Born in St. Michele, Barbados, Robyn Rihanna Fenty, or Rihanna, is a pop-culture icon boasting nine grammy awards and multiple business ventures in the fashion world.

Surviving a family suffering from addiction, Rihanna had from chronic headaches throughout her adolescence that doctors assumed was a tumor. After numerous CT scans, the doctors found nothing. As a teenager, Rihanna turned to singing to get her through her pain, and at fourteen years old, they found that her pain was environmental.

Her parents finally divorced, and she began to regain her health.  A couple years later, at just sixteen years old, she found herself moving to America after she floored producer Evan Rogers at an audition as he signed her to Def Jam Records.  

Jay Z took the young star under his wing, and her first hit was released in 2005,”Pon de Replay”, topping out charts in the United States and the UK. Her musical style leaned heavily into her Caribbean roots with reggae undertones until she began experimenting in 2007 with alternative styles reminiscent of pop and rock influences. 

In early 2009, Rihanna spoke out about being domestically abused by her boyfriend Chris Brown. The news shocked the world, and gave way to conversations everywhere about domestic violence, and empowered many other survivors to come forward and share their stories, including an inspired televised special led by female African-American moguls Tyra Banks and Oprah Winfrey. 

Rihanna’s Black Moments:

• 250 million records sold worldwide, 9 Grammy Awards
• Awarded Fashion Icon lifetime achievement award from Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) in 2014
• No. 1 on Forbes‘ 2012 list of Social Networking Superstars and Forbes‘s Top 100 Most Powerful Women of 2019
• Honorary title of Ambassador for Culture and Youth in Barbados
• Fenty Fashion brand lines

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