Growing up in Saint Michael, Barbados, Rihanna was no stranger to music, singing with a group of her friends at the Combermere School, an exclusive academy founded in 1695. At age 15 she won the school's beauty pageant and was crowned "Miss Combermere."Rihanna’s stunning beauty - her green eyes are a holdover from her father’s partial Irish ancestry - and exotic voice soon caught the attention of New York-based producers Carl Sturken and Evan Rogers (who have also produced songs for label mate Christina Milian) and the trio soon recorded Rihanna’s first smash hit, 2005's Pon De Replay.
Pon De Replay soon proved to be one of the hottest tracks of the year, peaking at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Rihanna's unique vocal style, backed by subtle synth stylings and a head bobbing bass drum beat, made this song an instant dance club anthem. Her first album Music of the Sun followed suit, with 12 wonderfully catchy and upbeat tracks that clearly demonstrate her Caribbean heritage, including the soulful If It’s Lovin' That You Want.
Rihanna soon released her second album, Girl Like Me, which somewhat eschews her Caribbean style in favor of a somewhat more mature urban influence, but proves with flagship track SOS that she is still capable of burning up the dance floor. Her third album, 2007's Good Girl Gone Bad, has proved to be her most popular yet, debuting #2 on the Billboard Top 200 and going platinum in the USA and worldwide. Good Girl Gone Bad standouts include Umbrella, an epic vocal ballad mixed with mesmerizing drum beats and a guest appearance by Rock-A-Fella superstar Jay-Z and Don't Stop The Music, an uptempo track that blends her signature vocal style with a fast paced dance groove and a distinct disco groove. As of 2008, Rihanna has begun working on her yet-untitled fourth album, slated to drop sometime in 2009.
From Discogs:Born on February 20, 1988.Similar name warning: Were you looking for 'Rhianna Kenny' Rhianna ?
From Lastfm:Robyn Rihanna Fenty, known by her stage name, Rihanna, is a Bajan singer. Her song 'Umbrella' was one of the highest-selling songs of 2007 and her 3rd album "Good Girl Gone Bad" was critically acclaimed, helping propel her to superstar status. She has attained seven Billboard Hot 100 number ones thus far and is the second Bajan artist to win a Grammy Award. She is also a cultural ambassador for Barbados.
Rihanna was born in Saint Michael, Barbados (February 20, 1988) to Ronald Fenty, a warehouse supervisor, and Monica Fenty, an accountant. Her mother, a native of Guyana, is Afro-Guyanese and her father is Bajan and Irish. She is the oldest of three siblings; two younger brothers, Rorrey and Rajad Fenty. She began singing at around the age of seven. Her childhood was deeply affected by her father's addiction to crack cocaine and parent's rocky marriage, which ended when she was fourteen years old. Rihanna attended Charles F. Broome Memorial School, a primary school in Barbados, and then the Combermere School, where she formed a musical trio with two of her classmates at the age of fifteen. In 2004 she won the Miss Combermere Beauty Pageant. She was an army cadet in a sub-military programme that trained with the military of Barbados and Shontelle was her drill sergeant.
At the age of 15, she formed a girl group with two of her classmates. In 2003, friends introduced Rihanna and her two bandmates to record producer Evan Rogers, who was vacationing in Barbados with his wife. The group auditioned for Rogers, who said that "the minute Rihanna walked into the room, it was like the other two girls didn't exist." While auditioning for Rogers, Rihanna sang Destiny's Child's cover of "Emotion". Over the next year, Rihanna and her mom shuttled back and forth to Rogers home in Stamford, Connecticut. Then, shortly after turning 16, she relocated in the United States and moved in with Rogers and his wife. Carl Sturken helped Rihanna record a four-song demo, which included the ballad "Last Time," a cover of Whitney Houston?s hit "For the Love of You" and what would become her first hit, "Pon de Replay" to send to various recording companies. It took a year to record the demos, because she was going to school and would only record during summer and Christmas school breaks. Rihanna's demo made its way to Def Jam, which invited her to audition for the label's then-president, Jay-Z, who quickly signed her.
Rihanna broke into the recording industry in 2005 with the release of her debut album Music Of The Sun, which features the number 2 hit single "Pon De Replay". Less than a year later, Rihanna released A Girl Like Me and earned her first number-one single, "SOS", which sampled the popular 80s track "Tainted Love". "Unfaithful" was also released and was fairly successful.
Rihanna released her third album, Good Girl Gone Bad, in June 2007. Prior to the release of the album, she spent the week of the Grammys writing songs for the album with Ne-Yo. She adopted a more sexual image while recording the album, eventually dying her hair black and cutting it short. Rihanna worked with Timbaland and Christopher "Tricky" Stewart, as well as previous musical collaborators such as Stargate, Carl Sturken and Evan Rogers to re-imagine her album compositions with uptempo dance tracks. Rihanna commented, "I want to keep people dancing but still be soulful at the same time. You feel different every album, and [at] this stage I feel like I want to do a lot of uptempo [songs]."
