Rihanna is always on the mind of a certain segment of the internet, but after news broke yesterday that she is expecting a baby with the rapper A$AP Rocky, she’s back in the news in a big way.
So with that in mind, it seems like the right time to look back on how the woman born Robyn Rihanna Fenty in Saint Michel, Barbados, became one of the wealthiest entertainers on the planet at the age of 33.
How Much Is Rihanna Worth?
Back in August, Rihanna’s net worth was estimated at $1.7 billion by Forbes, which makes her the wealthiest female musician in the world, "and second only to Oprah Winfrey as the richest female entertainer.”
Conquering The Music World
Rihanna first entered the public consciousness with her 2005 debut album "Music of the Sun" and the single “Pon de Replay” for the label Def Jam, owned by Universal Music Group (UMGP) .
Her single “Umbrella” from the 2007 album “Good Girl Gone Bad” won a Grammy, topped the Billboard charts and went seven times platinum in the United States, fully cementing her as a global pop superstar.
Between 2009 and 2012, she released an album a year: “Rated R” in 2009, “Loud” in 2010, “Talk That Talk” in 2011 and “Unapologetic” in 2012, each of which went at least double platinum on the strength of singles such as “Rude Boy” and “We Found Love.”
In the United States, Rihanna has sold more than 10 million albums according to “Billboard,” while Nielsen SoundScan ranked her as the best-selling digital artist in the country between 2004 and 2012. Sold-out arena tours followed as well. That said, she hasn’t been as focused on her music output since the release of 2016’s “Anti” and the accompanying tour.
Like many singers who achieve a high level of notoriety, Rihanna has also done her share of acting, though she hasn’t always had the best luck in this regard, as the 2012 children’s board game to film adaptation “Battleship” and the 2017 sci-fi film “Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets” were both box office under-performers, though the 2018 franchise continuation “Ocean’s 8” was a success.
She’s also taken part in a number of advertising campaigns over the years, including a campaign for Kodak.
Her music, film and touring alone would have almost certainly put her on any list of wealthy celebrities you could care to name. But what put her over-the-top to become the second-richest female entertainer is her fashion and beauty brand Fenty, which she began in 2017.
How Much Is Fenty Worth?
Rihanna started Fenty in a 50-50 joint collaboration with the French luxury fashion group LVMH (LVMUY) in 2017, which is run by Bernard Arnault, the world’s third-richest person.
Her goal with the company was to be as inclusive as possible and to serve the needs of people who felt left out by other beauty brands. Her foundation is available “in 50 shades, including harder-to-find darker shades for women of color — and are modeled in its advertising by an equally diverse group of people,” according to Forbes.
Rihanna’s celebrity stature, social media dominance (she has 101 million followers on Instagram and 102.5 million on Twitter, which is really going to help get the word out about a new venture) and ability to identify an untapped consumer base helped to insure near instant success for Fenty, which brought in $550 million in annual revenues by the next year. While the cosmetics industry was shaken by the COVID-19 pandemic, Fenty stayed strong and is estimated to be worth $2.8 billion.
Now a serial entrepreneur, she also launched the lingerie line Savage x Fenty in 2018 as a joint venture with the online company TechStyle Fashion Group, which raised $115 million in funding last year at a $1 billion valuation. It is estimated she owns a 30% ownership stake.
Rihanna also launched a fashion and accessories line in a variety of sizes, also called Fenty, in 2019, but the high-end line struggled during the pandemic and closed early last year. Can't win 'em all.
In total, $1.4 billion of Rihanna’s net worth comes from owning Fenty. The rest, which is estimated to be around $270 million, comes from her music, acting and lingerie line, according to Rolling Stone.
Rihanna also has been generous with her wealth, starting the Clara Lionel Foundation in 2012, which supports education and emergency response programs around the world. Rihanna's inaugural investment of $1.75 million created the Clara Braithwaite Center for Oncology and Nuclear Medicine at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Barbados.
Upon the news of her new billionaire status, her fans celebrated her success like it was their own, and many pointed out that it was heartening to see a black woman succeed on such a level when there are only a relatively few black billionaires in the world, and even then, few of those are women.
But Rihanna’s success might come at a steep price, as she hasn’t released an album since 2016, and impending motherhood and a fashion and lingerie empire might not leave her with much time in the studio.
