Rihanna facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
The Right Excellent
Rihanna
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Rihanna in 2018
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Robyn Rihanna Fenty
February 20, 1988 Saint Michael, Barbados
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| Years active | 2003–present |
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Works
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| Partner(s) | Chris Brown (2007–2009; 2012–2013) ASAP Rocky (2020–present) |
| Children | 1 |
| Awards | Full list |
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| Instruments | Vocals |
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| Barbadian Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary | |
| Assumed office September 20, 2018 |
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Robyn Rihanna Fenty NH (
i/riˈænə/ ree-AN-ə; born February 20, 1988) is a Barbadian singer, actress, and businesswoman.
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, Irish, English, and Scottish 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.
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. As an 11 year-old, 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.
Music career
In 2003, Rihanna formed a musical trio with two of her classmates in her home country of Barbados. Without a name or any material, the girl group auditioned with American record producer Evan Rogers, who commented, "The minute Rihanna walked into the room, it was like the other two girls didn't exist." Impressed, Rogers scheduled a second meeting with Rihanna's mother present and then invited Rihanna to his hometown in the United States to record some demo tapes that could be sent to record labels. Recordings were intermittent, taking about a year because she was only able to record during school holidays. "Pon de Replay" and "The Last Time" were two tracks recorded for the demo tape, which were eventually included on her debut album Music of the Sun. That same year, Rihanna was signed to Rogers's and Carl Sturken's production company, Syndicated Rhythm Productions.
In May 2005, her debut single, "Pon de Replay", was released under her mononym "Rihanna". It charted successfully worldwide, peaking in the top five in fifteen countries, including at No. 2 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart and the UK Singles Chart. The song became a club hit in the United States, peaking at No. 1 on the Billboard Dance Club Songs.
Music of the Sun was released in August 2005. It debuted at No. 10 on the Billboard 200 and received a gold certification from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), denoting shipments of over 500,000 units. The album sold over 2 million copies worldwide. A second single, "If It's Lovin' that You Want", was not as successful as its predecessor, but reached the top 10 in Australia, Ireland and New Zealand. Aside from her work in music, Rihanna made her acting debut in a cameo role in the successful straight-to-DVD film Bring It On: All or Nothing, released in August 2006.
A month after the release of her debut album, Rihanna began working on her second studio album. A Girl like Me was released in April 2006. Rolling Stone felt that "the burning rock guitar" and haunted strings of some of the album's tracks made "A Girl like Me [...] likable." The album was a commercial success, charting in the top 10 in 13 countries. The album reached No. 1 in Canada and No. 5 in the United Kingdom and the United States, where it sold 115,000 copies in its first week. The album became Rihanna's first to be certified Platinum by the RIAA, after selling over 1,000,000 units. Its lead single, "SOS", was an international success, charting in the top five in 11 countries. The song reached No. 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and in Australia, her first to reach this chart position. "Unfaithful", the album's second single, reached the top 10 in 18 countries, including No. 1 in Canada and Switzerland. Two more singles were released from the album: "We Ride" and "Break It Off".
Rihanna's third album, Good Girl Gone Bad (2007), incorporated elements of dance-pop. The chart-topping single "Umbrella" earned Rihanna her first Grammy Award and catapulted her to global stardom. During the late 2000s, Rihanna experimented further with pop, dubstep, and rock music, officially shifting her musical style and image away from the Barbados island girl. Throughout 2008, Rihanna performed on the Glow in the Dark Tour alongside Kanye West, Lupe Fiasco, and N.E.R.D.
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She continued to mix pop, dance, and R&B genres on her next studio albums, Rated R (2009), Loud (2010), Talk That Talk (2011), and Unapologetic (2012), the latter of which became her first Billboard 200 number one. The albums spawned a string of chart-topping singles, including "Rude Boy", "Only Girl (In the World)", "What's My Name?", "S&M", "We Found Love", "Where Have You Been" and "Diamonds".
