Rihanna

Rihanna is a Barbadian singer, songwriter, actress, businesswoman, entrepreneur and fashion designer. She is born in 1988 and comes from Saint Michael. Her work spans contemporary R&B, dance, dance-pop, dancehall, EDM and electro house.

Early life and start in music

Born Robyn Rihanna Fenty, she grows up in Barbados and is the oldest of three siblings, with younger brothers Rorrey and Rajad Fenty. Her parents are Ronald Fenty, a warehouse supervisor, and Monica Fenty, an accountant. Her mother is Afro-Guyanese and her father is Bajan and Irish. Rihanna begins singing at about seven years old.

She attends Charles F. Broome Memorial School and later Combermere School, where she forms a musical trio with two classmates at the age of fifteen. She also wins the Miss Combermere Beauty Pageant in 2004 and serves as an army cadet in a sub-military programme that trains with the military of Barbados, with Shontelle as her drill sergeant.

In 2003, friends introduce Rihanna and her bandmates to producer Evan Rogers in Barbados. She auditions by singing Destiny's Child's version of “Emotion”. She and her mother travel back and forth to Rogers’ home in Stamford, Connecticut, and after turning 16 she moves to the United States and lives with Rogers and his wife. Carl Sturken helps her record a four-song demo that includes “The Last Time”, a cover of Whitney Houston’s “For the Love of You”, and “Pon de Replay”. The demo reaches Def Jam, and Jay-Z signs her.

Recording career

Rihanna debuts in 2005 with Music of the Sun, which includes the number two hit “Pon de Replay”. Less than a year later she releases A Girl Like Me, which gives her first number one single, “SOS”, and also includes “Unfaithful”.

Her third album, Good Girl Gone Bad, arrives in 2007. She works on it with Ne-Yo, Timbaland, Christopher “Tricky” Stewart, Stargate, Carl Sturken and Evan Rogers. The album shifts towards a more dance-pop sound and is released with a more sexual image for Rihanna, including black, short hair. It tops charts in countries including the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, Brazil, Russia and Ireland, and reaches number two in the United States and Australia. It yields eight hit singles, including “Umbrella” featuring Jay-Z, “Shut Up and Drive”, “Don’t Stop the Music”, “Hate That I Love You”, “Rehab”, “Disturbia”, “Take a Bow” and “If I Never See Your Face Again”, all of which reach the Billboard Hot 100 top twenty.

“Umbrella” becomes one of her defining songs and wins a Grammy Award for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration with Jay-Z. It is also nominated for Record of the Year and Song of the Year. The song spends ten consecutive weeks at number one in the United Kingdom and becomes a major critical and commercial hit.

Later albums and collaborations

In August 2009 she collaborates with Jay-Z and Kanye West on “Run This Town”, which reaches number two on the Billboard Hot 100 and the top ten in five other countries. In November 2009 she releases Rated R in the aftermath of a physical altercation with Chris Brown. Its lead single, “Russian Roulette”, is written with Ne-Yo, and the album also includes work with Tricky, The-Dream, Stargate and SRP.

She releases Loud in 2010. Its lead single, “Only Girl (In the World)”, tops the chart in more than ten countries and wins a Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording. The following album, Talk That Talk, includes “We Found Love”, which makes her the fastest solo artist in chart history to reach twenty Hot 100 top-ten singles and becomes her eleventh number one on the Billboard Hot 100. The album also includes “You Da One”, “Talk That Talk” featuring Jay-Z, and “Where Have You Been”.

Rihanna appears in the film Battleship in 2012. Later that year she releases Unapologetic, led by “Diamonds”, which reaches number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and becomes her twelfth number one single on the chart.

In 2016 she releases ANTI through Tidal. The album reaches number one on the US Billboard 200 and includes “Work” featuring Drake, which tops the Billboard Hot 100, along with “Needed Me” and “Love on the Brain”, both of which reach the Hot 100 top ten. In the same year she appears on Calvin Harris’ “This Is What You Came For”, Drake’s “Too Good” and Mike Will Made It’s “Nothing Is Promised”. She also releases “Sledgehammer” for the Star Trek Beyond soundtrack.

Awards, recognition and public roles

Rihanna has fourteen Billboard Hot 100 number ones and is the second Barbadian artist to win a Grammy Award. She is a cultural ambassador for Barbados and is named a National Hero in 2021, receiving the title “The Right Excellent”. In 2016 she receives the MTV Video Vanguard Award at the MTV Video Music Awards. She is also named artist of the decade of 2010 by Pitchfork, Insider and L’Officiel among other music magazines.

Recent work

In 2022 she releases “Lift Me Up” from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. The song reaches number two on the Billboard Hot 100 and number three in the United Kingdom, and is nominated for a Golden Globe and an Academy Award. In 2023 she performs at the Apple Music Super Bowl Halftime Show.

Labels

Her labels include Roc Nation and Westbury Road Entertainment.