul McCartney and Kanye West that reached number four. "American Oxygen" didn't flourish as much from a commercial standpoint but upon release became one of her most remarkable recordings, a dignified ballad with a personal, pro-immigration theme.

Album eight, the strikingly composed Anti, became Rihanna's second consecutive number one album following its January 2016 arrival. She partnered again with Drake, resulting in another number one hit with "Work." "Needed Me," a buzzing slow jam cooked up with a production team including DJ Mustard and Kuk Harrell, and "Love on the Brain," a throwback soul belter involving Harrell and Fred Ball, entered the Top Ten as well. Those who missed the comparative lack of high-spirited exuberance in Anti were placated across 2016 and 2017 with Rihanna's guest appearances on Calvin Harris' "This Is What You Came For" and N.E.R.D.'s "Lemon." Meanwhile, Drake, Future, DJ Khaled, and Kendrick Lamar likewise profited from Rihanna's featured spots. Lamar's "LOYALTY." made Rihanna a five-time winner of the Grammy for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration, setting a record for women artists in that category.

Rihanna: Personal life

Rihanna owns a $14 million penthouse in Manhattan, New York. She also purchased a house in West London for £7 million in June 2018, in order to be closer to her work with her FENTY fashion label. In December 2018, Rihanna put her Hollywood Hills mansion up for sale after a break-in six months before. The mansion was reported to have been selling for $10.4m.

According to the New York Post, Rihanna filed a lawsuit against Peter Gounis and the firm Berdon LLP for $35 million in 2012, on account of alleged fraud, breach of contract, and breach of fiduciary duty, but settled out of court for more than $10 million in 2014. Forbes began reporting on Rihanna's earnings in 2012.

In 2007, Rihanna began dating fellow singer Chris Brown. Their relationship ended in February 2009, after which Rihanna dated Drake on-and-off from 2009 to 2016. In a January 2013 interview with Rolling Stone, Rihanna confirmed that she had rekindled her relationship with Chris Brown, though he remained under probation for the 2009 domestic violence incident. The confirmation followed persistent media speculation throughout 2012, regarding the pair's reunion.In a May 2013 interview, Brown stated that he and Rihanna had broken up again. Rihanna began a relationship with Saudi businessman Hassan Jameel in 2017. The couple reportedly split in January 2020.

Rihanna: Awards and achievements

As of September 2018, Rihanna has sold over 250 million records worldwide, making her one of the best-selling music artists of all time. Throughout her career, she has received numerous awards and honours, including 9 Grammy Awards, 12 Billboard Music Awards, 13 American Music Awards, 8 People's Choice Awards, among others. Rihanna received the "Icon Award" at the 2013 American Music Awards and the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award at the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards. She holds six Guinness World Records.[430] In the United States, Rihanna has sold over 10 million albums, while Nielsen SoundScan ranked her as the best-selling digital artist in the country, breaking a Guinness World Record for digital single sales of over 58 million as of 2012.

On July 1, 2015, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) announced that Rihanna had surpassed more than 100 million Gold and Platinum song certifications. In doing so, Rihanna has the most digital single awards and is the first and only artist to surpass RIAA's 100 million cumulative singles award threshold. In the United Kingdom, she has sold over 7 million albums, making her the third best-selling female artist this century. According to Billboard, her total album sales stand at 54 million copies sold worldwide.

Rihanna has accumulated 14 No. 1 singles on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart for the third most No. 1 songs in the chart's history. She has been named the top Mainstream Top 40 chart artist of the past twenty years by Billboard; she ranks first with most entries (36), most top tens (23) and most No. 1 songs (10). As of March 2014, Rihanna has sold over 18 million singles and 6 million albums in the United Kingdom. She is the tenth best-selling and the second best-selling female singles artist in the country, only behind Madonna and is second only to the Beatles for the most million-selling singles in the UK of all time. Her collaboration with Eminem, "Love the Way You Lie", along with "Umbrella", "Disturbia", "Only Girl (In the World)", "We Found Love" and "Diamonds", are among the best-selling singles of all time. Rihanna has seven No. 1 singles on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, and Airplay chart, as well as sixteen No. 1 singles on the Rhythmic chart. She has also earned over 30 top-ten songs in the UK and Australia, making her the only artist in the 21st century to achieve this feat so far.

Rihanna: Net Worth

A large portion of her net worth is attributable to the value of her Fenty Beauty Line which is a partnership with luxury goods company LVMH. The brand generates north of $100 million in revenue. Rihanna reportedly owns 50% of the partnership and the brand is worth $2-3 billion. She also owns 30% of a lingerie brand called Savage X Fenty which is currently worth around $1 billion.

In a given year, Rihanna earns $40 – $80 million from her expanding empire. For example, between June 2018 and June 2019 she earned $65 million. Between June 2019 and June 2020 she earned $45 million.