In January 2010, Rihanna released her charity cover version of "Redemption Song" for the Hope for Haiti Now campaign. She also recorded the song "Stranded (Haiti Mon Amour)" together with Jay-Z, Bono and The Edge for the same campaign to alleviate the 2010 Haiti earthquake.
In summer 2010, Rihanna collaborated with rapper Eminem on "Love the Way You Lie", which was a major worldwide success, reaching No. 1 in over 20 countries. Reaching number 2, the song became the biggest-selling song of 2010 in the UK and the first of Rihanna's singles to sell over a million copies in the country. In October 2010, Rihanna switched managers, joining Jay-Z's Roc Nation Management.
Her eighth album, Anti (2016), showcased a new creative control following her departure from Def Jam. It became her second US number one album and featured the chart-topping single "Work". During her musical career, Rihanna has collaborated with many artists, such as Drake, Britney Spears, Eminem, Jay-Z, Kanye West, Adam Levine, Paul McCartney, Ne-Yo, and Shakira.
In February 2013, at the 55th Grammy Awards, Rihanna won her sixth Grammy Award, in the category Best Short Form Music Video for "We Found Love" (2011). Also that month, the United Kingdom's Official Charts Company announced that Rihanna had sold 3,868,000 records in the past year in the country, ranking at No. 1 in the list of 2013 BRIT Awards artist nominees. Rihanna's fifth headlining concert tour, the Diamonds World Tour, began in March 2013, in support of Unapologetic. Rihanna then appeared in the Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg comedy film This Is the End, which was released in June 2013. That same month, American hip hop artist Wale released a remixed version of his single "Bad" featuring Rihanna. In October 2013, Eminem released his Rihanna-assisted single, "The Monster", as the fourth release from his eighth studio album The Marshall Mathers LP 2 (2013).
In October 2017, Shakka revealed that he was working with Rihanna on her "absolutely insane" album. In December 2018, Rihanna announced that it is a reggae project. In December 2019, Rihanna alluded to her album being complete and indefinitely withholding the release date in an Instagram post. On October 28, 2022, Rihanna released the first single from the upcoming Black Panther: Wakanda Forever soundtrack "Lift Me Up".
With sales of over 250 million records worldwide, Rihanna is the second-best-selling female music artist 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 (including the Icon Award), 12 Billboard Music Awards, six Guinness World Records, and the NAACP's President's Award. 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 2022, she is the wealthiest female musician, with an estimated net worth of $1.4 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; she is the first black woman to head a luxury brand for LVMH. Rihanna has also ventured into acting, appearing in major roles in Battleship (2012), Home (2015), 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, and was declared a National Hero of Barbados on the first day of the country's parliamentary republic in 2021, entitling her to the style of "The Right Excellent" for life. Rihanna will be headlining the halftime show for Super Bowl LVII on February 12, 2023.
Artistry
Music and voice
Rihanna is a mezzo-soprano, with a range spanning from B2 to C♯6. While recording tracks for her third studio album, Good Girl Gone Bad (2007), Rihanna took vocal lessons from Ne-Yo. She said of the experience, "I've never had vocal training, so when I'm in the studio, he'll tell me how to breathe and stuff... He'll call out these big fancy words: 'OK, I want you to do staccato.' And I'm like, 'OK, I don't know what that is.'" Her vocal performance on Loud (2010) received positive reviews from music critics.
Growing up in Barbados, she mainly listened to reggae, hip hop and soca music. When she first came to the US, she was exposed to different types of music with "rock being one of them, and I fell in love with it. [Now] I love rock music." During her debut, she recorded songs that were inspired by her Caribbean roots and described her early sound as "a fusion of reggae, hip-hop and R&B, with a little something different thrown in". Her early dancehall roots can be found on her debut album, Music of the Sun, and its follow-up, A Girl like Me. Her debut album demonstrates the influence of Rihanna's musical heritage of the Caribbean. After her second album, she slowly dismissed her dancehall and reggae roots.
