Today our queen RiRi turns 31! Born as Robyn Rihanna Fenty, she was brought into the world in Barbados. She grew up with a love of reggae music and was an army cadet before foregoing finishing high school to pursue her career in music after being discovered by an American record producer. He sent one of her demos out to Jay-Z, the CEO and President (and business, man) of Def Jam Records. After seeing her perform her future debut single, “Pon de Replay” live, Jay-Z signed her.
She released the single in 2005 to worldwide critical and commercial success, peaking at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and UK charts. Unfortunately, it’s only her 24th most performed song to date. She released her debut album, Music of the Sun, in August of that year, and has since sold over two million copies globally.
The next year, Rihanna was ready to release her sophomore album, Girl Like Me. It was also critically and commercially acclaimed, and became her first album to achieve platinum status. The album’s two lead singles, “SOS” and “Unfaithful” both charted globally, and are her 12th and third most performed songs, respectively!
Ever the hard worker and careful not to let the public forget her, Rihanna released her third album, Good Girl Gone Bad, the next year. The album, which was her most positively reviewed, featured a switch in her musical style as she fully embraced uptempo dance tracks instead of the dancehall and reggae inspired tracks of her early career. It has since been certified two times platinum, and is her most performed album by far, as she has performed songs from the album over 2600 times!
“Umbrella,” the album’s lead single, topped the charts in numerous countries and was the longest running No. 1 single in the UK, and was named one of the best-selling singles worldwide, with over 8 million copies sold. The song is Rihanna’s most performed song by far, with over 500 plays.
This success was augmented by that of “Shut Up and Drive” and “Don’t Stop the Music,” two of her other singles from the album, and her fifth and sixth most performed songs. Rihanna went on tour in support of the album and was nominated for many awards at the 2008 Grammy Awards, including Best Rap/Sung Collaboration with Jay-Z for “Umbrella.”
Her fourth album, Rated R, came out the next year and featured a darker tone than her previous albums. It debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200, with the single “Rude Boy,” the album’s biggest global success that spent six weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100 and remains Rihanna’s fourth most performed song.
The next year, the singer was featured on Eminem’s “Love the Way You Lie,” which reached number one in more than 20 countries and was Rihanna’s seventh No. 1 hit of her career, and became the biggest-selling song of 2010 in the UK.
Rihanna’s fifth album, Loud, was released in 2010 with singles “Only Girl (In The World),” “S&M,” and “What’s My Name?” all of which reached No. 1, with the former winning the Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording.
She followed that album up with Talk That Talk the next year, with lead single “We Found Love” topping the charts worldwide and the Billboard Hot 100 for ten weeks. It become Rihanna’s longest-running number-one single on the chart, and is her 15th most performed song.
Rihanna released her seventh album, Unapologetic, in 2012 to worldwide acclaim as it debuted at No. 1 on the charts. The album’s lead single, “Diamonds,” became one of Rihanna’s biggest worldwide hits, reaching No. 1 on the charts in over twenty countries. The next year, she collaborated with Eminem again on his single “The Monster.”
After an uncharacteristically long break between albums, Rihanna released her latest album, Anti, in 2016, which also peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard charts. The album featured lead single “Work” which was a collaboration with Drake and topped the charts. Later that year, she was awarded the prestigious Video Vanguard Award at the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards.
Since, Rihanna has expanded her domination of the music world to dominating the makeup and lingerie world with Fenty Beauty and Savage x Fenty, and is currently working on her new album.
Happy Birthday, Rihanna! We hope you feel like the only girl in the world today.
