By Spence Finlayson
NASSAU, Bahamas – It’s hard to believe that Rihanna is only 31 years old, yet within the 10 years since the start of her musical career, she’s become the youngest solo artist to score 14 no. 1 singles on the billboard hot 100—the fastest to do so—she’s sold more than 54 million albums and 210 million tracks worldwide.
Rihanna is the “best selling digital artist of all time… with more than 100 million [riaa] gold & platinum song certifications” and an eight-time Grammy award winner who also counts 14 billboard music awards among other countless music accolades.
Aside from her musical achievements, Rihanna is bona fide business woman with multiple entrepreneurial ventures. However, most importantly, her undeniable cultural influence has forever imprinted her in history as a global icon despite her young age.
It all began with an impromptu performance for vacationing New York City music producers Evan Rogers and Carl Sturken in 2003 which helped jumpstart 15 year old Rhianna’s multifaceted career.
Def Jam released Rihanna’s dynamic debut album “Music of the Sun” which garnered much attention due to the popularity of her highly addictive dancehall flavored first single. It’s popularity was propelled by the highly addictive dancehall flavored lead single “Pon de Replay”.
A year later Rihanna delivered the platinum selling sophomore set, “A Girl Like Me” featuring the number one singles “SOS” “Unfaithful “.
But it was 2007’s Good Girl Gone Bad that catapulted Rihanna into icon status.
Moving away from her Caribbean music roots, the singer displayed her knack for reinvention by shifting to more up tempo dance tracks. leading the charge was the album’s first single, “Umbrella”, the track became the undisputed no. 1 pop song of the summer, dominating the U.S. pop, urban and crossover billboard charts for 52 weeks in a row.
“Umbrella” earned Rihanna her first Grammy in 2008 for best rap/sung collaboration. “Umbrella” was also the no. 1 single on the U.K. singles chart for 11 consecutive weeks and went on to win numerous awards.
That momentum carried over to Rihanna’s next album, the emotionally riveting Rated R, the 2009 set’s first single, “Russian Roulette” notched chart history as Rihanna’s 12th billboard hot 100 hit—placing her second among female Hot 100 artists in the decade since 2000.
From there, Rihanna released a new top-selling album each year, with 2010’s “Loud”, Rihanna became the youngest artist to achieve ten number one singles when “S&M” reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100.
In 2011, Talk That Talk spawned the global hit “We Found Love” which garnered her second MTV Video Music Award for Video of the Year and her sixth GRAMMY award for best short form music video.
Rihanna embarked on the 777 tour in Nov. 2012 where she performed in 7 countries in 7 days leading up to the release of her 7th studio album Unapologetic. t
The album was the singer’s first no. 1 on the Billboard 200. That same year found the singer making her acting debut in the theatrical film “Battleship”.
Most recently, Rihanna voiced her first animated character, Tip, in the Dreamworks’ film “Home”. In addition to providing three singles to the film’s soundtrack, Rihanna curated the entire compilation.
In addition, Rihanna is an unstoppable force on the worldwide touring front, she is the first female solo artist to sell out 10 concerts at London’s o2 arena.
Her world tours, including The Diamonds World Tour that wrapped in 2013, have taken the icon to more than 100 countries each time, selling out arenas and stadiums.
In 2014, Rihanna was honored with the first ever Icon Award at the American Music Awards. Rihanna’s mother Monica Braithwaite presented her with the award in a heartwarming on-screen moment.
Rihanna’s creative muse has also triggered various entrepreneurial and philanthropic pursuits. Her innate sense of style—from cutting-edge hairstyles to immaculate fashion foresight—has earned her over 70 magazine covers. She was named the face of French fashion house Balmain’s Spring/Summer 2014 campaign and received the prestigious fashion icon award from the 2014 council of fashion designers.
In addition to designing collections for Armani and British fashion brand river island, Rihanna developed and executive-produced both the U.K. and U.S. versions of the television series “Styled to Rock”.
After a successful creative partnership, MAC continued their relationship with Rihanna by naming her the face of the 2014 Viva Glam Campaign.
All proceeds from the Viva Glam Rihanna ii lipstick/lip gloss campaign benefited women and children living with and affected by HIV/AIDS.
At the end of 2014, Rihanna became Puma’s global ambassador for women’s training and now serves as the creative director, bringing her styling sensibilities and innovation to puma’s collections.
In March 2015, Dior announced that Rihanna as the newest face of their brand starring in their Secret Gardens campaign.
Rihanna made chart history with her brand new, released on January 28, 2016, as she achieves her second consecutive #1 album with 166,000 first week sales.
Anti’s lead single “Work” featuring Drake, which hit #1 on itunes in 91 countries less than 36 hours after its release, and was the highest selling digital single of last week, now dominates every urban, rhythmic, and pop radio station in the U.S.
“Work” has become Rihanna’s 27th top 10 hit on billboard’s hot 100, tying her with Mariah Carey, Janet Jackson and Elton john for the fifth-most top 10s in hot 100 history.
With over 81 million Facebook fans, 57 million twitter & 35 million instagram followers, Rihanna is putting her influence to good use via philanthropic efforts.
Chief among these is her own Clara Lionel Foundation (CLF). Established in 2012 and named after Rihanna’s beloved grandparents Clara & Lionel Braithwaite, the foundation works to improve the quality of life for communities globally in the areas of health, education, arts & culture.
In December, Rihanna held the 2nd Annual Diamond Ball to benefit the CLF.
Despite all of these distinguished achievements, Rihanna is just getting started. She is busy adding more credits to her burgeoning resume: executive producer, fashion designer, actress, astute business entrepreneur and philanthropist.
Spence M. Finlayson is the founder & CEO of The Phoenix Institute For Positive Development & Empowerment, a Human Resources Development firm based in Nassau with a global reach. He can be contacted at his email at [email protected] or via his website The Phoenix Empowerment
