Robyn Rihanna Fenty, born February 20, 1988) is a Barbadian vocalist, songwriter, Enterpreneur, and actress. She is officially regarded as one of the most prominent vocalists of the 21st century.
After signing with Def Jam in 2005, Rihanna soon achieved recognition with the release of her 1st two studio albums, Music of the Sun (2005) and A Girl Like Me (2006), both of which were inspired by Caribbean music and head within the top ten on the US Billboard 200 chart.
Rihanna’s 3rd album, Good Girl Gone Bad (2007), incorporated elements of dance-pop and build her status as a major star in the music industry. The chart-topping single “Umbrella” earned Rihanna her first Grammy Award and Raised her to global stardom.
She, continued to mix pop, dance, and R&B genres on her next studio albums, Rated R (2009), Loud (2010), Talk That Talk (2011), and Unapologetic (2012), the last of which became her 1st Billboard 200 number one. The albums moved a string of chart-topping singles, additionally “Rude Boy”, “Only Girl (In the World)”, “What’s My Name?”, “S&M”, “We Found Love”, and “Diamonds”.
Her eighth album, Anti (2016), showcased a new creative control following her departure from Def Jam. It gave her 2nd US number one album and featured the chart-topping single “Work”. While her musical career, she has collaborated with numerous artists, like-Drake, Eminem, Jay-Z, Kanye West, Ne-Yo, and Shakira.
With sales of over 250 million records widely, Rihanna is the second-best-selling female music artist in history and the top-certified female artist in histoty on the RIAA’s Top Artists (Digital Singles) ranking.
She has earned 14 number-one singles, 32 top-10 singles in the US, and 31 top-ten entries in the UK. Her awards additionally 9 Grammy Awards, 13 American Music Awards (additionally the Icon Award), 12 Billboard Music Awards, five World Music Awards, 6 Guinness World Records, the NAACP’s President’s Award, and an Academy Award nomination.
Rihanna’s acclaimed Super Bowl halftime performance in 2023 is the most watched of all time. Time mentioned her one of the 100 most inspirational people in the world in 2012 and 2018. Forbes ranked her between the top 10 highest-paid celebrities in 2012 and 2014. As of 2023, she is the richest female musician, with an estimated net worth of $1.4 billion.
Apart from music, Rihanna is famous for her involvement in humanitarian causes, entrepreneurial ventures, and the fashion icons. She is the founder of the nonprofit organization Clara Lionel Foundation, cosmetics brand Fenty Beauty, and fashion house Fenty under LVMH; she is the 1st black lady to build a luxury brand for LVMH.
Rihanna has also ventured into acting, starring in major characters in Battleship (2012), Home (2015), Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017), and Ocean’s 8 (2018). Rihanna was asked for an ambassador of education, tourism, and investment by the Government of Barbados in 2018 and was cleared a National Hero of Barbados on the first day of the country’s parliamentary republic in 2021, entitling her to the style of “The Right Excellent” for life.
She is a mezzo-soprano, with a range cycle from B2 to C#6 . While recording tracks for her 3rd studio album, Good Girl Gone Bad (2007), Rihanna took voice lessons from Ne-Yo. She stated of the experience, “I have never had vocal classes, so when I’m in the studio, he’ll tell me how to breathe and all… He’ll call out these huge fancy words: ‘OK, I want you to do staccato.’ And I’m like, ‘OK, I don’t know what that is.’
Her vocal performance on Loud (2010) got positive reviews from music critics. James Skinner from BBC liked Rihanna’s vocals on the song “Love the Way You Lie (Part II)” and wrote that Rihanna’s voice is energetic and that “it is Rihanna’s voice – at once commanding, soulful and vulnerable – that anchors the song, and Loud itself.
Andy Gill from The Independent feels that “California King Bed” features her best voice performance. In a review of Unapologetic, Billboard magazine said, “Diamonds discovers Rihanna doing one of her throatiest, most impassioned voice to date, on this inspirational pop ballad.
Jon Caramanica of the New York Times addressed, “passing the years, as her game face froze in place, her voice cured into a weapon of emotional chill and strategic indifference. It’s decidedly unfriendly, made to give orders. In 2023, Rolling Stone ranked Rihanna at 68 on its list of the 200 Greatest Singers of All Time.
Rihanna’s musical career has been an experiment with new musical plans and said that she wants “to make music that could be heard in parts of the world that I’d never been to. With its provocative subject matter and lyrics, she started incorporating a large range of genres additionally, pop, R&B, reggae, dubstep, hip hop and EDM. 
Whilr a review for Good Girl Gone Bad, Slant Magazine to write that Rihanna “finally discovered that she’s a dance artist and the majority of the album is comprised of uptempo dance-pop [songs like]” “Push Up on Me” and “Don’t Stop the Music. It shows a departure from the Caribbean sound of her old albums and is found as a turning point in her career.. While the 1st half of the record shares numerous 1980s pop influences with songs like “Don’t Stop the Music” and “Shut Up and Drive”, the 2nd half retreats into standard R&B.
Recorded after the assault by her ex-boyfriend, Chris Brown, Rated R had a much darker tone and was filled with many emotions she felt throughout 2009. In her 5th album Loud, Rihanna reflects on the fun and powerful vibe she had while recording the album. The album is a mashup of ballads, party anthems and empowering love songs. Talk That Talk was similar to Rated R, as both contain hip hop, R&B, dancehall and dubstep genres. Loud and Talk That Talk saw her explore gender in her work (“S&M” and “Birthday Cake”) and back to her dancehall roots (“Man Down” and “Watch n’ Learn.
