Rihanna
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.
Early Life
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."
Songs
In January 2005, Rogers landed Rihanna an audition for Def Jam Records and its newly
minted president, the legendary rapper Jay-Z. "I was in the lobby just shaking," she
recalled. However, once Rihanna opened her voice to sing she regained her composure. "I
remember staring into everybody's eyes in the room while I was singing, and at that point, I
was fearless," she said. "But the minute I stopped singing, I was like, 'Oh my God, Jay-Z is
sitting right in front of me.'" The hip-hop icon was every bit as wowed by Rihanna's
commanding presence as Rogers had been two years earlier, and he signed her on the spot.
"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."
Movies
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.
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.