Rihanna's musical career has been an experiment with new musical ideas and stated that she wants "to make music that could be heard in parts of the world that I'd never been to". With its provocative subject matter and lyrics, she began incorporating a wide range of genres including, pop, R&B, reggae, dubstep, hip hop and EDM. During a review for Good Girl Gone Bad, Slant Magazine to write that Rihanna "finally figured out that she's a dance artist and the majority of the album is comprised of uptempo dance-pop [songs like]" "Push Up on Me" and "Don't Stop the Music". It represents a departure from the Caribbean sound of her previous albums and is described as a turning point in her career. While the first half of the record shares many 1980s pop influences with songs like "Don't Stop the Music" and "Shut Up and Drive", the second half retreats into standard R&B.
In her fifth album Loud, Rihanna reflects on the fun and energetic vibe she had while recording the album. The album is a mixture of ballads, party anthems and empowering love songs. Talk That Talk was similar to Rated R, as both contain hip hop, R&B, dancehall and dubstep genres. Loud and Talk That Talk saw her return to her dancehall roots ("Man Down" and "Watch n' Learn"). She also branched out into house music with tracks like "We Found Love", "Only Girl (In the World)" and "Complicated". Her songs are also inspired through record sampling from other artists.
Influences
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Rihanna has named Madonna as her idol and biggest influence. She said that she wanted to be the "black Madonna" and praised her ability to reinvent herself throughout her career. She noted, "I think that Madonna was a great inspiration for me, especially on my earlier work. If I had to examine her evolution through time, I think she reinvented her clothing style and music with success every single time. And at the same time remained a real force in entertainment in the whole world." Another major influence on Rihanna's music and career has been Mariah Carey, whose song "Hero" she performed when Rihanna was still a teenager at her high school talent show. She revealed that Carey's song "Vision of Love" "was the song that made [her] want to do music."
In her youth, she would see Bob Marley on television because of his fame in the Caribbean. She stated, "He's one of my favourite artists of all time – he really paved the way for every other artist out of the Caribbean". She built a shrine in her home dedicated to the reggae legend and has covered Marley's "Is This Love" and Bob Marley & The Wailers' "Redemption Song" during her concert tours. During her childhood, she would go around singing Whitney Houston songs and "A Whole New World" into her hairbrush so much that her neighbors started calling her "Robyn Redbreast". She also stated that one of the first songs she remembers falling in love with was Houston's version of "I Will Always Love You" and that it "was really inspiring, and it made me develop a passion for music, so really, she's partly responsible for me being here in this industry."
Rihanna was also influenced by Janet Jackson, Aaliyah, Tupac, Beyoncé and Destiny's Child. Other musical influences and idols include Celine Dion, Grace Jones, Lil' Kim, Alicia Keys, Prince, Fefe Dobson, and Brandy. Rihanna takes influence from the different types of music she discovered when she came to America and revealed that rock music was one of the first genres she fell in love with. She commented, "as I grow older, I want to know more about music. I want to discover more types of music". She cited Brandy's fourth studio album, Afrodisiac (2004), as her main inspiration for her third album, Good Girl Gone Bad (2007). In her early career, her music contained strong influences of Caribbean music, including reggae and dancehall. The music video of the song "Rude Boy" featured images inspired by her Caribbean roots.
Legacy
Rihanna is regarded by the media as a pop and fashion icon, particularly since her third studio album Good Girl Gone Bad (2007). Nick Levine of Digital Spy described Good Girl Gone Bad as "the closest thing to a Thriller that 2007/08 is likely to produce". According to Rolling Stone, her single "Umbrella" and her eighth album Anti are regarded as among the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time and 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, respectively. Her single "We Found Love" was ranked by Billboard as the 24th biggest US Billboard Hot 100 hit of all time and her single "Work" has been credited by a Billboard editor for bringing the dancehall genre to the forefront of mainstream American music. Music critic Jayson Greene of Pitchfork described Rihanna as the most influential singer of the past decade, writing:
"Rihanna Voice has become an industry-wide idea, a creative property like the Korg synth or LinnDrum [...] We crave the thrill that you can only get when a dozen or so good ideas manifest themselves in a single voice. For the past 10 years, that voice has more or less been Rihanna's. Now that she's gleefully shredding it apart, she'll probably generate a whole new comet trail of Rihannabes. Inevitably, none of them will carry the charge, the glassy cool and subterranean heat, of the real thing."