The album topped the charts in countries like the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, Brazil, Russia and Ireland, and peaked at number two in the United States and Australia. Unlike previous work, the album featured a more dance-pop sound instead of the dancehall, reggae and ballad styles. The album received positive reviews by critics, becoming her most critically acclaimed album at that time compared to her previous efforts.
It yielded eight hit singles - "Umbrella" "Shut Up and Drive", "Don't Stop The Music" "Hate That I Love You" "Rehab" "Disturbia" "Take A Bow" "If I Never See Your Face Again" - all singles reaching the top twenty on the Billboard Hot 100 ? including the worldwide number-one hit "Umbrella," featuring Jay-Z.
In addition to reaching number one in various countries, "Umbrella" was the number one single in the United Kingdom for ten consecutive weeks, making it the longest-running number-one single since Wet Wet Wet's single "Love Is All Around" spent fifteen weeks at the top in 1994. The song is listed number three on the 100 Best Songs of 2007 published by Rolling Stone magazine. In 2008, "Umbrella" earned Rihanna and Jay-Z a Grammy Award for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration in addition to receiving nominations for Record of the Year and Song of the Year. It managed to stay at number one in the United Kingdom for 10 weeks, the longest time spent by a female and in the 21st century, on this chart.
"Umbrella" has also been recognised in various forms of accolades by the music press. The song is listed number three on the 100 Best Songs of 2007, published by the music magazine Rolling Stone. Time magazine also listed the song number three on their Top 10 Songs of 2007. The song is listed number one on Entertainment Weekly magazine's list of the 10 Best Singles of 2007, while topping the magazine's poll for the best single of 2007. Blender magazine awarded the song Song of the Year in their Readers' Poll 2007. The music press has considered "Umbrella" as 2007's Song of the Summer, while The New York Times writer Kelefa Sanneh regarded it as "arguably 2007's signature slow jam".
Rihanna is finishing up recording of her upcoming fourth album, which is slated for a late-Fall release. Play.com has confirmed that the album will be released on November 23, 2009 whereas Amazon.co.uk has said that the album will be released November 16, 2009. She will be in the studio with Tricky, The Dream, Stargate, Ne-Yo and SRP in the coming weeks.
In August 2009, Rihanna collaborated with Jay-Z and Kanye West on "Run This Town." The song has so far peaked at number three on Billboard Hot 100 and also reached the top ten in five other countries. Rihanna has also been working on her fourth studio album. She appeared on the cover of Vogue Italia for the September 2009 Issue. The shoot was influenced by Rihanna's hair, which she had cut for the shoot into a mohawk-like style. The style of the shoot was Extreme Couture and very dark, and in one shot she appeared semi-nude. Rihanna performed "Run This Town" along with Jay-Z and West for the "Answer the Call" concert at Madison Square Garden in September 2009, making it her first musical performance since the altercation with Brown. The trio also performed "Run This Town," on the premiere of The Jay Leno Show on September 14, 2009.
Rated R (2009) was released in the wake of a physical altercation with romantic interest Chris Brown, who pled guilty to felony assault. The album's lead single, "Russian Roulette" -- written with Ne-Yo -- was one of the year's most controversial singles.
From Wikipedia:Robyn Rihanna Fenty (born February 20, 1988), better known as simply Rihanna (pronounced /ri???n?/ ree-YAH-na), is a Barbadian-American Pop/R&B recording artist, songwriter and model. Born in Saint Michael, Barbados, Rihanna moved to the United States at the age of 16 to pursue a recording career under the guidance of record producer Evan Rogers. She subsequently signed a contract with Def Jam Recordings after auditioning for then-label head Jay-Z.
In 2005, Rihanna released her debut studio album, Music of the Sun, which peaked in the top ten of the Billboard 200 chart and features the Billboard Hot 100 hit single "Pon de Replay". Less than a year later, she released her second studio album, A Girl Like Me (2006), which peaked within the top five of the Billboard albums chart, and produced her first US number one hit single, "SOS", as well as Billboard Hot 100 top ten entries "Unfaithful" and "Break It Off". Rihanna's third studio album, Good Girl Gone Bad (2007), peaking at number two on the Billboard 200, featured five top ten hits including three US number one hit singles?"Umbrella", "Take a Bow" and "Disturbia"?and the worldwide hit "Don't Stop the Music". The album was nominated for nine Grammy Awards, winning Best Rap/Sung Collaboration for "Umbrella," which features Jay-Z. Her fourth studio album, Rated R, was released in November 2009, and peaked at number four on the Billboard 200. Its first three singles, "Russian Roulette", "Hard" and "Rude Boy" peaked within the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100, with "Rude Boy" peaking at number one.
Rihanna has achieved seven number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100 since first appearing on the chart on June 11, 2005, which is the most by any artist during that time span. As of July 23, 2010, Rihanna has sold approximately 5,563,000 album units in the US. She has received several accolades, including the 2007 World Music Awards for World's Best-Selling Pop Female Artist and Female Entertainer of the Year, as well as the 2008 American Music Awards for Favorite Soul/R&B Female Artist and Favorite Pop/Rock Female Artist. She serves as one of Barbados's honorary cultural ambassadors. In January 2010, Rihanna received two Grammy Awards for Jay-Z's 2009 single "Run This Town".