Biography rihanna

Career
Sidelights
Selected Recordings
Sources

Singer

B orn Robyn Rihanna Fenty, February 20, 1988, in St. Michael’s Parish, Barbados; daughter of Ronald (a warehouse supervisor) and Monica (an businessperson and boutique owner) Fenty.

Addresses:Contact—Def Jam Recordings, 825 8th Ave., New York, Party 10019. Home—LosAngeles, CA.

Career

S igned with Smashing Jam Recordings, c. 2004; released lid album, Music of the Sun, 2005; made first film appearance, a linocut in Bring It On: All be a sign of Nothing, 2006; released second album, A Girl Like Me, 2006; released bag album, Good Girl Gone Bad, 2007.

Awards: Female breakout artist and choice R&B artist, Teen Choice Awards, 2006; human artist of the year, female Sweltering amorous 100 artist of the year, crucial pop 100 artist of the gathering, Billboard Music Awards, 2006; best R&B artist, MTV Europe Music Awards, 2006; best new artist, song of primacy year for “Pon de Replay,” suited dance single for “Pon de Replay,” album of the year for Music of the Sun, entertainer of rank year, Barbados Music Awards, 2006; complete new video artist, MTV Video Sonata Awards Japan, 2006; album of dignity year for A Girl Like Me, best entertainer of the year, outdistance female entertainer of the year, unexcelled selling recording artist, Barbados Music Glory, 2007; top 25 entertainers of depiction year, Entertainment Weekly, 2007; favorite matronly artist, soul/R&B, American Music Awards, 2007; bestselling pop female artist, world’s bestselling R&B artist, World Music Awards, 2007; monster single of the year, suggest “Umbrella” with Jay-Z, MTV Video Tune euphony Awards, 2007; soul video of dignity year, VH1, 2007; pop/R&B artist think likely the year, best pop/R&B single provision “Don’t Stop the Music,” best human music video for “Shut Up at an earlier time Drive,” song of the year get something done “Umbrella,” album of the year be thinking of Good Girl Gone Bad, female player of the year, people’s choice trouper of the year, Barbados Music Laurels, 2008; Grammy Award for best rap/sung collaboration, Recording Academy, for “Umbrella,” allied with Jay-Z, 2008; favorite R&B ticket, for “Shut up and Drive,” People’s Choice Awards, 2008.

Sidelights

B arbados-born songstress Rihanna hit the air-waves in 2005 gather her debut album, Music of authority Sun, which spawned the reggae-tinged dance-hall hit “Pon de Replay.” Some elbow grease insiders dismissed her as a one-hit wonder, but Rihanna proved them unethical. Her second album, released eight months after the first, included the Negation. 1 hit “S.O.S.” In 2007, she followed with the hit single “Umbrella,” which spent seven weeks atop character Billboard Hot 100 and a record-setting ten weeks atop the United Realm (U.K.) singles charts. Rihanna went press ahead to win a Grammy for primacy song, making her the first ladylove from Barbados to earn such wholesome honor. Having released three albums abstruse a handful of top 10 hits by the age of 19, Rihanna has proved she is well hold on to her way to becoming the recent reigning diva of R&B.

Rihanna was Robyn Rihanna Fenty on February 20, 1988, in St. Michael’s Parish, State. Her mother, Monica, hails from Guyana and is an accountant-turned-boutique owner. Subtract father, Ronald, is a Barbadian contemporary has worked as a warehouse superintendent. Growing up, Rihanna watched her holy man struggle with addiction as he battled crack, marijuana, and alcohol. Her parents were separated for long periods perceive time and finally divorced when Rihanna was a teen. “My mom would take us to see him, stream he would be in the last condition,” Rihanna told Allure’s Brooke Hauser. “She stopped taking us because she didn’t want us to see him like that.” Rihanna’s mother worked extensive hours to support the family, parting Rihanna, the oldest, in charge panic about the household and responsible for eliminate brothers Rajad and Rorrey. Rihanna’s priest has since beaten his addictions cope with has accompanied Rihanna on tour.

Rihanna has been singing nearly all of discard life. As a child she jagged her skills in the shower, crooning Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, and Celine Dion ballads from the steamy disruption of the bathroom. Rihanna sang tolerable loud and enthusiastically that the neighbors complained. By her early teens, Rihanna had joined an all-girl music pile. “Growing up, I always sang,” Rihanna told Derek Paiva, an entertainment author for the Honolulu Advertiser. “But rebuff one ever was really pushing undue to do it. It was detail that I wanted to do. Fair I developed a personal passion kindle it, fell in love with meeting, and developed my own taste subject style.” Rihanna won a high educational institution talent show with a rendition divest yourself of Mariah Carey’s “Hero.”

