Rihanna

• 1. Introduction

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  Robyn Rihanna Fenty, known worldwide as Rihanna, once waited in Jay-Z's office while lawyers finished drawing up a six-album contract with Def Jam Recordings. The music executive Antonio "L.A." Reid had told Jay-Z not to let the teenager from Barbados leave the building without a deal. She did not leave without one. Today Rihanna is a singer, songwriter, businesswoman and actress, with estimated sales above 250 million records. That puts her among the best-selling music artists of all time. How did a girl who helped her father sell clothes at a street stall in Bridgetown reach that height? Why did she keep changing her look and her sound, and what did each change cost her or give her? And how did a pop star end up putting her name on cosmetics, lingerie and a luxury fashion house? The answers run through a Caribbean childhood, a run of chart-topping singles, a very public ordeal, and a business empire built on a single surname.

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• 2. Bridgetown Roots

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  Rihanna was born in Saint Michael, Barbados, on the 20th of February 1988. Her mother, Monica, was an Afro-Guyanese accountant. Her father, Ronald Fenty, was a warehouse supervisor of African, Irish, English and Scottish descent. She has two younger brothers, Rorrey and Rajad, and three half-siblings from her father's earlier relationships. The family lived in a three-bedroom bungalow in Bridgetown, and young Rihanna worked the clothes stall alongside her father.

  Home was not easy. Her father struggled with alcoholism and a crack cocaine addiction, and the marriage suffered. Rihanna has spoken about seeing him abuse her mother. She calls her mother "one of the strongest women I know, if not the strongest".

  Intense headaches plagued her as a child, and they required multiple CT scans while doctors once suspected a tumour. Her health began to improve after her parents divorced when she was 14. She attended Charles F. Broome Memorial Primary School and then Combermere School, where one teacher remembered a "well-behaved student" who stayed out of trouble. At 11 she joined the Barbados Cadet Corps, where the future singer Shontelle served as her drill sergeant. At 16 she dropped out of school to chase a music career.

  Her ears were busy throughout. She listened to the reggae of Sizzla and Damien Marley, and to the R&B of Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey. Bob Marley was a fixture on Caribbean television, and she later praised him for "paving the way for every other artist out of the Caribbean". She keeps a shrine to him at home. As a child she belted out Houston songs into a hairbrush so often that neighbours nicknamed her "Robyn Redbreast". She also recalled singing Carey's "Hero" at her high school talent show. Her biggest idol, though, was Madonna, and Rihanna said she hoped to become the "Black Madonna" by reinventing herself again and again.

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• 3. Signing and First Albums

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  In 2003 Rihanna formed a trio with two classmates in Barbados. The group had no name and no original songs. They auditioned for the American producer Evan Rogers, who later recalled that "the minute Rihanna walked into the room, it was like the other two girls didn't exist". After the trio sang a cover of Destiny's Child's "Emotion", Rogers arranged a second meeting with Rihanna and her mother alone. He then invited them to his hometown in Connecticut to record demo tapes. Two tracks on that demo were "Pon de Replay" and "The Last Time". In 2005 she became the first artist signed to Syndicated Rhythm Productions, the company Rogers founded with Carl Sturken.

  The demo reached Jay-Z, who had just become president and CEO of Def Jam. He thought "Pon de Replay" was almost too big for a newcomer, yet he invited her to audition. In early 2005 she sang for him and Reid in New York City, performing Houston's "For the Love of You" alongside her two demo songs. She cancelled meetings with other labels and moved to the United States, where a tutor helped her finish high school.

  Jay-Z and his team spent three months completing her debut album, working mostly with Rogers and Sturken. "Pon de Replay" became the lead single because of its summer appeal. Released on the 25th of May 2005, it reached number two on both the US Billboard Hot 100 and the UK Singles Chart. The album Music of the Sun followed on the 29th of August 2005 and debuted at number ten on the Billboard 200, with first-week sales of 69,000 units. Its second single, "If It's Lovin' That You Want", peaked at number 36 in the US.

  Rihanna began her second album in September 2005. A Girl Like Me arrived on the 25th of April 2006 and mixed pop with reggae. It peaked at number five on the Billboard 200 after selling 115,000 copies in its first week, and it became her first double platinum album. Its single "SOS" gave her a first Billboard Hot 100 number one. She also made a cameo as herself in the straight-to-DVD film Bring It On: All or Nothing (2006) and headlined her first tour, Rihanna: Live in Concert, that year. Yet success came with strings. She later told Oprah on Next Chapter that Def Jam's attempts to shape her into a "pop princess" left her feeling boxed in, because the label had an image ready before she had found her own identity.