March 2024 Monthly Horoscope for ARIES: Lucky Stars And Actions

Who Is Mike Johnson: Biography, Wife, Children, Political Career And Net Worth

Weekly Horoscope (From June 19 to June 25, 2023): Your Money, Business, Career

STARZ TV April 2024 Schedule: Full List of the Movies and TV Shows

Most Auspicious Dates In May 2024 For Everything In Life By Chinese Calendar

Most Auspicious Dates In May 2024 For Everything By Hindu Calendar

Top 10 Cheapest Private Colleges (But Prestigious) in the U.S By Net Cost

Top 19 Best Movies to Stream for Free on Amazon Prime

Top 10 Best Thriller Movies of All Time You Must Watch

March 2024 Monthly Horoscope for 12 Zodiac Signs

March 2024 Monthly Horoscope - Astrological Prediction for 12 Zodiac Signs (Aries - Taurus - Gemini - Cancer - Leo - Virgo - Libra - Scorpio - Sagittarius - Capricorn - Aquarius - Pisces) in Love, Finance, Career, Health and More.

2024 Daily Horoscope: Most Auspicious Number and Luckiest Color of 12 Zodiac Signs

2024 Daily Horoscope: The Most Auspicious Number and Luckiest Color/Index of 12 Zodiac Signs for Today.

The Complete List of 2024 Public Holidays In Every Country

Check out the full list of the public holidays and observances in every country in the world of 2024.

Top Best Brands and Companies

Top Famous Brands, Best Companies and Biggest Manufacturer in the USA and Around The World.

Most Auspicious Dates in 2024 for Every Thing in Your Life

Most Auspicious Dates in 2024 for Wedding, Pregnant, C-Section, Give Birth, Business, New Job, New House, New Car, Travel and More.

Latest Stories

Top 10 Best Hospitals In Brazil 2024/2025 By Newsweek and Statista

Top 10 Best Hospitals In Kentucky 2024/25 by Newsweek, US News/Healthgrades Rankings

Top 10 Best Hospitals 2024 In India 2024/2025 By Newsweek and Statista

Top 10 Best Shopping Malls In Germany 2024/2025

Top 10 Best Hospitals In Malaysia 2024/25 By Newsweek and Statista

March 21, 2024 TV/Streaming/Sport Premiere Dates: Full List, Highlights

Top 10 Most-Watched Movies on Netflix of All Time

Top 10 Most Romantic Movies on Netflix You Must Watch

Top 10 Most Expensive Movies of All Time You Must Watch

• Manage Account

Rihanna Performs First Full Concert in Almost 8 Years at Private Wedding Party in India: ‘The Show Was the Best’

Rihanna sang at a lavish pre-wedding event in a multi-day celebration for soon-to-be newlyweds Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant.

By Ashley Iasimone

Ashley Iasimone

• Share this article on Facebook
• Share this article on Twitter
• Share this article on Flipboard
• Share this article on Pinit
• + additional share options added
• Share this article on Reddit
• Share this article on Linkedin
• Share this article on Whatsapp
• Share this article on Email
• Print this article
• Share this article on Comment
• Share this article on Tumblr

Rihanna made her return to the stage at a pre-wedding gig for Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant in Jamnagar, India, on Friday (March 1).

The singer and Fenty mogul performed at a lavish party that was part of a multi-day celebration for the soon-to-be newlyweds, who will officially tie the knot July 12 in Mumbai. The nearly 1,200-person guest list included Rihanna as well as Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Sunder Picha, Ivanka Trump and Bollywood celebrity Shah Rukh Khan, the AP reports.

Jerrod Carmichael Tells Jimmy Kimmel That Taylor Swift Is His Definitely His 'Best Friend'

See latest videos, charts and news

Trending on Billboard

Although Rihanna performed for the Super Bowl halftime show and at the Oscars last year, she hasn’t put on a full concert since her Anti World Tour in 2016. There were reportedly 19 songs on Friday night’s set list .

The Ambani dynasty is well-known for extravagant wedding festivities. When Mukesh’s daughter Isha got married in 2018,  Beyoncé performed  at the ceremony, and when the business titan’s oldest son Akash tied the knot in 2019, Coldplay’s Chris Martin and the Chainsmokers  were hired .

See clips of Rihanna in India below, including videos of her performing “Bitch Better Have My Money,” “Work,” “Umbrella,” “Stay,” “All of the Lights,” “We Found Love,” “Diamonds” and more.