Time magazine included Rihanna on its 100 Most Influential People in the World issue in 2012 and 2018, with Stella McCartney writing: "She's one of the coolest, hottest, most talented, most liked, most listened to, most followed, most impressive artists at work today, but she does it in her own stride. She works hard, very hard. She gives to her fans, friends and foundation not just herself but her energy and spirit." Rihanna was ranked one of the best dressed women in 2018, by luxury fashion retailer Net-a-Porter. On June 2, 2014, Rihanna was presented with the Fashion Icon lifetime achievement award from Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA), a special prize reserved for "an individual whose style has made a significant impact on popular culture on an international stage". In August 2018, Billboard ranked Rihanna as the tenth biggest Hot 100 artist of all time, as well as the fifth biggest female act of all time. Billboard also ranked Rihanna the top Hot 100 artist of the 2010s decade. In 2014, Time magazine's pop stardom ranking metric ranked Rihanna second in history, based on all-time chart performance and contemporary significance.
Rihanna has become a dominating figure on social media and internet streaming, ranking at No. 1 on Forbes' 2012 list of Social Networking Superstars. In 2013, Rihanna was also named the most influential pop star in the United Kingdom by UK channel 4Music. Rihanna's work has directly influenced numerous artists such as Lorde, Sam Smith, Little Mix, Rita Ora, Billie Eilish, Selena Gomez, Justin Bieber, Ellie Goulding, Kim Petras, Jennie from Blackpink, Marilyn Manson, Jessie J, SZA, Fifth Harmony, Camila Cabello, Demi Lovato, Alexandra Stan, Grimes, Sleater-Kinney, Tegan and Sara, Cover Drive, Cher Lloyd, Bad Gyal, and Era Istrefi.
Rihanna has an honorary title of Ambassador for Culture and Youth in Barbados. On February 22, 2008, former Barbados Prime Minister David Thompson launched the national "Rihanna Day" in their country. Although it is not a bank holiday, Barbadians celebrate it every year in honour of Rihanna. In February 2017, Rihanna was named Harvard University's "Humanitarian of the Year" by the Harvard Foundation. During Rihanna's third annual "Diamond Ball", former U.S. president Barack Obama, praised Rihanna's work and stated: "[She's] become a powerful force in the fight to give people dignity." On September 20, 2018, Rihanna was appointed by the government of Barbados to be an Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, with special duties of promoting "education, tourism and investment for the island." As of 2021, Rihanna is the world's wealthiest female musician with an estimated net worth of $1.7 billion. She was also listed among Forbes' Top 100 Most Powerful Women of 2019. In 2020, she debuted on the Sunday Times Rich List, claiming third place on the list of Britain's richest musicians.
At the 2020 NAACP Image Awards, hosted by BET, Rihanna accepted the President's Award from Derrick Johnson. Johnson stated that "Rihanna has not only enjoyed a groundbreaking career as an artist and musician but has also distinguished herself as a stellar public servant. From her business achievements through Fenty to her tremendous record as an activist and philanthropist, Rihanna epitomizes the type of character, grace, and devotion to justice that we seek to highlight in our President's Award."
Business career
Rihanna's first fragrance, Reb'l Fleur, was released in January 2011. According to Rolling Stone, Reb'l Fleur was a financial success and was expected to gross US$80 million at retail by the end of 2011. Rihanna's second fragrance, Rebelle, was released in February 2012. The promotional campaign for Rebelle, was shot by director, Anthony Mandler, who also shot the promotional campaign for Reb'l Fleur. In November 2012, Rihanna released her third fragrance, Nude. Rihanna's fourth women's fragrance, titled Rogue was released on September 14, 2013, followed by a male version entitled Rogue Men which was released in 2014.