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• 4. Good Girl Gone Bad

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  In early 2007 Rihanna began recording a third album with Ne-Yo, Timbaland, Justin Timberlake and Tricky Stewart. Her goal was to shed the girl-next-door image for something more mature and rebellious. Good Girl Gone Bad came out on the 31st of May 2007 to critical acclaim. It debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 with 162,000 copies sold in its first week. It moved away from her Caribbean sound toward uptempo dance-pop, and critics widely treat it as the turning point of her career. She has said Brandy's album Afrodisiac (2004) was a main inspiration. Ne-Yo also gave her vocal training during these sessions, teaching her breathing techniques and delivery.

  The look changed too. Her bob haircut, inspired by Charlize Theron in the film Æon Flux (2005), became the emblem of the era. Nico Amarca of Highsnobiety later said she had undergone "one of the most significant aesthetic metamorphoses the world had ever seen". New York magazine, writing in 2009, recalled her early look as that of "a cookie-cutter teen queen".

  The lead single "Umbrella", featuring Jay-Z, spent ten consecutive weeks at number one on the UK Singles Chart and seven on the Billboard Hot 100. Its video showed her stepping into adulthood. The following singles "Shut Up and Drive", "Hate That I Love You" and "Don't Stop the Music" reached numbers fifteen, seven and three on the Hot 100. For "Umbrella" she and Jay-Z won the Grammy Award for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration at the 50th Grammy Awards. The Good Girl Gone Bad Tour began in September 2007 and played 80 concerts across five continents. Rehab, the fifth single, followed in late 2008.

  The reissue Reloaded arrived on the 2nd of June 2008 with four new tracks. Two of them, "Disturbia" and "Take a Bow", topped the Hot 100. The "dark, creepy" video for "Disturbia" drew comparisons to Michael Jackson's Thriller. That April she had joined Kanye West on his Glow in the Dark Tour as a supporting act. Entertainment Weekly named her "Diva of the Year" for 2008, praising her "newfound staying power". Her guest spot on T.I.'s "Live Your Life" also held the top of the Hot 100 for six weeks. As of 2023 the album has sold nine million copies, her best-selling work. Rolling Stone later placed "Umbrella" on its list of the 500 greatest songs of all time.

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• 5. After the Grammy Cancellation

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  On the 8th of February 2009 Rihanna had to cancel her scheduled performance at the 51st Annual Grammy Awards. Reports said singer Chris Brown, her partner, had physically assaulted her. He turned himself in and was detained on suspicion of making criminal threats. On the 5th of March 2009 he was formally charged with assault and making criminal threats. The case drew heavy media attention, especially after TMZ published a leaked police photograph showing her injuries. Rihanna was subpoenaed to testify at a preliminary hearing in Los Angeles on the 22nd of June 2009.

  The ordeal shaped her next record. She started work on Rated R one month after the missed Grammys. The album came out on the 20th of November 2009 and swapped the upbeat feel of her earlier work for a darker, more reflective sound with rock influences. It debuted at number four on the Billboard 200, selling 181,000 copies in its first week. "Rude Boy" held the top of the Hot 100 for six weeks, and both "Russian Roulette" and "Hard" reached the top ten. In 2009 she also began an on-again, off-again relationship with the Canadian rapper Drake. To support the record she launched the Last Girl on Earth tour, which ran from 2010 to 2011, and she published a photo book as its companion.

  Several years later, the album Unapologetic (2012) returned to the same wound. Vulture described it as an "act of defiance", saying Rihanna used it to sort out her feelings about Brown and her public image. Complications persisted. In March 2012 she and Brown released remixes of "Birthday Cake" and "Turn Up the Music", and critics objected given their history of domestic violence. In January 2013 the two rekindled their relationship, even though he was still on probation for the 2009 case. They broke up about four months later.

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• 6. Record-Setting Run

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  In June 2010 Rihanna teamed with Eminem on "Love the Way You Lie". It spent seven consecutive weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and was the best-selling song of 2010 in the UK. That October she moved her management to Jay-Z's Roc Nation. Her fifth album, Loud, debuted at number three in the US with 207,000 copies in its first week. It produced three more Hot 100 number ones: "Only Girl (In the World)", "What's My Name?" with Drake, and "S&M", which climbed to the top after a remix with Britney Spears. Rihanna became the youngest and fastest solo artist in Hot 100 history to collect ten number-one singles.

  The Loud Tour began in June 2011 and included ten sold-out shows at The O2 Arena in London, the most ever by a female artist at that venue. It grossed $90 million. Talk That Talk followed on the 18th of November 2011 and went straight to the top of the UK Albums Chart with 163,000 units. Its lead single "We Found Love" spent ten non-consecutive weeks at number one in the US, her longest run there and the longest of any number one in America in 2011. Its video won Video of the Year at the 2012 MTV Video Music Awards, making her the first woman to win that honour more than once.

  The videos caused real arguments. Anthony Mandler directed seventeen of her music videos, beginning with "Unfaithful" (2006). The Rape Crisis Centre condemned the drug-fuelled romance shown in "We Found Love" as sending a troubling message. The Parents Television Council criticized "Man Down", where she shoots a man in a train station. A Houston Press writer defended her, asking why her videos should draw outrage when other equally sexual and controversial videos stay in rotation. In 2013 she became the first woman to pass two billion cumulative views on YouTube.