Rihanna in India 🤍 pic.twitter.com/K44nZ6JBL0 — 𝖌𝖆𝖇 (@gabgonebad) March 2, 2024

rihanna is back 😭 pic.twitter.com/7dDRGyzNGO — 𝖌𝖆𝖇 (@gabgonebad) March 2, 2024

Rihanna performing "Work" in India tonight. https://t.co/gmw1ff2LcP — FentyStats (@FentyStats) March 1, 2024

Rihanna sentindo cada palavra de Umbrella 😭 https://t.co/fZMQ2MU6Xy — Rihanna Online (@RihannaOnlineBR) March 1, 2024

Rihanna – Stay (Índia Show). pic.twitter.com/q427qWzjo9 — ʀɪʜᴀɴɴᴀ ᴍᴏᴍᴇɴᴛs (@rihannamoments_) March 1, 2024

Rihanna doing her little dance 😭 pic.twitter.com/gv5Dggqwju — ᴹᴵᴹᴵ'ˢ ☈ᴱᴵᴳᴺ ᵂᴼᴺᵀ ᴸᴱ☥ ᵁᴾ (@TheMimiReign) March 1, 2024

Another angle of Rihanna was performing 'We Found Love' in Ambani's pre-wedding ceremony in India. 🔥❤️🇮🇳💃 pic.twitter.com/yPKrxKicb9 — ☈❤️‍🔥 (@MuthuG4L) March 2, 2024

National Hero Rihanna Shines Bright Like a Diamond in India with her multimillion dollar performance. pic.twitter.com/F3YUai3WO3 — Jamaica Live (@JamaicaLivenews) March 2, 2024

Rihanna in India 🇮🇳 pic.twitter.com/WWxWz5gU4C — 🐬 @𝗼𝗻𝗲𝗷𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗯𝗼𝘆 (@OneJoblessBoy) March 2, 2024

Get weekly rundowns straight to your inbox

Want to know what everyone in the music business is talking about?

Get in the know on.

Billboard is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2024 Billboard Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

optional screen reader

Charts expand charts menu.

• Billboard Hot 100™
• Billboard 200™
• Hits Of The World™
• TikTok Billboard Top 50
• Song Breaker
• Year-End Charts
• Decade-End Charts

Music Expand music menu

• R&B/Hip-Hop

Culture Expand culture menu

Media expand media menu, business expand business menu.

• Business News
• Record Labels
• View All Pro

Pro Tools Expand pro-tools menu

• Songwriters & Producers
• Artist Index
• Royalty Calculator
• Market Watch
• Industry Events Calendar

Billboard Español Expand billboard-espanol menu

• Cultura y Entretenimiento

Honda Music Expand honda-music menu

• Skip to main content
• Skip to secondary menu
• Skip to primary sidebar
• Skip to footer

The Best Biography

Rihanna (Barbadian Singer & Businesswoman) Biography

March 4, 2024 by Tanisha Leave a Comment

Rihanna is a Barbadian singer, actor, fashion designer, and entrepreneur. She is a pop and rhythm-and-blues singer from Barbados who rose to fame in the early twenty-first century and is renowned for her distinctive voice and stylish style. She was renowned for her fashion and beauty lines. American musical producer Evan Rogers, who discovered Rihanna, brought her to the country to record demo tapes. After contracting with Def Jam in 2005, she immediately shot to prominence thanks to the success of her first two album tracks, Music of the Sun as well as A Girl Like Me, which were both inspired by Caribbean music and landed in the top ten of the US Billboard 200 index.

Rihanna was born on February 20, 1988, in the city of Bridgetown, St. Michael, Barbados, by stockroom supervisor Ronald Fenty and accountant Monica Braithwaite. Her mom seems to be of Afro-Guyanese lineage, whereas her dad seems to be of Afro-Barbadian as well as British Isles descent. Rihanna lived the regular life of an island girl while studying at the prominent comprehensive school Combermere. In a school talent contest, Rihanna sang Mariah Carey’s song, Hero, and won multiple beauty pageants. When she met producer Evan Rodgers, who was on holiday in Barbados with his native wife, thanks to the advent of a friend, her life was irrevocably changed. Rodgers set up her trip to New York so she could meet Jay-Z, the head of Def Jam Records. When he heard her sing, he had a premonition that she would be immensely popular. When she signed with Def Jam, she was 16 years old. She has experienced incredible success since then.

Table of Contents

Rihanna Biography

Rihanna biodata, physical appearance, rihanna educational qualification, rihanna family and relatives, rihanna favorite things, rihanna net worth.

With $1.7 billion under her mattress, singer and actress Rihanna has one of the highest net worths in the music and entertainment industries, thanks in large part to the triumph of her cosmetics business, which is expected to produce over $550 million in sales in 2020.

The Barbados-born singer-songwriter is the richest female singer in the world. She ranks as one of the most well enough and prosperous musicians of all time in terms of income. Her association with luxury products firm Louis Vuitton to launch the Fenty Beauty Line is linked with vastly increasing her net worth. Each and every year, the business earns over $100 million. Rihanna reportedly controls 50% of the business and is a brand with a $2-3 billion market value. Moreover, she has a 30% share in Savage X Fenty, a clothing business with a $1 billion valuation. As if that weren’t enough, the artist has more than 100 million followers on Twitter as well as Instagram.

• She’s made profits from a variety of industries including music, fashion, and beauty. 
• Rihanna has also signed major endorsement deals and appeared in some popular films.

