Rihanna

Rihanna was born as Robyn Rihanna Fenty but is world-famous as Rihanna. She was born in Saint Michael, Barbados to Monica, a retired accountant, and Ronal Fenty, a warehouse supervisor. Her mother had a Black Guyanese background while her father had Black Barbadian and Irish decent. She has two brothers. From his father’s previous relationships with two different women, she has two half-sisters and a half-brother. She currently lives in Manhattan, NYC. She grew up in Bridgetown where she helped her father sell clothes in a street-stall. She had a difficult childhood owing to the fact that his father was addicted to cocaine and alcohol. His addiction also affected her parents’ marriage and hence made her childhood a bad phase. She got very severe headaches as a child, and its reason was even doubted as a tumour by some doctors due to the pain’s intensity. Her parents got divorced around the time she turned fourteen which showed major improvements in her health.

When Rihanna was just seven years old, she began to get involved in singing which ignited her passion for singing. She grew up listening reggae music. She completed her primary education at Charles F. Broome Memorial Primary School and then joined the Combermere High School. Her classmates in high school were Chris Jordan and Kraig Brathwaite. She was also in a sub-military program with Shontelle as an army cadet. In 2004, she won the school beauty pageant along with titles like the ‘’Best Gown’’ and ‘’Most Photogenic’’.

Although she had no issues graduating from high school, she still chose to pursue her music instead and dropped out of school. In 2003, she was the only one to get noticed by record producer Evan Rogers among her little musical trio. He was impressed by her in the very first meeting and after having a meeting with her mother, he invited them to the United States so that he could record her demo tapes to send to record labels. This had happened during her high school period before she dropped out so it took them around a year to record the tapes. The songs on the demo tape were Pon de Replay and The Last Time, which were later included in her demo album called Music of the Sun.

She was signed Syndicated Rhythm Productions in 2004 which was Rogers’ and Carl Sturken’s production company. They helped her get a manager and a lawyer to handle her affairs in the industry as they distributed her tapes to various labels. She was hired by Def Jam Recordings where the famous rapper Jay-Z and the music mogul Antonio L.A. Reid were in charge of the artists and they did not let her leave the studio until all the contract formalities were completed. Then, they began working on her debut album with various producers. Her single ‘’Pon de Replay’’ was released before her debut album in May 2005 and was an immense success being placed at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 (U.S.) as well as the UK Singles Chart.

Three months later, her debut album called Music of the Sun was released which made it to number ten on Billboard 200. On the completion of 500,000 shipments of her album, she was given a gold certificate by RIAA which is the Recording Industry Association of America. Worldwide, it sold over two million units. After month after, she began working on her second album which was released in 2006. It was called A Girl Like Me, which was among top ten in 13 countries. It sold over 1,000,000 copies and hence received a platinum certificate by the RIAA. She then began her tour Rihanna: Live in Concert Tour. In 2006, she also made her acting debut in Bring It On: All or Nothing which was a DVD film. Her third album was released in 2007 and was called Good Girl Gone Bad. It was number two in US and Australia and topped the charts in many countries.

This album received the most positive reviews as well. She started another tour in September 2007 after its success. She was also nominated for many Grammy Awards in 2008 and won the ‘’Best Rap/Sung Collaboration’’ Award for her song Umbrella with Jay-Z. She released an updated version of her third album with three new songs added in 2008 which topped the charts worldwide, making it two-times platinum certified album and her most successful album to date. After that, Rihanna has released five more albums and is famous worldwide. She has participated in various benefits like for the Children’s Hospital in 2012. She has donated big bucks to charities and good causes.

She is the founder of Clara Lionel Foundation which supports various medicinal and educational programs. She also founded Believe Foundation to help and support ill children. Her most speculated relationship was with singer Chris Brown Christopher Maurice aka Chris Brown, is an America >> Read More... who was charged with domestic violence when he hit Rihanna, giving her visible injuries. Since the incident, she has dated baseball player Matt Kemp (2009-2010) and Drake (briefly). She also accepted to have resolved things with Chris in 2013 but broke up again a few months later. She also dated rapper Travis Scott for a brief period afterwards. She is a firm believer in God and reads the Bible.