On March 30, 2015, it was announced that Rihanna is a co-owner, with various other music artists, in the music streaming service Tidal. The service specializes in lossless audio and high definition music videos. Jay-Z acquired the parent company of Tidal, Aspiro, in the first quarter of 2015. Including Beyoncé and Jay-Z, sixteen artist stakeholders (such as Kanye West, Beyoncé, Madonna, Chris Martin, Nicki Minaj and more) co-own Tidal, with the majority owning a 3% equity stake. "The challenge is to get everyone to respect music again, to recognize its value", stated Jay-Z on the release of Tidal. In 2016, it was revealed that Rihanna would be releasing her music through her own label Westbury Road Entertainment, which was established in 2005. Westbury Road is the name of her Barbados residence. The music would be distributed through Universal Music Group. Westbury Road Entertainment's artist roster includes Melissa Forde as the label's photographer, and KazeLoon.
In November 2015, Rihanna and Benoit Demouy launched a beauty and stylist agency named Fr8me. The business based in Los Angeles was set up in order to assist artists in booking commercials, editorial shoots, ad campaigns, and red-carpet appearances. Rihanna stated, "Hair, makeup, and styling play an important role in creativity; I am very involved with that part of my process, so this agency was an organic thing for me to do." The roster includes Rihanna's makeup artist Mylah Morales, wardrobe stylist Jason Bolden, hairstylist Patricia Morales and Marcia Hamilton. In addition to Fr8me, Rihanna opened a photo agency called "A Dog Ate My Homework", which represents photographers Erik Asla and Deborah Anderson.
Fenty
Fenty was a fashion brand by Rihanna under the luxury fashion group LVMH, which launched in May 2019. She was the first woman to create an original brand for LVMH and also the first woman of color to lead an LVMH brand. The house launched in a pop-up store on May 22, 2019, in Paris, before launching worldwide online on May 29 and included clothing, accessories, and footwear. It was the first line that LVMH had launched since 1987. The fashion brand was described as groundbreaking, and in a statement regarding the launch, Rihanna said that she had been given a "unique opportunity to develop a fashion house in the luxury sector, with no artistic limits." Due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, in February 2021, Rihanna and LVMH decided to "put on hold" her Fenty fashion house and continue building on the SavagexFenty lingerie line.
Rihanna exclusively uses her surname for business endeavors not related to her music career so as not to conflate the two. In January 2019, Rihanna filed a lawsuit against her father, Ronald Fenty, over the use of the Fenty name for commercial purposes. The lawsuit alleges Rihanna's cosmetics brand, Fenty Beauty, was damaged commercially by her father's company, Fenty Entertainment, through misrepresentation of his company being affiliated with her. In September 2021 Rihanna dropped the lawsuit against her father.
Fenty Beauty
In 2017, Rihanna launched her critically acclaimed cosmetics company Fenty Beauty under LVMH's Kendo Brands. Rihanna owns 50 percent of Fenty Beauty, according to Forbes. The partnership was worth $10 million and would see Rihanna release various beauty products. The first installment of Fenty Beauty was released on September 8, 2017, in stores and online, available in over 150 countries. It included an array of products including foundations, highlighters, bronzers, blush compacts, lip glosses and blotting sheets and was praised for its diverse range for all skin colours. Time magazine named Fenty Beauty as one of "The 25 Best Inventions of 2017", citing the breadth of its range. In what has been dubbed the "Fenty Effect", the brand revolutionized the way other cosmetic brands approached diversity in marketing and product formulation: "Suddenly beauty houses – niche, establishment and those in between – began extending their shade ranges to accommodate a wider variety of skin tones. Forty shades became the new standard."
Fenty Skin
In July 2020, Rihanna launched a skin care brand called Fenty Skin.