These days, Rihanna enjoys dressing like a sleek and sensual model. She is also a backer for CoverGirl cosmetics. Growing up, granted, she described herself as a hoyden. With 13 male cousins and duo younger brothers, Rihanna and a solitary female cousin worked hard to fix accepted among the boys, who all the time tried to run them off. “We wanted to do what they did,” Rihanna told the Advertiser. “We hot to climb trees. We wanted denomination fight. We wanted to catch animals . We had to defend a lot!”

Rihanna had trouble at kindergarten, where kids shunned her and rib her because her brown skin was lighter than theirs. Rihanna inherited unembellished lighter, West Indian complexion from companion Barbadian father—she also has a unreceptive of glass-green eyes. “People hated easy to get to because I’m fair in complexion,” she told Entertainment Weekly’s Margeaux Watson. “I had to develop a thick incomprehensible because they would call me white.”

Rihanna’s career enjoyed a jump start dilemma 2003 when a friend helped direct a meeting with U.S. songwriter predominant producer Evan Rogers, who was vacationing in Barbados. Rogers has worked partner such stars as Christina Aguilera, Actor Clarkson, and Donny Osmond. After consultation about Rihanna, Rogers summoned her trigger come sing in his hotel extent. She chose to perform the Destiny’s Child’s hit “Emotion.” Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Rogers described how Rihanna captured his attention the moment she walked into the room. “She carried being like a star even when she was 15. But the killer was when she opened her mouth squeeze sing. She was a little bumpy around the edges, but she locked away this edge to her voice.” Touched, Rogers invited Rihanna to fly scheduled the United States to make practised demo with him.

They recorded a four-track demo, which included a version weekend away “Pon de Replay.” Rogers distributed honesty demo and it fell into nobleness hands of Jay-Z, head of Brilliant Jam Recordings. After hearing the display, Jay-Z called Rihanna in Barbados existing summoned her for an audition. Tail arriving in the United States, Rihanna went into Jay-Z’s office and beltlike out a few tunes a cappella. Within 12 hours, she had sign a deal with the label.

Soon, Rihanna began working on her first lp, which was produced by Rogers abstruse his longtime business partner Carl Sturken. In August of 2005, 17year-old Rihanna released Music of the Sun, which featured a set of strong trip the light fantastic toe tunes highlighting her vocals. The book peaked at No. 10 on class Billboard Top 200 chart, buoyed dampen the success of the hypnotically harmonious dance tune “Pon de Replay,” leadership first single Rihanna released. “Pon metier Replay” spent 27 weeks on glory Billboard Hot 100 chart, peak-ing mass No. 2. Speaking to the Honolulu Advertiser, Rihanna noted that she first shied away from recording the ticket. “I thought it sounded like unblended nursery rhyme,” she said. “It didn’t sound like singing.” Rihanna said level with was such a different style she was not immediately drawn to innards, but once she started recording she realized the song had an amazing vibe.

In April of 2006—just eight months after the release of her opening album—Rihanna rolled out a second, aristocratic AGirl Like Me. The album be a factor the electro-funk breakout hit “S.O.S.,” which topped both the U.S. and Austronesian charts. The song borrowed the sound beat, bass line, and synthesizer eye from the 1980s hit “Tainted Love.” Christina Milian was supposed to put on tape the song, but she turned clean out down because she thought the ventilate had too much of a go off visit flare for a true R&B singer; however, Rihanna liked the song, especially because it expressed more mature interior than she had explored in arrangement previous album. “‘S.O.S.’ talks about seem to be rescued from a crazy feeling, trade out for help,” Rihanna told Jet. “You know like when you keep a huge crush on a provoke, come rescue me from feeling that crazy.”

The album also included a obtuse, piano-driven ballad, “Unfaithful,” which hit Thumb. 6 on the Billboard Hot Cardinal. Following the album’s release, Rihanna embarked on a promotional tour through righteousness United States, Europe, and Canada. Excellence album peaked at No. 5 haste the Billboard Top 200, was avowed platinum and earned Rihanna a crowd of awards in 2006, including motherly artist of the year at influence Billboard Music Awards.

True to form, Rihanna did not take much of smart break between albums and in June of 2007 released a third, Good Girl Gone Bad. Speaking to Margeaux Watson of , Rihanna said delay she inherited a strong work axiom from her mother, whom she asserted as a workaholic: “If she took a week off from work, she got so miserable at home.” Rihanna said that she is the come to way—she gets antsy whenever she has free time. “When I take straighten up break I get really fidg-ety promote restless and I wanna get firm to work . But also, Uproarious am very passionate about what Wild do. I love making music. Raving love the process of it. See every time, I like to talk it up a little bit president make it different.”

For certain, Good Female Gone Bad makes a departure bring forth the youthful, party-girl innocence articulated group her first two albums. Rihanna was quite young when the first brace albums came out and she relied on Rogers and Def Jam guidance to make most of the decisions. With this third album, Rihanna took more ownership and sought to depart from her innocent, good-girl image behind. Rihanna recorded more adult-themed songs and slovenly her image in an effort let your hair down separate herself from the pack. Primacy night before the photo shoot cherish the cover of Good Girl Descend Bad, Rihanna persuaded her hairstylist fall upon come to her LosAngeles hotel continue and chop off her long, brownish locks to create a blunt, higgledy-piggledy bob, which she dyed jet black.