Cars Collection

Rihanna’s impressive car collection includes models like the Mercedes SLR McLaren Stirling Moss, Maybach 57 S, Lamborghini Aventador, Porsche 997 Turbo Cabriolet, Ferrari 488 GTB, Chevrolet Suburban LTZ, Rolls Royce Cullinan, BMW 328i, BMW 7-Series, and Jeep Wrangler.

Rihanna Boyfriends

Rihanna is looking very beautiful. Rihanna dated so many boys in these past years named Negus Sealy (2001-2003), Chris Brown (2007-2013), Josh Hartnett (2007), Drake (2010), Ryan Phillippe (2011-2012), Asap Rocky (2013), Karim Benzema (2015). She welcomed a baby boy Rocky on May 13, 2022.  

Rihanna Social Media Accounts

Rihanna early life.

Ronald Fenty, a warehouse manager, and accountant Monica Fenty are the parents of singer Rihanna. Her father is a Barbadian of Irish, English, Scottish, and Afro-Guyanese ancestry, and her mother is an Afro-Guyanese. Rihanna claims two brothers, Rorrey as well as Rajad Fenty, and also two half-sisters and a half-brother who all were born during her father’s prior relationships with separate women. She was raised in a Bridgetown bungalow with three bedrooms and worked with her father in a street stall selling garments. Her father’s intoxication, as well as hard drug consumption, had an adverse impact on her childhood and their marital problems. Rihanna attempted to mediate conflicts between her father and mother because her father had a history of physically abusing her mother.

Rihanna recalls how she underwent numerous CT scans as a child for the awful migraines, saying, “The physicians even worried it was a tumour, because it was so intense”. By 14, her parents had divorced, and her condition had begun to recover. She grew up listening to rap music. She worked alongside future global cricket stars Carlos Brathwaite and Chris Jordan at Charles FBM Primary as well as Combermere School. When Rihanna was 11 years old, Shontelle, a renowned Barbadian singer-songwriter, served as her drill teacher when she was an infantry student in a sub-military camp. She initially intended to finish high school but decided to focus on a musical career.

Rihanna Career

Music career.

2003-2006: Beginnings and early releases

Rihanna and two of her friends started a musical group in 2003. She was found by American record producer Evan Rogers while attending her parents’ home in Barbados. At that period, American music producer Evan Rogers and his wife were on holiday in Barbados. His wife was called by a friend of Rihanna, who informed him of her. After being persuaded by his wife, Evan invited the trio to an audition, where Rihanna outperformed her two other performers by performing Mariah Carey’s song Hero and Destiny’s Child’s song Emotion. Then Evan Rogers scheduled a second session, but this time she went alone, and her mother was there. He invited Rihanna to record a demo in the US after hearing it, and it was then distributed to other record labels.

Rapper Jay-Z, who had recently been appointed executive chairman of the label Def Jam, was the last person to hold this device after it passed through several other hands. Even though he had his reservations, Jay-Z was only able to get pumped up after listening to Rihanna sing Pon de Replay. So he scheduled an audition for Rihanna in New York, where he persuaded Jay-Z and L.A. Reid to want her for Def Jam. Rihanna turned down her other offers after joining the label and moved in with Evan Rogers and his wife in the US. His song Pon de Replay peaked at number five on fifteen different summer music charts in 2005, including the UK Singles Chart and also the Billboard Hot 100. She even reached the summit of the Hot Night Club Songs list. By August of the same year, Rihanna had released Music of the Sun, her debut album, earning her gold certification from the American Association of the Recording Industry for having sold over 500,000 copies.

2007-2008: Breakthrough with Good Girl Gone Bad

Early in 2007, Rihanna collaborated with compatriot Barbadian singer-songwriter Shontelle and Jamaican band J-Status on the song “Roll It.” The song was included on J-Status’ sole album published in a few European nations, The Beginning. The third studio album by Rihanna, Good Girl Gone Bad, had begun production at that point. With the assistance of producers Tricky Stewart, Sean Garrett, and Timbaland, she adopted a new musical path by utilising upbeat dance compositions. After its release in May 2007, the album reached its highest position on the charts in Canada, Brazil, Ireland and the UK while peaking at #2 in Australia and the US. Of her first three albums, the album earned the most favourable reviews from critics.

2009-2011: Rated R and Loud

Rihanna started producing her fourth studio album, Rated R, in the first quarter of 2009. “Rated R” was launched in November 2009. Rolling Stone magazine said that Rihanna “updated her sound and delivered one of several greatest pop singles of the year” with the album’s release. Compared to Rihanna’s previous albums, Rated R has a darker and more menacing vibe. Rated R made its US Billboard 200 chart début at position No. 4. Six singles were released in support of the album, including “Rude Boy,” which had the largest international success and peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US for six weeks in addition to hitting the top 10 in 22 other nations. In January 2010, Rihanna sang the song “Redemption Song” for the Hope for Haiti Now initiative.

