By Deon C. Jefferson
When it comes to the African American Community, we’ve been trailblazers for quite some time regarding entertainment and entrepreneurship. We’ve had several examples of Black star power with people like Berry Gordy, supermodel Tyra Banks, P. Diddy, and Tyler Perry. Recently, that Black star power continued to shine as Rihanna became a billionaire. Yes, that’s right. The little girl from Barbados who busted on the scene singing “Pon De Replay” is now a billionaire.
Rihanna is now worth $1.7 billion, according to what Forbes reported last week. This astonishing accomplishment makes her the richest female musician in the world. If you thought that was impressive, she is also the wealthiest female entertainer besides Oprah Winfrey. The most interesting aspect is not that she is a billionaire, but the ways in which she received this income is more fascinating. Rihanna’s fortune is reflective of her many business ventures — namely, her makeup and skincare brand, Fenty Beauty, and her lingerie line, Savage X Fenty.
Fans of Rihanna may remember her first foray into business came in 2011 when she debuted her first fragrance, Reb’l Fleur. The popular scent that included peach, plum, and berry notes generated over 80 million in sales. This monumental feat was achieved in its first year of production. Since then, Rihanna has successfully released nearly a dozen more. Celebrities endorsing fragrances has been a “thing” for a while now. Rihanna joins a long list of notable celebs that have created their own fragrance lines like Beyonce, Elizabeth Taylor, Britney Spears, and Jennifer Lopez, just to name a few. So, Rihanna knew what she was doing by diving into perfume first.
Throughout her career, she has also been a brand ambassador for several highly respected companies like Puma, River Island, Armani, Dior, CoverGirl and Mac. In 2015, Rihanna and some of her other celeb peers took a stake in the music streaming service Tidal. The streaming site is the first global music streaming service with high fidelity sound, hi-def video quality, curated playlists, and quality original content. According to a report from Variety, the service was sold to Jack Dorsey’s Square. Interestingly enough, they bought the service for a whopping $297 million. Rihanna and all her musical peers each took home $9 million.
Rhinnna has made a name for herself by being one of the high grossed touring artists over the past few years. Her Diamonds World Tour was hugely successful. That tour alone grossed over $140 million. Her tours do well because of her smoking hot albums. To date Rihanna has released eight studio albums and three EP’s. Her most successful album, “Good Girl Gone Bad” saw over 257.6 million downloads and ringtones. This album made her the highest selling digital artist of all time. Currently, Rhianna has sold over 60 million records worldwide, and her last album, which was released in 2016, brought her $2.5 million in music sales and a staggering $7.6 million from streaming alone.
Each time Rihanna announces a new business venture, fans get upset. Their frustration stems from her not releasing new music. The promise for new music has been talked about several times. When asked what’s the hold up, Rihanna simply responds each time by saying, “It’s on the way sooner than you think”. Now, here it is five years later and still no album. She has teased us and mentioned that she wants to do a non-traditional reggae album. Apparently, this album has been in the works for a while. Fans have heard rumors of potential collaborators, but nothing has stuck. There’s even been alleged rumors that Pharrell will produce a few songs on the album.
In a very short time frame, Rihanna has managed to make a lot of people fall in love with her. And for obvious reasons. The eight-time Grammy Winner has makeup and beauty for women, she now has boxers and undergarments for men, and the entire world can enjoy her music. At just 33, Rhianna has become a billionaire. If she achieved this much so early in life, imagine what she will accomplish by the time she is in her 40’s. Rihanna recently responded to the news of her becoming a billionaire with three simple words, “Thank you lord”.
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