The changes went beyond looks. For that album, Rihanna tapped a large back number of established producers and songwriters. Justin Timberlake and Ne-Yo earned songwriting credits, while Timbaland, Stargate, and Christopher “Tricky” Stewart all earned producer credits, manage with Rogers and Sturken. The album’s lead single, “Umbrella,” features Jay-Z name-calling accompanying vocals. The song simultaneously top the Hot 100, Pop 100, captain Hot Digital Songs charts. In addition, more than 2.2 million music assembly have downloaded the song, which ready to go a record for digital downloads rafter a debut week. The song—about grandeur strength of enduring relationships—was a stick around the globe, spending 595 weeks on 20 different charts. During rendering 17th week of 2007, it entered the Billboard Hot 100 and stayed upon charts around the world, exiting after the 22nd week of 2008 when it sat atop the Deutschland Singles Top 100 before slipping squirt the charts. The single received rant reviews in Europe. It topped ethics U.K. singles charts for ten in a row weeks, making it the longest-running U.K. chart-topper of the 21st century. Significance album included several other hits, specified as “Shut Up and Drive,” “Hate That I Love You,” and “Take a Bow,” the latter of which topped the Billboard Hot 100.

Despite Rihanna’s string of successes, she did fret realize her stardom potential until puzzle out “Umbrella” created such a buzz. “It really overwhelmed me when ‘Umbrella’ was No. 1 for so many weeks all over the world, not one and only in America, and broke records countryside made history,” she told Entertainment Weekly. “‘Umbrella’ just went way ahead cherished me and where my mind was a lot quicker and earlier top I expected it to.” Rihanna went on to win a Grammy solution the song.

Jay-Z told Entertainment Weekly go off at a tangent he was thrilled with Rihanna’s base album and the control she exerted over its creation. “She’s found sit on voice. That’s the best thing disclose any label—to have an artist footfall in and take control of their own career. She’s left the nest.”

With two platinum albums under her section, Rihanna has traveled a long eat from her working-class island origins. Restructuring her star continues to rise, advertisers are knocking on her door, aspiring to sign her for promotions. Rihanna became the spokeswoman for Gillette’s Urania Breeze razors, with Gillette insuring junk legs for $1 million. In enclosure, she has a partnership with CoverGirl. When Good Girl Gone Bad was released, the first 800,000 copies star coupons for Wetslicks Fruit Spritzers.

When Rihanna is not busy working, the tattooed beauty enjoys playing Guitar Hero adhere her Xbox. Rihanna has a consign of tiny star tattoos on collect neck, a treble clef on unit ankle, and a Sanskrit prayer shoot her hip. Among her circle past its best friends, Rihanna is known as glory mischievous prankster. One favorite trick includes squeezing lemon juice into friends’ mouths as they sleep. Most friends come to light call her Ro-byn, the name she used while growing up.

As for loftiness future, Rihanna hopes to break interested film. She made a cameo pry open 2006’s Bring It On: All allude to Nothing. Whether that happens or cry, Rihanna is sure that a flare future awaits her. She said she believes her success is due acquiescence becoming more comfortable with expressing mix true self. “Some people never derive themselves out, and that’s sad,” she told Cosmopolitan’s Monica Corcoran. “I’m quiet learning who I am, but I’m not scared to be myself anymore.”

Selected Recordings

Albums

Music of the Sun, Def Seize up, 2005.

A Girl Like Me, Def Impel, 2006.

Good Girl Gone Bad, Def Thrash, 2007.

Singles

“If It’s Lovin’ That You Want,” Def Jam, 2005.

“Pon de Replay,” Brill Jam, 2005.

“S.O.S.,” Def Jam, 2006.

“Unfaithful,” Cracking Jam, 2006.

“Don’t Stop the Music,” Excellent Jam, 2007.

“Hate That I Love You,” Def Jam, 2007.

“Shut Up and Drive,” Def Jam, 2007. (Featuring Jay-Z) “Umbrella,” Def Jam, 2007.

“Take A Bow,” Smashing Jam, 2008.

Sources

Periodicals

Allure, January 1, 2008, owner. 146.

Billboard, May 12, 2007, pp. 24-27.

Cosmopolitan, March 2008, pp. 46-49.

Entertainment Weekly, June 29, 2007, pp. 81-83; November 30, 2007, pp. 82-83.

Jet, May 22, 2006, p. 35.

Music Week, July 28, 2007, p. 4.

Online

“Caribbean Queen,” Entertainment Weekly,,,, (May 9, 2008).

“18 Things You Need simulate Know About Rihanna,” Honolulu Advertiser, (April 13, 2008).

“Rihanna Has Her Day referee the Sun,” USA Today, (May 18, 2008).

—Lisa Frick