2011-2013: Talk That Talk and Unapologetic

The sixth studio album by Rihanna, Talk That Talk, was launched in November 2011. The album premiered at No. 3 with No. 1 in the US and the UK, correspondingly. The album’s main single, “We Found Love,” opened at the top of the heap in 27 countries, made it to the top 10 in 30, and broke multiple international chart milestones. The track was Rihanna’s best No. #1 hit of 2011 in the US after taking 10 straight weeks at the peak of the Billboard Hot 100. The song finally peaked at number 24 on the Billboard Hot list of all-time biggest hits.

2014-2017: Standalone’s Home soundtrack and Anti

Within the first year of commencing to write her eighth solo record, Rihanna released a song, “FourFiveSeconds,” on which she teamed with Mccartney and Kanye. It was succeeded by the songs “Bitch Better Have My Money” and “American Oxygen,” neither of which was listed alongside Rihanna’s eighth album’s final track listing. Rihanna explored other interests as she focused on the album. She played Tip in the animated film Home, which had been modeled on Adam Rex’s novel The True Meaning of Smekday, alongside Jim Parsons as well as Jennifer Lopez. Rihanna’s theme record for the film was also made accessible.

2018-present: Hiatus and upcoming ninth studio album

In October 2017, Shakka made known that he was working alongside Rihanna on her “totally wild” project. In 2018, she said that the album is a reggae project and it will be published in December 2019. In August 2019, the music publishing firm BMI certified the track “Private Loving” from Rihanna as well as co-writers Monique Lawrence, Collin Edwards with Alexander Ogunmokun.

Acting Career

Rihanna also appeared in the 2006 film Bring it On All or Nothing as an actress, despite receiving harsh criticism for the performance. She as well developed the Styled to Rock sequence in 2012. She also made appearances in This Is the End (2013) and Home (2015), and according to estimates, she may star in the Bates Motel sequel. She has appeared in advertisements for Samsung and Kodak, released her own fragrance called Rebelle, and supported numerous charitable causes.

Marriage and Lifestyle

American artist Chris Brown, as well as Rihanna, began a relationship in the year 2007. She began dating Canadian rapper Drake after their affair ended in February 2009, and the two had an on-again, off-again relationship that lasted until 2016. Although Brown was still under a suspended sentence for their 2009 spousal abuse case, Rihanna stated in a January 2013 conversation with Rolling Stone that they had restored their affair. Their reunion came after ongoing media rumours that persisted throughout 2012. Brown revealed that both he and Rihanna had separated once more in an interview in May 2013. Hassan Jameel is a Saudi businessman that Rihanna started dating in 2017. In January 2020, they broke up.

On May 19, 2021, interview with GQ, American rapper Rocky claimed that both he and Rihanna were already together. It was made public that the couple is anticipating their first child on January 31, 2022. It was revealed that Rihanna has given birth to a baby boy on May 19, 2022.

Awards and Achievements

As of September 2018, Rihanna, one of the most popular artists of all time, had delivered over 250 million records. She has won various accolades over her career, including 8 People’s Choice Awards, 12 Billboard Music Awards, 9 Grammy Awards, and 12 Billboard Music Awards. In addition to winning the Michael Jackson Award at the 2016 Music Awards, Rihanna also won the “Icon Award” at the American Music Awards in the year of 2013. Six Guinness World Titles belong to her. With over 10 million albums sold in the US, Rihanna is the greatest digital artist in the nation, according to Nielsen SoundScan. As of 2012, she also broke the Guinness World Record for the most digital single sales, with over 58 million.

2010 witnessed Rihanna win her second and subsequent Grammy Awards for Best Rap Song and Best Rap/Sung Collaboration for her work on the Jay-Z and Kanye West single “Run This Town”. In the year of 2010, Rihanna launched Loud, her fifth album. Numerous awards, notably two Grammys for Record of the Year as well Best Pop Vocal Album, were listed for it. Additionally, “Only Girl (In the World),” the album’s debut solo album, won Best Dance Recording, and “What’s My Name?” earned consideration in the same genre. Rihanna and Eminem teamed together on the international hit song “Love the Way You Lie” in 2011. Numerous awards and nominees were given to the song, including six Billboard Awards as well as three Grammy Awards. Rihanna was listed as an artist on Kanye West’s 2011 single “All of the Lights,” which was shortlisted for three Grammy Awards in 2012 and ended up winning for Top Rap Song and Most Rap/Sung Collaboration.

Talk That Talk, Rihanna’s sixth studio album was published in 2011, and it won the artist an American Music Award. Dozens of honours and accolades were given to the album’s title track, “We Found Love,” which ended up winning the 55th Grammy Award for Excellent Short Form Music Video in 2013 and the MTV Award for Clip of the Year in 2012. The album’s title track, which features Jay-Z, and “Where Have You Been” were also considered for Grammy awards. The lead single, “Diamonds,” from Rihanna’s seventh studio album Unapologetic (2012), earned the singer multiple nominations and accolades. Rihanna has received 9 Grammy Awards, 12 Billboard Music Awards, 13 American Music Awards, the Icon Award, and 7 MTV Awards.

