To become the richest female artist in the world today, Rihanna had to go through extremely dark days.

Recently, Rihanna officially joined the ranks of billionaires with a fortune of 1.7 billion USD. According to Forbes magazine, she is currently the richest female artist in the world at the age of 33.

On the surface, Rihanna makes success look easy, but it’s not. Before becoming the successful woman she is today, she had to face countless tragedies and challenges.

 

Rihanna’s real name is Robyn Rihanna Fenty, born in 1988 in the island nation of Barbados. She grew up with her two younger brothers in a fairly poor family. Her mother worked as an accountant, and her father was a warehouse supervisor.

Unfortunately, Rihanna’s father is an alcoholic. He often came home drunk, spending half of his salary on alcohol and drugs. From a young age, Rihanna had to witness her father inflicting countless beatings on her mother every time he had a fit.

One time, because she stayed on the beach for more than 10 minutes, Rihanna had to take the beating from her father on her mother’s behalf. He hit her so hard that his fingerprints remained on her cheek until she returned home.

“I couldn’t believe my eyes. Normally, people know they did something wrong so they were beaten. But that time, everything just happened suddenly without any reason,” she recalled.

Rihanna as a child (Photo: Internet)

When Rihanna’s father lost his job, things got worse: there was no food, and the house was full of needles. She even caught her father injecting and getting high on drugs. This caused her to live alone, hardly talking to anyone. She was so stressed that she had severe headaches for a long time and had to go to the doctor many times because she thought she had a brain tumor.

At school, Rihanna is a bright student, especially in Math and Chemistry. However, her grades kept decreasing after a series of days of being bullied and ostracized by her classmates because her skin color was “not dark enough”. Already used to her father’s whipping, she responded to his taunts with her fists.

At that time, it was music that saved the scarred soul of the 7-year-old girl. Rihanna often uses her hairbrush as a microphone, humming along to songs by her idols Madonna, Mariah Carey and Janet Jackson on the radio. Those brief moments of happiness helped her realize her future would depend on music.

At the age of 14, Rihanna’s parents officially divorced, freeing her from a series of haunting days. To help her mother raise her two younger brothers, Rihanna was forced to grow up early, earning money as a cashier and selling clothes on the street.

 

Even though she’s busy making a living, Rihanna still finds a way to sing. She performs everywhere she can, from the beach to crowded events. Besides music, Rihanna also aspires to become a strong person. She dressed as a boy and joined the army, climbing to the rank of corporal.

Rihanna said that tragic childhood is what trained her to become the strong person she is today.

“The strong shell developed from my first day of school, not until after I became famous,” she said. “I wouldn’t be able to survive in the entertainment world if I wasn’t thorny first. Therefore, sometimes the most difficult thing for me is allowing myself to be vulnerable.”

 

A life-changing opportunity came to Rihanna at the age of 15, when she formed a music group with two classmates. By chance, one member’s mother knew music producer Evan Rogers – who was vacationing in Barbados with his wife. Seizing this opportunity, Rihanna asked her friend to arrange for the group to meet and perform in front of him.

Immediately, Rogers was so impressed by Rihanna’s fiery appearance and seductive green eyes that he completely forgot about the other two girls. However, based on his experience, he suspected that the “beautiful face” in the group was the one who couldn’t sing.

However, Rihanna’s gifted voice proved this American music producer wrong. Not long after, Rogers called and asked her and her mother to come to America to record a demo. She moved to Connecticut and lived with Rogers and his wife while building her music career.

About a year later, Rihanna’s recording of “Pon de Replay” made a strong impression on rapper Jay-Z – then CEO of Def Jam record label. He didn’t believe that a 17-year-old girl could sing such a big work, so he invited Rihanna to come and perform it for him.

That night, Jay-Z was completely convinced by Rihanna’s special voice. The two passionately discussed the contract until 3 a.m. and devoted all their efforts to producing the debut album for the Barbados female singer for many months afterward.

Rihanna and rapper Jay-Z – the patron of her music career (Photo: Internet)

In 2005, Rihanna released the opening single “Pon de Replay”. The song quickly reached number 2 on the US Billboard chart, then entered the top 5 global hits that year.

With Jay-Z’s sponsorship, Rihanna continuously released hit songs that topped music charts such as “A Girl Like Me”, “SOS”, “Unfaithful”, “Umbrella”… At the age of 19 , for the first time she won the prestigious Grammy Award, becoming one of the female artists with the largest number of fans in the world.

