Rihanna
Robyn Rihanna Fenty, is popularly called Rihanna, she is a Barbadian recording
artist, actress, and fashion designer.
She was born in Saint Michael, Barbados on February 20, 1988 in a parish to
Ronald Fenty and Monica Braithwaite.
Her father Ronald Fenty is a warehouse supervisor from Barbadian while her
mother Afro-Guyanese is an accountant.
Rihanna has two brothers, Roney and Rajad Fenty, and two half-sisters and a
half-brother from her father’s side, each born by different mothers from his
previous relationships.
Her parents’ marriage ended when Rihanna was 14 due to her father’s addiction
to crack cocaine, alcohol and marijuana.
Rihanna suffered a rough early year, living in a three-bedroom bungalow in
Bridgetown and selling clothes with her father on a street stall.
She attended Charles F. Broome Memorial Primary School and later went to
Combermere High School, where she formed a musical trio with two of her
classmates.
She was an army cadet in a sub-military programme, where songwriter and singer
Shontelle was her drill sergeant.
She began listening to reggae music and started singing at the age of seven,
but she began her career in music as a result of her meeting with record
producer Evan Rogers in late 2003.
At the age of 16, she moved to the United States to pursue a music career and
began recording demo tapes under Roger’s guidance and was later signed on Def
Jam Records by Rapper Jay Z.
Rihanna’s musical career began through Carl Starken and Evan Rogers whom she
met in December 2003. She did renditions of “Emotion” and “Hero”. Having
impressed Rogers, he took her on trips to New York where she recorded demo
tapes that was sent to record labels.
In February 2005, the CEO and president of Def Jam Recordings, Jay Z requested
to meet Rihanna and she auditioned for him, performing Whitney Houston’s “For
the Love of You” and her “Pon de Replay” and “The Last Time”. On the same day
Rihanna signed a six-album record deal with Def Jam Recordings and she
relocated to New York to live with Rogers and his wife.
She later spent three months recording and completing her debut album and
collaborated with Memphis Black on his fourth studio album 534.
Her debut single “Pon de Replay” was released on August 22, 2005, it peaked at
number two on both US Billboard Hot 100 and UK singles chart.
Days later, her debut album “Music of the Sun” was released and it sold over
two million copies worldwide and received a Gold certification by the
Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
In October 2005, Rihanna struck an endorsement deal with Secret Body Spray,
her first of many.
In 2006 April, less than eight months after her first, Rihanna released her
second studio album. Its lead single, “SOS” charted in the top five in Canada,
Ireland, New Zealand and UK and reached number one in the United States and
Australia.
The album entered charts across the world, peaking at number one in Canada and
at number five in both UK and the US, where it sold 115,000 copies in its
first week.
Her third studio album, “Good Girl Gone Bad” was first released in May 2007.
The album topped the charts in multiple countries including the UK, Brazil,
Canada, Ireland, Japan, Russia and number two in the US and Australia.
The album’s lead single “Umbrella” topped the charts in thirteen countries and
stayed at number one in the UK for ten consecutive weeks, this made it the
longest-running number one single since Wet Wet Wet’s song “Love is all
around” spent fifteen weeks at the top in 1994. It became Rihanna’s first
single to be named one of the best-selling singles worldwide, having sold over
6.6 million singles since being released.
In September 2007 she became the official face of tourism for Barbados and
subsequently featured in many of their advertising campaigns, she holds the
honorary title of Ambassador for Culture and Youth in Barbados.
Her fourth studio album “Rated R” was released in November 2009. The album’s
lead single, “Russian Roulette” received commercial success, reaching number
one in Norway and Switzerland and making the top ten in sixteen other
countries. This was followed by the release of “Hard” in the spring of 2010.
Her fifth album was “Loud” with lead single “Only Girl” (In the world)”
reached number one in fifteen countries worldwide including Australia, Canada,
UK and US. The album’s second single, “What’s my name?” featuring Drake, also
reached number one in both the US and UK, making Rihanna the first female solo
artist to have five number one singles in the UK in consecutive years. The
song reached number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 before “Only Girl (In the
world), making it the first time in the chart’s history that an album’s lead
single reached number one after the second. The third single, “S&M” also
reached number one in the US after the release of it’s official remix
featuring Britney Spears. It became Rihanna’s tenth US number one single on
the chart tying with Janet Jackson in the fourth place for female soloists who
have topped the chart.
Collaborations
She did “Just Stand Up!” in August 2008 with Beyonce Knowles, Mary J Blige,
Mariah Carey and host of other female singers, the same song to the ant—cancer
campaign stand up to cancer.
In 2009 Rihanna collaborated with Jay-Z and
Kanye West on “Run This Town”
which peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100, number one in the UK, and
reached the top ten in ten other countries after it’s July 2009 release.
During the summer of 2010, she collaborated with Rapper Eminem on “Love the
way you lie”, which was a major worldwide success, reaching number one in over
twenty countries worldwide. The song became Rihanna’s seventh US number one of
her career, making her the female artist with the fifth-most number ones in
the charts history. Despite reaching number two, the song became the biggest
selling song of 2010 in the UK, and first of Rihanna’s singles to sell over
one million copies in the country.
Rihanna’s sixth album ‘Talk That Talk’ was released in November 2011. The lead
single, “We Found Love”, topped charts in twenty-five countries worldwide,
peaking in the top ten in thirty countries and breaking s string of record
worldwide. It topped Billboard Hot 100 for ten non-consecutive weeks and
became Rihanna’s longest running number one single as well as the longest
running number one single of 2011.
She starred as petty officer (GM2) Cora Packes in her first theatrical feature
film Battleship which was released on May 18, 2012
Statistics
Rihanna has an amazing height of 1.73m, 63.5kg weight.
Awards
On February 20, 2008, Barbadian Prime Minister David Thompson presented the
singer with several gifts of national concert in an event named “Rihanna Day”
At the 52nd Grammy Awards, “Run this town” won “Best Rap Song” and “Best
Rap/Song Collaboration”
Best Dance Recording at the 53rd Grammy Awards for “Only Girl (In the World)”
In 2012 she won her third Grammy Award for Best Rap/Song Co
The 2008 Grammy Awards for the Best Rap/Song Collaboration for “Umbrella”
alongside Jay-Z
llaboration, while also voted the “Best International Female Solo Artist” at
the 2012 BRIT Awards for the second consecutive year.
She received a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst supporting Actress and a Teen
Choice Award.
Net Worth
In 2009, Rihanna said she was "effectively bankrupt", due to gross
mismanagement from accountant Peter Gounis of Berdon LLP. Rihanna was given
the go ahead to buy a property priced between $7 and $7.5 million. The
property was later sold for a $2 million loss. Her expenses also "doubled"
during this time. Rihanna was also losing money from her Last Girl on Earth
Tour but she was never warned of this by the accountants.
According to the New York Post, Rihanna filed a lawsuit against Gunis and the
firm Berdon LLP for $35 million but settled out of court for more than $10
million. Forbes began reporting on Rihanna's earnings in 2012, calculating
that she earned $53 million between May 2011 and May 2012, for her music,
tour, and endorsements. In 2013, Rihanna came in at number thirteen on the
list with a total earning of $43 million due to endorsements such as vita
coco. By November 2013, Rihanna's total net-worth was an estimated $90
million. In 2015 Rihanna earned $26 million, which resulted in her net-worth
rising to $160 million by 2016.
Source: Wikipedia
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