Rihanna Songs

• American Oxygen (2015)
• As Real as You and Me (2015)
• Birthday Cake (2011)
• Bitch Better Have My Money (2015)
• Born Again (2022)
• Break It Off (2006)
• Breakin’ Dishes (2007)
• California King Bed (2010)
• Cheers (Drink To That) (2010)
• Close To You (2016)
• Cockiness (Love It) (2011)
• Cold Case Love (2009)
• Complicated (2010)
• Consideration (2016)
• Dancing in the Dark (2015)
• Desperado (2016)
• Diamonds (2012)
• Disturbia (2008)
• Do Ya Thang (2011)
• Don’t Stop The Music (2007)
• Drunk on Love (2011)
• Fading (2010)
• Farewell (2011)
• Fire Bomb (2009)
• FourFiveSeconds (2015)
• G4L (2009)
• Get It Over With (2012)
• Good Girl Gone Bad (2007)
• Goodnight Gotham (2015)
• Half Of Me (2012)
• Hard (2009)
• Hate That I Love You (2007)
• Higher (2016)
• If It’s Lovin’ That You Want (2005)
• James Joint (2015)
• Jump (2012)
• Kiss It Better (2016)
• Let Me (2005)
• Lift Me Up (2022)
• Lost In Paradise (2012)
• Love on the Brain (2016)
• Love The Way You Lie (Part II) (2010)
• Love Without Tragedy / Mother Mary (2012)
• Loveeeeeee Song (2012)
• Mad House (2009)
• Man Down (2010)
• Music Of The Sun (2005)
• Needed Me (2016)
• Never Ending (2016)
• No Love Allowed (2012)
• Nobody’s Business (2012)
• Numb (2012)
• Only Girl (In The World) (2010)
• Photographs (2009)
• Phresh Off The Runway (2012)
• Pon De Replay (2005)
• Pour It Up (2012)
• Raining Men (2010)
• Red Lipstick (2011)
• Rehab (2007)
• Right Now (2012)
• Roc Me Out (2011)
• Rockstar 101 (2009)
• Rude Boy (2009)
• Russian Roulette (2009)
• S&M (2010)
• Same Ol’ Mistakes (2016)
• Sex With Me (2016)
• Shut Up And Drive (2007)
• Skin (2010)
• Sledgehammer (2016)
• SOS (2006)
• Stay (2012)
• Stupid In Love (2009)
• Take A Bow (2008)
• Talk That Talk (2011)
• Te Amo (2009)
• Towards the Sun (2015)
• Umbrella (2007)
• Unfaithful (2006)
• Wait Your Turn (2009)
• Watch n’ Learn (2011)
• We Found Love (2011)
• What Now (2012)
• What’s My Name? (2010)
• Where Have You Been (2011)
• Who’s That Chick? (2010)
• Willing To Wait (2005)
• Woo (2016)
• Work (2016)
• You Da One (2011)

Rihanna in Ambani wedding

Rihanna is getting paid to perform at the ambani wedding.

Also Read: Radhika Merchant (Businesswoman & Classical Dancer) Biography

Anant Ambani-Radhika Merchant wedding: Global pop icon Rihanna is all set to perform at the youngest Ambani’s wedding with Radhika Merchant. Rihanna is one of the biggest names to perform at the pre-wedding festivities.

Rihanna, whose spectacular public performances are known to have left audiences enthralled, rarely does private gigs. So needless to say her fee for performing at the Ambani wedding is equally handsome. According to sources who revealed to India Today, Rihanna is charging in the range of  $8-9 million or Rs 66-74 crore  for her performance. 

The pop star already grabbed eyeballs after she landed in Jamnagar with her container-sized luggage. She was photographed by the paparazzi as she made her way out of the airport. 

Rihanna is reportedly doing a big set including a medley of her hit songs, including ‘Diamonds’, ‘All Of The Lights’, ‘We Found Love In A Hopeless Place’. Most of the cost for her gig went towards transportation of her stage equipment, outfit changes and the background singers. 

As per sources, Rihanna has been on stage all night after her arrival and has personally been at the indoor arena where she will perform her songs. She is speculated to be weaning a mix of Indo-fusion clothing. 

The pop-star is not the first international musician to perform at an Ambani event. Beyonce performed at Isha Ambani and Anand Piramal’s sangeet in 2018 and is speculated to have been paid around $4 million or Rs 33 crore. 

