Rihanna

Rihanna is a Barbadian singer, businesswoman, and actress who has become one of the best-selling music artists of all time and a global fashion icon . Born Robyn Rihanna Fenty in Saint Michael, Barbados, she was the eldest of three children . Her parents divorced when she was 14, and she found solace in pop and reggae music, beginning to sing at age seven . At 15, she met record producers Evan Rogers and Carl Sturken while they were on vacation in Barbados, leading to a demo tape and eventually a meeting with Jay-Z . She signed with Def Jam Recordings at age 16 in 2005 .

Rihanna found mainstream recognition with her first two studio albums, Music of the Sun (2005) and A Girl Like Me (2006), both influenced by Caribbean music . Her third album, Good Girl Gone Bad (2007), incorporated dance-pop elements and established her as a pop icon. Its lead single, "Umbrella" featuring Jay-Z, peaked atop the Billboard Hot 100 and won her first Grammy Award . She continued to blend pop and dance influences in subsequent albums including Rated R (2009), Loud (2010), Talk That Talk (2011), and Unapologetic (2012)—the latter of which topped the Billboard 200 . Her eighth album, Anti (2016), showcased new creative control following her departure from Def Jam in favor of Jay-Z's label, Roc Nation .

Beyond music, Rihanna has achieved mogul status with several lucrative business ventures . She established the Clara Lionel Foundation in 2012 to support health and education projects worldwide , launched the cosmetics brand Fenty Beauty, the lingerie line Savage X Fenty, and the fashion house Fenty under LVMH—becoming the first Black woman to lead a luxury brand for LVMH . She has also acted in major film roles including Battleship (2012), Home (2015), Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017), and Ocean's 8 (2018) .

Rihanna has won 9 Grammy Awards from 34 nominations and has 14 number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100 . She is noted as the best-selling female recording artist of the 21st century by Guinness World Records and the highest-certified female digital single artist by the RIAA . In 2018, the Government of Barbados appointed her as an ambassador, and in 2021 declared her a National Hero of Barbados . She is in a relationship with rapper A$AP Rocky, with whom she has two sons: RZA Athelston Mayers (born May 2022) and Riot Rose Mayers (born August 2023) .