Rihanna was born Robyn Rihanna Fenty on
February 20, 1988 to
a Barbadian father and a Guyanese mother in the Parrish of St. Michael,
Barbados, an island in the Caribbean.
She had a fairly common childhood growing up.
She attended the Charles F. Broome Memorial School, then attended the
Combermere School in Waterford, St. Michael. She was an average teenage
kid, except she did win the beauty pageant at the Combermere High School in
2004 – of course she sang as her talent.
She never tried to pursue a career in music
when she was younger. However, she did like to sing and would do so for her
own enjoyment or the enjoyment of her friends and family.
She came into the world of the music industry
almost overnight. A friend introduced her to a music producer named Evan
Rogers, from New York City, who was vacationing with his wife Jackie during
December 2003. His wife was born in Barbados and had shared the mutual
friends with Rihanna. She sang a song for him and he was instantly
mesmerized by her voice, look and style.
In 2004, together with Rogers (and co-producer
Carl Sturken), produced a demo CD with twelve of Rihanna’s songs and sent
them off to various record labels and people within the industry. [Note:
the demo included her first hit “Pon De Replay”.]
In January 2005 she moved to New York to be
closer to the action. In February, 2005, when Jay Z (Shawn Carter), rapper
and CEO of Def Jam Recordings, heard the demo, he just had to sign her. The
rumor is that he would not let her leave his office until she signed. In
fact, they did not finish up the negotiations until 4:30 the following
morning. Def Jam was lucky to get her. She was sought after by many other
labels – in fact, she had to cancel meetings with seven other recording
companies after signing with Jay Z.
She signed a contract for six albums, and
Rihanna went to work recording and co-writing the songs for her first album
(LP) entitled Music of the Sun. The album is to be released on
August 30, 2005. You can hear her Caribbean influences transfused in the music
along with reggae, hip hop, R&B, soul and “soca” the cultural music of
Barbados. The album also includes tracks that feature Elephant Man and Vybz
Kartel.
Her first single from the album, “Pon De
Replay” was released in June 2005, before the album was released and quickly
made it to #2 on the US charts and #15 in Canada. An accompanying video was
released in 2005 and included scenes of this beautiful young woman singing
the song. The single has also been nominated for the 2005 Teen Choice Awards
for Choice Summer Song.
Rihanna's sophomore album, A Girl Like Me
was released in April 2006 to much initial success and has quickly gone
gold. To hear some audio from the album,
click here.
In 2006 she made her first acting appearance
with a cameo on Bring It On: All Or Nothing and has since appeared in
episodes of All My Children and Las Vegas.
Rihanna is releasing her third album in 2007
called Good Girl Gone Bad with a sexier, sultrier image - and toured
in 2008.
Rihanna will be hosting the red carpet for
MTV's Movie Awards ceremony in 2008
Rihanna cancelled her performance for the 2009 Grammy Awards. Reports are
that she missed the show due to her boyfriend
Chris Brown,
allegedly choking her until she was unconscious and leaving her bruised. He
was charged with assault and making criminal threats. Chris Brown pled
guilty to the assault and was sentenced to 5 years probation and ordered to
stay at least 50 yards away from Rihanna (with the exception of public
events, where the distance is reduced to 10 yards).
Some good also happened in 2009. She collaborated with
Kanye West and
Jay-Z on the song “Run This Town” which won two Grammy Awards. She also
released Rated R, which debuted at number 4 on the Billboard 200
chart, with a few singles making the top ten on the Hot 100.
Loud
was released in 2010 and debuted at #3 on the charts, with the single, “Only
Girl (In The World)” reaching #1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 list. The song also
won a Grammy for Best Dance Recording.
Rihanna’s sixth album, Talk That Talk, was released in November
2011. She became the fastest solo artist to have 20 top ten singles on the
Hot 100 chart, with the release of the single “We Found Love” from this
album.
She was selected as Esquires “Sexiest Woman Alive” in October 2011.
Biography by Ian Ripley,
PopStarsPlus.com, Sr. Staff Writer
This biography may be copied in part
or in whole for non commercial purposes online or in hard copy and must
contain: (1) the name of the author, (2) the text "copied with
permission from PopStarsPlus.com" and (3) a link to the page that
contains the original biography.
RIHANNA DISCOGRAPHY: ALBUMS, SINGLES, COMPILATIONS,
BOXED SETS, ETC.
If you are interested in writing
album reviews, CLICK HERE.
Year
Aug. 2005
April 2006
2007
2009
2010
Album Title
Music Of The Sun
A Girl
Like Me
Good Girl Gone Bad
Rated R
Loud
Tracks
Pon De Replay
If It's Lovin' That You Want
Here I Go Again(feat. J-Status)
The Last Time
Now I Know
"SOS"
"Kisses Don't Lie"
"Unfaithful"
"We Ride"
"Dem Haters"
"Final Goodbye"
"Break It Off"
"Crazy Little Thing Called Love"
"Selfish Girl"
"P.S. (I'm Still Not Over You)"
"A Girl Like Me"
"A Million Miles Away"
"If It's Lovin' That You Want [Part II]"
"Umbrella"
"Push Up on Me"
"Don't Stop the Music"
"Breakin' Dishes"
"Shut Up and Drive"
"Hate That I Love You"
"Say It"
"Sell Me Candy"
"Lemme Get That"
"Rehab"
"Question Existing"
"Good Girl Gone Bad"