The wedding festivities of Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant’s nuptials are scheduled to start on March 1 and continue till March 3. Shah Rukh Khan and family, Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone, Alia Bhatt and Ranbir Kapoor, Arjun Kapoor, Rani Mukherjee, Atlee and family, Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan have arrived for the wedding festivities

Also Read: Anant Ambani (Businessman) Biography

Some amazing Facts About Rihanna

• Music producer Evan Rogers  spotted Rihanna interestingly when he was in Barbados on a vacation with his wife.
• Rihanna took over control of creating her third album  Good Girl Gone Bad  and was not prepared to think twice about the creative process.
• Rihanna has in her possession  five Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)  certified platinum albums.
• She won a Grammy for her album Unapologetic and her album  ANTI,  hit the Billboard 200 at the top position even when the album was not delivered as expected.
• Rihanna has different  singles and collaborations  that have been the  top-rated singles ever.
• She’s sold in excess of  200 million  copies worldwide which makes her one of the most mind-blowing selling artists.
• She would’ve gotten a kick out of the chance to concentrate on Psychology in case she wasn’t a vocalist, despite the fact that her  #1 subjects were maths and chemistry.

Reader Interactions

Leave a reply cancel reply.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Rihanna performs first full concert in years at billionaire Mukesh Ambani's party for son

Rihanna's return to performing live took place at an unexpected venue this weekend.

The Grammy-winning singer, 36, performed in Jamnagar, India, on Friday as part of the pre-wedding festivities for Anant Ambani, son of the richest man in Asia, Mukesh Ambani.

The three-day celebration was held four months ahead of Ambani's upcoming July wedding, and the almost 1,200-person guest list included Bill Gates , Mark Zuckerberg , and Ivanka Trump , according to The Associated Press . It's unknown what Rihanna was paid for her performance, but according to Forbes , Mukesh Ambani has an estimated net worth of $117 billion.

Videos posted on social media provided glimpses at Rihanna's show, which included renditions of her hits " Umbrella " and " Stay ." It was Rihanna's first full concert since 2016. She performed during the Super Bowl halftime show and the Academy Awards in 2023.

'I loved him differently as a dad': Rihanna gushes about A$AP Rocky's parenting

For her performance attire, the "Lift Me Up" songstress wore Dolce & Gabbana, donning an Alta Sartoria silk coat embroidered in gold thread and crystals, according to a press release from the Italian fashion house.

Speaking to fans in India, Rihanna said the show was "the best," according to a clip shared on TikTok . "I haven't done a real show in eight years," she noted.

But videos of Rihanna's show sparked mixed reactions on social media, with some fans suggesting she phoned in the performance. "Pls she don’t even remember what performing is like," one user wrote on X , formerly Twitter, adding, "She forgot she was a singer."

Another user posted , "Rent was due. She didn’t care."

In 2018, Beyoncé similarly  performed a private concert as part of pre-wedding celebrations for Isha Ambani, Mukesh Ambani's daughter.

Rihanna has not released a new studio album since 2016's "Anti." Since then, she has welcomed two children with A$AP Rocky , having revealed her second pregnancy at the 2023 Super Bowl. In a video shared on social media last month, A$AP Rocky teased that Rihanna is "working" on releasing new music.

See first photos of Riot Rose: A$AP Rocky shares pics of his and Rihanna's newborn baby

Rihanna told "Good Morning America" in 2023 that it was a "challenge" to perform at the Super Bowl after being off the road for years. In December, she teased in an Entertainment Tonight interview that she would go back on tour when she releases new music.

"It's only fair that my fans get what they've been waiting on, which is new music," she said. "After that, let's just blow everything up."

Contributing: Saman Shafiq and Edward Segarra, USA TODAY

Rihanna performed for the son of India's richest man. Here are 8 times celebrities played pricey private concerts.

• Rihanna performed at a pre-wedding event for Anant Ambani, the son of Asia's richest man.
• She's not the first celebrity to play a pricey private gig for the elite. 
• In 2013, Jennifer Lopez apologized after performing for a Turkmenistan leader described as a dictator. 

Performing for the world's elite pays. Just ask Rihanna.

The "Umbrella" singer arrived in Gujarat, India, this week for pre-wedding celebrations for Anant Ambani , the son of Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani marrying Radhika Merchant.

The Ambani patriarch, who is the chair of the Fortune 500 company Reliance Industries, has an estimated net worth of $113 billion.

RIHANNAAAA pic.twitter.com/bdxrSd32D9 — Rihanna Online (@RihannaOnlineBR) March 2, 2024

Rihanna took the stage during a star-studded cocktail party on Friday, which ended with her receiving a more than $5 million payday.

Although Rihanna's performance is making headlines this week, she's not the first celebrity to give an ultra-exclusive performance to the world's elite.

Keep reading to see which other celebrities performed for presidents, dictators, and the rich.

Beyoncé got a multi-million dollar paycheck for a private performance at a luxury resort in Dubai.

Beyoncé is no stranger to private concerts, but her most recent performance in Dubai excited fans across the globe. In January 2023, the "Cuff It" singer arrived in the United Arab Emirates city to commemorate the grand opening of the Atlantis The Royal resort, which is described as "the most ultra-luxury experiential resort in the world" on its website .

Although considered a private concert, videos and images of Beyoncé's performance went viral on social media. Many fans praised videos of Beyoncé singing her now-famous "Drunk in Love" riff in addition to Beyoncé singing onstage with her eldest daughter, Blue Ivy.