Other ventures
Rihanna has ventured into other businesses and industries. In October 2005, Rihanna struck an endorsement deal with Secret Body Spray. In 2010, Rihanna featured in the Optus commercial, in conjunction with Optus supporting Rihanna's Last Girl on Earth. The same year Rihanna also featured in the Kodak commercial along with rapper Pitbull. In October 2010, she released a photo book featuring photos from the Last Girl on Earth tour and served as an accompaniment to her fourth studio album Rated R (2009). In 2011, Rihanna was the face of Nivea and Vita Coco.
Her first television program, Styled to Rock, premiered in the UK in August 2012 on Sky Living. In the 10-week series, Rihanna, Nicola Roberts, Lysa Cooper and Henry Holland assist up-and-coming British designers with their clothing lines. The US version of Styled to Rock premiered on October 25, 2013, on Bravo. In 2013, Rihanna collaborated with MAC Cosmetics and released her own summer, fall and holiday lines of makeup called "RiRi hearts MAC". In July 2013, lager production company Budweiser announced that Rihanna had become a part of their global "Made For Music" campaign, also co-starring Jay-Z.
Early in her career, Rihanna made clear her interest in fashion and desire to work in the clothing design industry. Regarding this, she said, "Fashion has always been my defense mechanism". In November 2011, Rihanna announced her first fashion venture with Armani. In February 2013, Rihanna presented her first women's fashion collection at London Fashion Week for British brand River Island, collaborating with her personal stylist Adam Selman. They published three more collections for the brand. Rihanna then collaborated with numerous fashion house's including Dior, Stance and Manolo Blahnik. In March 2015, Rihanna was chosen as the new face of Dior; making her the first black woman to be the face of the brand.
In 2014, Rihanna became the creative director of the fashion sportswear Puma, overseeing the brand's women's line which will include collaborations in apparel and footwear. The following year, Rihanna released her first trainer with Puma and it sold out online within three hours of its pre-sale launch. Over the next two years, Rihanna released various other footwear in different colorways and styles, which were all met positively by both critics and buyers. 2016 saw Rihanna debut her first clothing line in collaboration with Puma at New York Fashion Week; the collection was met with rave reviews from fashion critics.
Acting career
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Rihanna made her acting debut in a cameo role in the straight-to-DVD film Bring It On: All or Nothing, released in August 2006. Rihanna starred as Petty Officer (GM2) Cora Raikes in her first theatrical feature film Battleship, which was released on May 18, 2012. Loosely based on the game of the same name, both the film and Rihanna's performance received mixed-to-negative reviews; the New York Times said she was "just fine in the rather generic role". In 2015, Rihanna appeared in the voice role of Tip in the animated feature film Home alongside Jim Parsons and Jennifer Lopez; the film was based on The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex.
Rihanna played the recurring role of Marion Crane in the fifth and final season of Bates Motel. The show received universal acclaim from critics. Rihanna also had a major role in the Luc Besson film Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, an adaptation of the comic book series Valérian and Laureline. Also starring Dane DeHaan and Cara Delevingne, the film was released by STX Entertainment on July 21, 2017, in the US Rihanna was one of the all-female cast in the heist film Ocean's 8, directed by Gary Ross and released by Warner Bros. on June 8, 2018. The movie grossed $300 million worldwide and became a major box office success.
In August 2018, it had been reported that Rihanna had been filming a secret project in Cuba titled Guava Island throughout that summer alongside Donald Glover. Glover's Atlanta collaborator Hiro Murai was directing, with Letitia Wright and Nonso Anozie also involved. The trailer for the full-length movie premiered on November 24 at the PHAROS festival in New Zealand. The exact details project were not announced until April 2019 when advertisements for Guava Island appeared on Spotify indicating something happening on "Saturday Night | April 13". It was later revealed Amazon Studios would distribute the film and Regency Enterprises had financed the film, which was released on April 13.
