HOME
HISTORY
BRANDS
CREDITS

HISTORY

1988-PRESENT

BIOGRAPHY

CAREER & PATHWAY

it’s hard to believe that rihanna is only 31 years old. yet within the 10 years since the start of her musical career, she’s become the youngest solo artist to score 14 no. 1 singles on the billboard hot 100—the fastest to do so—she’s sold more than 54 million albums and 210 million tracks worldwide. rihanna is the “best selling digital artist of all time… with more than 100 million [riaa] gold & platinum song certifications” and an eight-time grammy award winner who also counts 14 billboard music awards among other countless music accolades. aside from her musical achievements, rihanna is bona fide business woman with multiple entrepreneurial ventures. however, most importantly, her undeniable cultural influence has forever imprinted her in history as a global icon despite her young age.

Learn More

EARLY LIFE

1988-2003

Robyn Rihanna Fenty was born on February 20, 1988, in Saint Michael, Barbados, the daughter of accountant Monica (née Braithwaite) and warehouse supervisor Ronald Fenty. She is of Afro-Barbadian, Afro-Guyanese and Irish 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. Her childhood was deeply affected by her father's alcoholism and crack cocaine addiction, which contributed to her parents' strained marriage. Rihanna's father used to beat her mother and she would try to get in between them to break up fights.[9]As a child, Rihanna had many CT scans for the excruciating headaches she suffered: "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 High School, where she studied alongside future international cricketers Chris Jordan and Carlos Brathwaite. Rihanna was an army cadet in a sub-military programme, where the later singer-songwriter Shontelle was her drill sergeant. Although she initially wanted to graduate from high school, she chose to pursue a musical career instead. In 2003, Rihanna formed a musical trio with two of her classmates. She was discovered in her home country of Barbados by American record producer Evan Rogers. Without a name or any material, the girl group managed to land an audition with Rogers who commented, "The minute Rihanna walked into the room, it was like the other two girls didn't exist."[7] Rihanna went to Rogers's hotel room, where she performed renditions of Destiny's Child's "Emotion" and Mariah Carey's "Hero". 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' and Carl Sturken's production company, Syndicated Rhythm Productions.

Learn More

BEGINNINGS AND EARLY RELEASES

2004-2006

Rihanna's demo was shipped out to Def Jam Recordings, where Jay Brown, an A&R executive at the record label, was one of the first to hear the demo. Brown played the demo tape for rapper Jay-Z, who had recently been appointed as president and CEO of Def Jam. When Jay-Z first heard the track "Pon de Replay", he felt the song was too big for her. Despite being skeptical, he invited Rihanna to audition for the label. In early 2005, Rihanna auditioned for Def Jam in New York City, where Jay-Z introduced her to music mogul Antonio "L.A." Reid. At the audition, she sang Whitney Houston's cover of "For the Love of You", as well as the demo tracks "Pon de Replay" and "The Last Time". Jay-Z was absolutely certain about signing her after she performed her future hit single "Pon de Replay".[19] His boss L.A. Reid was also impressed with her audition, telling Jay-Z not to let Rihanna leave the building until the contract was signed. Reid left it to Jay-Z and his team to close the deal which resulted in a six-album record deal with Def Jam. She waited in Jay-Z's office until three in the morning to get lawyers to draft up a contract because he wanted to prevent her from signing with another label. Rihanna canceled other meetings with record labels and relocated from Barbados to the United States to live with Rogers and his wife. Rihanna performing at the KIIS-FM Jingle Ball, December 2006. After signing with Def Jam, Jay-Z and his team did the A&R for Rihanna's debut album and spent the next three months recording and completing her debut album. She worked with different producers to complete her debut studio album, primarily Rogers and his production partner Carl Sturken. With several songs to pick as a lead single, "Pon de Replay" was chosen because it seemed like the best song suited for a summer release. 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 U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart and the UK Singles Chart. The song became a big club hit in the United States, peaking at No. 1 on the Billboard Dance Club Songs.

Learn More

NEW IMAGE

2007-2008

In early 2007, Rihanna appeared on the single "Roll It" with Jamaican band J-Status and fellow Barbadian singer-songwriter Shontelle. The song appeared on J-Status' debut album The Beginning, released in several European countries only. Around that time, Rihanna had already begun work on her third studio album, Good Girl Gone Bad. With the help of producers Timbaland, Tricky Stewart and Sean Garrett she embraced a new musical direction through uptempo dance tracks. Released in May 2007, the album charted at No. 2 in Australia and the US and topped the charts in multiple countries, including Brazil, Canada, Ireland and the UK.The album received the most positive critical reviews of her first three albums. The lead single, "Umbrella", topped the charts in 13 countries and remained at No. 1 in the UK for 10 consecutive weeks, the longest-running No. 1 single there since Wet Wet Wet's single "Love Is All Around" spent 15 weeks at the top in 1994. It was Rihanna's first single to be named one of the best-selling singles worldwide, with sales of over 8 million copies. The songs "Shut Up and Drive", "Hate That I Love You" (featuring Ne-Yo) and "Don't Stop the Music" were also released as singles, with the latter becoming an international hit. In support of the album, Rihanna began the Good Girl Gone Bad Tour in September 2007, with 80 shows across the US, Canada and Europe. Rihanna was nominated for several 2008 Grammy Awards for Good Girl Gone Bad, winning Best Rap/Sung Collaboration for "Umbrella" alongside Jay-Z, her first Grammy Award. Released Good Girl Gone Bad Live, her first live long-form video. The DVD and Blu-ray release featured Rihanna's concert at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, United Kingdom, held on December 6, 2007 as part of the Good Girl Gone Bad Tour. The release also contained a special documentary that presented Rihanna discussing her experiences during the tour. By late 2008, Rihanna still remained on the charts with the release of the fifth single from Good Girl Gone Bad, "Rehab", and was named "Diva of the Year" by Entertainment Weekly for her "newfound staying power". In August 2008, Rihanna and a host of other female singers recorded the charity single "Just Stand Up!", the theme song to the anti-cancer campaign Stand Up to Cancer. "Live Your Life", a duet between T.I. and Rihanna, was released that November and topped the Billboard Hot 100.