When Rihanna was enjoying the peak of her career at the age of 21, the ghosts of her past suddenly came to her. At that time, she was dating singer Chris Brown – who also had an unhappy childhood. The two’s relationship faced many storms, peaking on the night before she performed at the 51st Grammy Awards.

 

Discovering that her boyfriend was having an affair from a text message on her phone, Rihanna confronted Chris Brown on the way home. The couple argued heatedly until the male singer swung a fatal punch in her face. Having trained in the army, of course Rihanna also fought back extremely fiercely. Public opinion was shocked when she appeared with deep cuts and bruises on her face, and even signs of strangulation.

Rihanna with her boyfriend Chris Brown when they were still passionate (Photo: Internet)

Just like when she was young, Rihanna refused to let fate defeat her. She refused to express her hurt but used that pain to compose meaningful hits about violence in love and family.

“You wish you could do some things differently. But there’s no reason for you to endure regret about things in the past that you don’t have the ability to change,” she shared.

 

In just a decade, Rihanna has become one of the most successful singers, songwriters and actresses in the world. She has sold more than 540 million albums globally, won 9 Grammy golden trumpets and a series of other prestigious awards, and owns 14 timeless hits.

In addition, Rihanna also appeared in blockbuster movies, became a cultural ambassador and was named for a national holiday in Barbados. Time magazine included her in the list of “100 most influential people in the world” in 2014 and 2018.

A successful music career also brings the female singer a huge profit. In 2016 alone, Rihanna earned $22.3 million from physical discs and streaming platforms. World tours also help her earn a lot of money, such as the “Diamond” tour with revenue of up to 137 million USD.

(Photo:Steve Granitz/Getty Images)

Thanks to her reputation, Rihanna was chosen to be the representative face of many big brands such as MAC Cosmetics, Armani, Dior, Gucci, Chopard, Louis Vuitton… In 2014, she became the Creative Director for the fashion company. Puma sports site, in charge of product lines for women.

In 2015, the female singer signed a contract worth 25 million USD to promote Samsung’s Galaxy phone line. She is also the co-owner of the online music streaming service Tidal worth hundreds of millions of dollars with other stars such as Jay-Z, Madonna and Kanye West.

Rihanna is famous for her music, but most of her wealth comes from the beauty industry. Maybe that’s why for the past 5 years, the female artist has not released any music products.

(Photo: Joe Scarnici/Getty Images)

When she first emerged, Rihanna launched 11 different perfumes, of which Reb’l Fleur alone brought her 80 million USD. In 2017, she cooperated with luxury group LVMH to create the makeup product line Fenty Beauty. This brand immediately earned 100 million USD in revenue in the first 2 months, 570 million USD about 1 year later.

On the market, Fenty Beauty is valued at about 2.8 billion USD. According to Forbes, the Barbados singer may hold up to 50% of the shares of this brand. Recently, she also launched the Fenty Skin brand.

(Photo: Internet)

In addition, Rihanna also owns 30% of Savage X Fenty – an underwear brand she created in 2018. Currently this brand is worth about 1-1.5 billion USD.

In 2019, the female singer once again joined hands with LVMH to launch Fenty specializing in shoes, accessories and jewelry. However, this brand was completely discontinued just 1 year later.

In addition, Rihanna also challenged herself in the real estate field. From 2013 to 2017, she rented a penthouse in Manhattan, New York for $50,000/month. After that, she moved to England to live, renting an apartment in West London for $20,000/month.

Rihanna’s $5.5 million luxury apartment in Los Angeles (Photo: Google Maps)

In 2014, the female singer also spent 5.5 million USD to buy a luxury apartment in Los Angeles. 3 years later, she continued to buy a villa worth 6.8 USD in Hollywood Hills to live. After the 2018 theft, she rented this house for $35,000/month.

According to the media, Rihanna also holds many valuable real estate blocks in her hometown of Barbados. Currently, she is living in a villa worth 13.8 million USD in Beverly Hills.

 

As the richest female artist in the world, Rihanna spends a lot of money on shopping, beauty, fashion and long vacations. She also actively participates in charity funds, invests money in start-ups, and creates jobs for people in difficult circumstances.

“I never thought I would make so much money, but this number will not make me stop working,” the female singer affirmed. “My money is not just for me. I always think I can help many others.”