Rihanna Biography

This Rihanna biography will give you a little insight into the young singer from Barbados who has topped music charts since she was a teenager. A little luck and a lot of musical talent and beauty have led her to fame, fortune and fashion icon status, as well as the tabloid pages with both scary and sultry stories from her personal life. Whatever the past, her future seems simply a matter of what she chooses to conquer next.

Born in 1988, Robyn Rihanna Fenty grew up in St. Michael, Barbados. Her parents divorced when Rihanna was only fourteen, due in no small part to her father’s addiction to crack cocaine. By fifteen, Rihanna had already won local beauty pageants and was singing with a girls group she formed with classmates. Luckily for her, New York producer Evan Rodgers was vacationing on the islands and immediately recognized her talents and brought her to Connecticut to work on a demo recording. Rodgers then brought Rihanna to Def Jam Records, and its CEO, Jay-Z.

In 2005, she released her first single, “Pon de Replay.”  The single quickly reached Billboard’s number two spot and led to a concert tour with Gwen Stefani that same year. In 2006, she released her second album “A Girl Like Me”, a hit big that earned her Billboard’s Female Artist of the Year award. Her success also brought the first wave of tabloid attention with rumors of an affair with Jay-Z, who was dating Beyonce at the time. Her music didn’t suffer, as “Good Girl Gone Bad,” her third album had three “Hot 100” hits, and sold in the millions worldwide, and earned her MTV’s VMA for Video of the Year. The hit single “Umbrella” brought the then 19-year old, her first Grammy. Clearly not a one-hit wonder, Rihanna continues to dominate the music scene with best-selling albums and singles, and collaborations with top tier talent like Jay-Z, Eminem, and Kanye West.

In 2007, Rihanna started displaying an edgier style, while also finding a place in the fashion world. Along with honors like People Magazine’s Most Beautiful issue, and in the top ten of Maxim magazine’s Hot 100, she signed a profitable contract with Cover Girl cosmetics. In 2008, she started appearing on fashion magazine covers like Elle and Cosmo, and has been rumored to be paid as much as $100,000 to attend fashion shows. Her beauty mixed with a risk-taking sense of style made her a star of the glamour set as well.

All that attention inevitably led to interest in her dating life. In 2008, she was thought to be dating actor Josh Harnett, but then tabloid reporters noticed that she was often seen with fellow singer, Chris Brown. After the obligatory explanation of friendship, the couple admitted the relationship, which seemed like a perfect match of youth, fame and music. As she then described it to Allure magazine, “I have to act and think like an adult so much. He makes me feel young again." Until February 2009, that is, when an argument led to physical attack on her. The brutal photo evidence of her swollen face was soon everywhere. Brown apologized, and was sentenced to probation, community service and counseling. Rihanna tried to keep the issue private, but did eventually grant an interview to Diane Sawyer to show other women that it could happen to anyone. Brown’s public image understandably suffered. Rihanna moved onto baseball player, Matt Kemp, and has also alluded to her interest in same sex explorations after their break-up.  

In February 2011, Forbes Magazine estimated her worth at $143 million. After already topping 62 million records since her debut, Rihanna released another bestseller with “Loud,” her fifth album. She also launched Rihanna Entertainment, and donned a flashy new red-headed style. With her conquest of the music and fashion worlds, it’s little surprise that she is now headed to the movies. She has been cast in the big budget “Battleship,” a science fiction epic. As with her many other ventures, she will undoubtedly shine bright.