  Unapologetic then gave her a first chart-topping album in the US, with 238,000 copies sold in its first week. Its single "Diamonds" became her twelfth Hot 100 number one, and "Stay" reached number three. The 777 Tour packed seven shows in seven countries into seven days. In December 2013 she topped both the US and UK singles charts again, this time as a guest on Eminem's "The Monster".

  After that she asked for "a year to just do whatever I want artistically, creatively". In May 2014 she left Def Jam entirely for Roc Nation. In late 2015 she signed a $25 million deal with Samsung, which sponsored the rollout of her eighth album, Anti. The album appeared exclusively on the streaming service Tidal on the 28th of January 2016 and became her second US number one. Its lead single, "Work", spent nine weeks atop the Hot 100. Through those same years she appeared in films including Battleship (2012) and Home (2015), where she voiced the character Tip.

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• 7. Fenty

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  Rihanna's first fragrance, Reb'l Fleur, appeared in January 2011, and Rolling Stone projected it would bring in US$80 million in retail sales that year. More scents followed. Fashion was the deeper ambition, and she had once called her interest in clothes her "defence mechanism". In February 2013 she showed her first women's collection, for River Island, at London Fashion Week, working with her stylist Adam Selman. In 2014 she became creative director of Puma's women's line. Her first Puma sneaker sold out online within three hours of its pre-sale, and her 2016 clothing line earned the company over $1 billion. In March 2015 she became the first Black woman named the face of Dior.

  The biggest launch came on the 8th of September 2017. Fenty Beauty, made through LVMH's Kendo division with Rihanna holding a 50% ownership stake, reached stores and online shops in more than 150 countries. It was praised for shades that suited all skin tones, and Time named it one of "The 25 Best Inventions of 2017". Rivals soon widened their own ranges. Forty shades became the benchmark in what people called the "Fenty Effect".

  The lingerie label Savage X Fenty debuted at New York Fashion Week in September 2018 and drew praise for including plus-size models, though some critics felt larger sizes were still underrepresented. Its 2019 show at the Barclays Center premiered on Amazon Prime Video, and the show returned for a fourth volume in November 2022. She stepped down as CEO in June 2023.

  On the 22nd of May 2019 she opened a Paris pop-up for Fenty, a fashion house under LVMH. She was the first woman to create an original brand for the group and the first woman of colour to lead one of its houses. It was LVMH's first new fashion house since 1987. In February 2021, as the pandemic bit, she and LVMH suspended the line to focus on Savage X Fenty. Fenty Skin arrived in July 2020 and Fenty Hair in June 2024.

  She uses only her surname for business ventures, to keep them apart from her music. That choice led to a courtroom fight. In January 2019 she sued her father, Ronald Fenty, claiming his company Fenty Entertainment falsely implied a link to her and damaged Fenty Beauty. She dropped the suit in September 2021. That same year her net worth reached $1.7 billion, making her the richest female musician at the time.

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• 8. Beyond the Music

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  In 2006 Rihanna founded the Believe Foundation to support terminally ill children. Her 2008 charity concerts, A Girl's Night Out, were free to attend and funded medical supplies, school materials and toys. In 2012 she founded the Clara Lionel Foundation, named for her grandparents, Clara and Lionel Braithwaite. Its first Diamond Ball fundraiser in 2014 raised over $2 million. In March 2020 she gave $5 million to COVID-19 relief. The next month she donated $2.1 million to aid people facing domestic violence during lockdown, matching Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey for a total of $4.2 million. In January 2022 the foundation gave $15 million to eighteen climate justice organisations across seven Caribbean nations and the US.

  Her activism has been just as visible. In October 2019 she said she had turned down the 2020 Super Bowl halftime show in support of Colin Kaepernick. Then, on the 12th of February 2023, she headlined the Super Bowl LVII halftime show, her first live performance in more than five years. It drew 121.017 million viewers, the most-watched halftime show in history, and earned her five Primetime Emmy nominations. She revealed during the set that she was pregnant, and she became the first person to headline a halftime show while pregnant.

  The song "Lift Me Up" from the soundtrack of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022) was her first solo release since Anti, and it earned nominations for the Golden Globe and the Academy Award for Best Original Song. Her film work included Ocean's 8 (2018), which earned $300 million globally, and Smurfs (2025), in which she voiced Smurfette. She gave birth to two sons, in 2022 and 2023, and to a daughter in 2025.

  Barbados has marked her rise many times. On the 22nd of February 2008, Prime Minister David Thompson proclaimed "Rihanna Day", which locals still celebrate each year. On the 20th of September 2018 the government appointed her Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to promote education, tourism and investment. At the Republic ceremony on the 30th of November 2021, Prime Minister Mia Mottley declared her a National Hero of Barbados.

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