Learn More

ANNUAL RELEASES AND COLLABORATIONS

2009-2011

In early 2009, Rihanna began working on her fourth studio album, Rated R. Rated R was released in November 2009. The album had Rolling Stone magazine stating that Rihanna "transformed her sound and made one of the best pop records of the year". Rated R featured a darker and more foreboding tone than Rihanna's previous albums. Rated R debuted at No. 4 on the US Billboard 200 chart. The album was supported by six singles, including "Rude Boy", which was the biggest worldwide success from the album, topping the US Billboard Hot 100 for six weeks and reaching top 10 positions in 22 other countries. 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. In late 2010, she was featured on three singles: Kanye West's "All of the Lights", from the album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010), Nicki Minaj's "Fly", from her debut studio album Pink Friday and David Guetta's "Who's That Chick?", from the album One More Love (2010).Loud, Rihanna's fifth studio album, was released in November 2010. Rihanna's sixth album, Talk That Talk, was released in November 2011.

Learn More

CONTINUED SUCCESS

2012-2014

In early 2012, two collaborations featuring Rihanna were released: Coldplay's "Princess of China", from their album Mylo Xyloto, and Drake's "Take Care", from his album of the same name. In February 2012, Rihanna won her third Grammy Award for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration at the 2012 Grammy Awards for her Kanye West collaboration "All of the Lights" and was voted the Best International Female Solo Artist at the 2012 BRIT Awards for the second consecutive year. March 2012 saw the simultaneous releases of two collaborations between Rihanna and Chris Brown: remixes of her song "Birthday Cake" and his "Turn Up the Music". The recordings received mainly negative responses due to the pair's history of domestic violence. In September 2012, "We Found Love" won the MTV Video Music Award for Video of the Year, making Rihanna the first woman to receive the accolade more than once.Rihanna's seventh studio album, Unapologetic, was released in November 2012. 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). 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).

Learn More

STANDALONE RELEASES

2015-2017

A year after Rihanna began working on her eighth studio album, the single "FourFiveSeconds" was released, which featured Rihanna paired up with Kanye West and Paul McCartney. Two further singles followed its release: "Bitch Better Have My Money" and "American Oxygen"; neither made the final track listing for Rihanna's eighth studio album. During the creation of the album, Rihanna ventured into other endeavours and 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 also released a concept album soundtrack for the film. Rihanna performing on the Anti World Tour in 2016. In late 2015, Rihanna inked a $25 million contract with Samsung that would see her promoting Samsung's Galaxy line of products whilst Samsung would sponsor the release of her eighth studio album and its supporting tour. The Anti World Tour was announced in November 2015 and began in March 2016, with Travis Scott supporting in North America and Big Sean supporting at selected European dates. In 2016, Rihanna was featured on several singles. The first collaboration single was Kanye West's "Famous", where Rihanna provided uncredited guest vocals. She was then officially featured on Calvin Harris' "This Is What You Came For", which was a success. Rihanna was also featured on Drake's "Too Good" and on Mike Will Made It's "Nothing Is Promised". In June 2016, Rihanna released "Sledgehammer", a single from the Star Trek Beyond movie soundtrack. On August 28, 2016, Rihanna was honored with the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award at the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards after performing various medleys of her hit songs. Rihanna released several collaborations in 2017. In November 2017, Rihanna was part of N.E.R.D's comeback single "Lemon" from the band's album No One Ever Really Dies.

Learn More

UPCOMING NINTH STUDIO ALBUM

2018

Rihanna officially revealed that she had begun work on her ninth studio album, just months after releasing Anti. In October 2017, Shakka revealed that he was working with Rihanna on her "absolutely insane" album. In December 2018, Rihanna confirmed that the album will be released in 2019.

Learn More

PRESENT

2019

In August 2019, fans noticed Rihanna and co-songwriters Collin Edwards, Monique Lawrence, and Alexander Ogunmokun registered a song titled Private Loving with the music publishing organization Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI). In September 2019, it was announced she had signed with Sony/ATV Music Publishing.

Learn More