The private concert only lasted one hour, but outlets like Fortune reported that Beyoncé was paid $24 million.

Italian singer Andrea Bocelli performed at Kourtney and Kim Kardashians' weddings — worsening the feud between the two sisters.

The Kardashian family always appeared tight-knit, but cracks surfaced in July 2023 between Kourtney and Kim . Tensions between the pair had been brewing for several years, but one point of contention involved Andrea Bocelli.

Bocelli is a famed Italian tenor who performed at Kim's 2014 wedding to Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, and Kourtney's 2022 nuptials to Travis Barker.

During season three of Hulu's "The Kardashians," Kim accused Kourtney of copying her wedding aesthetic after Kourtney accused her of doing the same thing.

"I got married in Italy. Am I saying you copied me by getting married in Italy? Who performed at my wedding? Who performed at Kourtney's wedding? Andrea Bocelli," Kim said in a confessional.

"You stole my fucking wedding country and my wedding performer," she added. "Andrea Bocelli is my favorite male singer of all time, but I am copying her Dolce Vita lifestyle?"

Bocelli later spoke out, writing in a July 2023 Instagram Stories post that he's "flattered" that they enjoyed his work.

Jennifer Lopez apologized after doing a private gig for a Turkmenistan leader described as a dictator.

In July 2013, Jennifer Lopez faced criticism after she traveled to Turkmenistan for a private concert. Outlets like Vanity Fair reported that the guest list included former President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, the former president of Turkmenistan whom the Wall Street Journal dubbed a "dictator."

Critics have accused Berdimuhamedow of human rights violations, prompting an outcry over Lopez's decision to serenade him with "Happy Birthday" during the performance.

Following the backlash, Lopez's publicist attempted to clarify the situation in a statement to E! News, saying China National Petroleum Corporation hosted the event and it wasn't political in nature.

"The event was vetted by her representatives, had there been knowledge of human rights issues of any kind, Jennifer would not have attended," the statement said.

Lopez was paid between $1 million and $1.5 million for the controversial three-song show, according to Vanity Fair.

Mariah Carey said she was 'embarrassed' after appearing in a private concert for family members of Muammar Gaddafi.

Carey tried to distance herself from the notorious 2008 performance. That year, she performed for members of Muammar Gaddafi's family in St. Bart's. Human rights organizations have long decried Gaddafi, the former Libyan dictator, who is accused of war crimes.

"I was naive and unaware of who I was booked to perform for. I feel horrible and embarrassed to have participated in this mess," Carey said in the statement . "Going forward, this is a lesson for all artists to learn from. We need to be more aware and take more responsibility regardless of who books our shows. Ultimately we as artists are to be held accountable."

Carey received $1 million to sing four songs, The New York Times reported .

Nelly Furtado also performed for the Gaddafi family. She donated her $1 million payment following public backlash.

Mariah Carey wasn't the only artist to land in hot water over a private concert for the Gaddafi family. Beyoncé, Usher, and Nelly Furtado also faced criticism, and Furtado publicly apologized.

In a statement shared on Twitter in 2011, Furtado said the private concert took place in 2007 and lasted 45 minutes in a post.

"In 2007, I received 1million$ from the Qaddafi clan to perform a 45 min. Show for guests at a hotel in Italy," Furtado wrote . "I am going to donate the $."

The Rolling Stones received a hefty check after performing at a Texas investor's birthday party.

The Rolling Stones have also found success in the private concert industry. In November 2002, the English rock band played for a Texas billionaire named David Bonderman, who invited 400 guests to celebrate his 60th birthday party in Las Vegas, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.

It's unclear how much The Rolling Stones were paid for the gig, but CNN reported that Bonderman's party cost around $7 million.

Guns N' Roses once played a private show in Russia for a chairman.

The members of Guns N' Roses once traveled to Moscow for a private concert in 2010, according to Rolling Stone. The band performed for Alexander Chistyakov, then a chairman of Federal Grid Company's management board, at a movie studio complex.

"It couldn't have felt more awkward," singer Tommy Stinson told the outlet in May 2022. "They were a bunch of drunken party people who were glad to have us play. I didn't see any fucking gold-plated toilets, but I'm sure they were there somewhere."

Guns N' Roses walked away with $1 million, per The Hollywood Reporter .

Miley Cyrus sang at a Texas law firm's Christmas party as a teenager.

Cyrus was around 16 years old when she agreed to perform at Lanier Law Fims' Christmas party in Houston, Texas, in 2008.

News outlet Chron reported that the event was held at Mark Lanier's home, where Cyrus appeared onstage with a guitar-playing Santa and musically inclined elves. Lanier told the outlet that an estimated 7,000 to 8,000 guests were expected to attend.

It is unclear how much Cyrus received for the private concert, but The Hollywood Reporter estimated between $200,000 and $500,000.

• Main content