At just 31-years-old, Rihanna has built quite the nest egg for herself. After all, being one of the top-selling artists on a global scale is bound to come with its perks. The Barbadian jane-of-all-trades is known for tackling a wide variety of music styles. A move that makes her stand out from the crowd as well as inspires her to reinvent her image time and time again.
Throughout her career, Rihanna has taken on everything from acting to fashion, but her fans are beginning to wonder when she’ll come back to her roots — music. Is the Umbrella singer gone for good, or will she be back after her hiatus better than ever?
How did Rihanna become famous?
There are a few moments in Rihanna’s history that can be credited for her getting on the track to fame. In 2009, the Chris Brown incident put her on the front page. Then, there was that time she shared the “stage” with Kanye West for his famous Paul McCartney song. Both of these detract from her raw talent.
If you aren’t a news buff or Kanye fan, you might just recall when she dropped her first record, Music of the Sun, in 2005. This came just two years after Evan Rogers discovered her in her home country. Rogers immediately set her up with Def Jam Records and the rest was pretty much history.
Two years after her first record she released Good Girl Gone Bad, an album that spawned two unforgettable hits, Umbrella and Don’t Stop the Music. It also marked the moment Riri decided to create an image for herself that would skyrocket her to fame and fortune.
“I basically took the attitude of the bad girl and I really got rebellious and just did everything the way I wanted to do it—I didn’t want to listen to anybody. I didn’t consult with anybody. I just want to have a little more fun with my music and be a little more experimental in terms of my image and my sound. I just reinvented myself.” – Rihanna / Star-Phoenix
Rihanna expanded her empire outside of music
Music may have been what got Rihanna noticed, but she’s made it a point not to be a one-trick-pony. Early on in her music career, she decided to tackle acting, appearing in Bring it On: All or Nothing. Getting her feet wet helped her secure parts in later films — Battleship (2012), Annie (2014), Home (2015), Ocean’s Eight (2018), and Guava Island where she stands alongside Childish Gambino.
Even if you aren’t a Rihanna fan, there’s no way you haven’t heard of Fenty Beauty — her wildly successful makeup line. The singer-turned-entrepreneur launched the line in 2017 and it’s been going strong ever since. Fenty Beauty is best known for its inclusivity and has racked up its own net worth of over $600 million. While it may not be lucrative as Kylie Cosmetics yet, it’s only a matter of time before Rihanna climbs to the top of the beauty mogul ladder.
Fenty Beauty is doing so well that Rihanna took the blueprint and applied it to fashion. She just launched a diverse luxury fashion line that caters to all shapes and sizes. Just like her beauty line, Fenty has received tons of praise for its inclusivity and uniqueness. Oh, and this also isn’t Riris first foray into fashion. She launched a gender and size-inclusive lingerie line under the Savage x Fenty label just last year!
What was Rihanna’s last album?
It’s pretty clear that Rihanna is set on taking over the fashion and beauty industry, but what about the entertainment industry? Rihanna hasn’t released an album since 2016. Anti was the beauty mogul’s eighth studio album and joined the ranks of her many hits on January 26th. It peaked at No.1 on three different U.S charts and made it no lower than 16 on a global scale. It’s also gold and platinum certified all around the world. With the album climbing in the ranks, it’s hard to believe that Rihanna would just up and leave her music career behind. Perhaps it had to do with the unusually low US sales despite the albums enviable status.
Is Rihanna making more music?
After Rihanna made the move to London, her followers were afraid she was leaving the music industry for good. Not to mention, a three-year hiatus is nothing to sneeze it. While she may have left on an awkward note, she’s already promised her loyal fans that she will be back, and she’s going to bring the heat with her.
Now that she’s juggling several different successful projects, she can’t spend time in the studio like she used to. Those who really have her back will be happy though! Tackling all of these projects, even if it means releasing things slowly, has resulted in this fan-favorite becoming the wealthiest female musician in the world.