Rihanna, whose full name is Robyn Rihanna Fenty, is an acclaimed singer, businesswoman, and actress. She is the second-best-selling female musician of all time after Madonna, with sales of over 250 million records globally. Rihanna has also been named one of the most influential people in the world. Her accolades include nine Grammy awards, six Guinness World Records, 12 Billboard Music Awards, and 13 American Music awards. She also has an Academy Award nomination.
Rihanna was born in Saint Michael, Barbados. Apart from her musical career, she has also acted in movies like ‘Ocean’s 8’, ‘Battleship’, ‘This Is the End’, ‘Guava Island’, and ‘Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets’. She is involved in many humanitarian ventures such as her nonprofit foundations including Clara Lionel Foundation and Believe Foundation. She has performed concerts whose proceeds went to charity. During Covid-19, she donated $5 million. She also donated ventilators to Barbados and 2 million dollars for relief and support to children facing abuse during the lockdown. But let’s take a look at her personal journey.
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All About Rihanna’s Childhood
Rihanna is from Barbados and was born in Saint Michael, Barbados. She was born to Ronald Fenty and Monica Braithwaite. She has two brothers – Rajjad and Rorrey Fenty. Rihanna was raised in the city of Bridgetown and lived in a three-bedroom house along with her family. Her childhood was filled with difficulties and struggles as her father was struggling with drug addiction as well as alcohol addiction. As a result, she had to sell clothes to make money for basic living.
About the domestic violence she witnessed while growing up between her parents, Rihanna told ABC News, “[My parents] had a very abusive relationship. My dad was the abuser. [He hit her] on numerous accounts.” She added, “I don’t want to say normal, but it wasn’t a surprise when it happened. She never went to the hospital … Domestic violence is not something that people want anybody to know.”
The acclaimed musician is of Guyanese, Irish, Scottish, English, and African descent. She attended the Combermere School in Barbados and was not interested in completing high school. Instead, she crossed over to the United States and became a singer. She was a fan of Reggae, R&B, and Hip-Hop music in her childhood. She also formed a band with two of her classmates as an escape from her home life.
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Rihanna’s Musical Career
Rihanna was first noticed by record producer Evan Rogers when some friends of the band recommended the trio to Rogers. Rogers instantly became a fan of Rihanna and referred her to Jay-Z. He was blown away by her rendition of Whitney Houston’s ‘For the Love of You’ and demanded that she be signed to the Def Jam record label. After the signing, Rihanna released her debut album ‘Music of the Sun’ which was a certified Gold album. She followed it up with the album ‘A Girl like Me’ which became her first album to be certified Platinum.
Her mainstream breakthrough came through her third album ‘Good Girl Gone Bad’ which charted at No. 1 in multiple countries. The album was followed by more hit albums like ‘Rated R’, ‘Loud’, ‘Talk That Talk’, ‘Unapologetic’, and ‘Anti’. She then went on a hiatus and focused on her fashion brand Fenty and her beauty brand Fenty Beauty. She was and is a multi-talented artist of her generation.
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