Philanthropy
In 2006, she created her Believe Foundation to help terminally ill children. In 2007, Rihanna was named as one of the Cartier Love Charity Bracelet Ambassadors, with each celebrity representing a different global charity. To help raise awareness and combat HIV/AIDS, Rihanna and other public figures designed clothing for the February 2008 H&M Fashion Against AIDS line. In 2008, Rihanna performed a series of charity concerts entitled A Girl's Night Out to benefit the Believe Foundation. The concerts were made free for the public. Money from sponsors and advertisers were to be donated to provide medical supplies, school supplies and toys to children in need. In September 2008, Rihanna contributed to the song "Just Stand Up!" with fifteen other female artists, who shared the stage to perform the song live on September 5, 2008, during the "Stand Up to Cancer" television special. The proceeds from the single were given to the fundraiser. The television special helped raise $100 million for cancer research.
Rihanna founded the Clara Lionel Foundation (CLF) in 2012, in honor of her grandparents, Clara and Lionel Braithwaite. Programs include the Clara Braithwaite Center for Oncology and Nuclear Medicine at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Barbados, and education programs. The CLF hosts an annual Diamond Ball charity fundraiser event. The inaugural event in 2014 raised over $2 million and the second raised over $3 million. On February 12, 2012, Rihanna performed a benefit show at the House of Blues to raise money for the Children's Orthopaedic Center and the Mark Taper-Johnny Mercer Artists Program at Children's Hospital. In November 2012, Rihanna gave $100,000 to food bank donation for Hurricane Sandy. On January 3, 2014, Rihanna was part of the MAC Viva Glam campaign, which benefits women, men and children living with HIV/AIDS. In March 2020, Rihanna donated $5,000,000 to COVID-19 relief and followed that up with additional donations of personal protective equipment to the state of New York and an offer of $700,000 worth of ventilators to her home country Barbados. In April 2020, Rihanna further donated an additional $2,100,000, matching Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey for a total of $4,200,000, to provide support and resources to individuals and children suffering from domestic violence amid the lockdown.
Personal life
Rihanna owns a $14 million penthouse in Lower Manhattan. 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 sold for $10.4m.
Forbes began reporting on Rihanna's earnings in 2012.
Rihanna began dating American singer Chris Brown in 2007. After their relationship ended in February 2009, she entered an on-again off-again relationship with Canadian rapper Drake, which lasted from 2009 to 2016. During an interview with Rolling Stone in January 2013, Rihanna confirmed that she had rekindled her relationship with Brown. Their reunion followed persistent media speculation that occurred throughout 2012. In May 2013, Brown stated during an interview that he and Rihanna had broken up again. In 2017, Rihanna began dating Saudi businessman Hassan Jameel. They split in January 2020.
On May 19, 2021, American rapper ASAP Rocky confirmed during an interview with GQ that he and Rihanna are currently in a relationship. On January 31, 2022, it was revealed that the couple were expecting their first child. On May 19, 2022, it was confirmed that Rihanna had given birth to a son.
Awards and achievements
As of September 2018[update], 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 honors, 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. 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[update], 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.
Discography
- 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)
Selected filmography
- Bring It On: All or Nothing (2006)
- Battleship (2012)
- This Is the End (2013)
- Home (2015)
- Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017)
- Ocean's 8 (2018)
- Guava Island (2019)
Tours
As a headliner
- Rihanna: Live in Concert (2006)
- Good Girl Gone Bad Tour (2007–2009)
- Last Girl on Earth Tour (2010–2011)
- Loud Tour (2011)
- Diamonds World Tour (2013)
- Anti World Tour (2016)
- TBA Worldwide Stadium Tour (2023)
As a co-headliner
- The Monster Tour (with Eminem) (2014)
Promotional tours
- A Girl's Night Out (2008; a series of charity concerts to benefit the "Believe Foundation")
- 777 Tour (2012; in support of her seventh studio album Unapologetic)
See also
- Culture of Barbados
- Music of Barbados
- Honorific nicknames in popular music
- List of Billboard Social 50 number-one artists
- List of Billboard Hot 100 chart achievements and milestones
- Rihanna (given name)
