Rihanna becomes a billionaire and the second richest woman in the entertainment industry

Rihanna is currently officially a billionaire after launching two mega-successful businesses on top of her chart-topping hits.

At the age of only 33, Rihanna merits a gigantic $A2.2 billion and is currently the wealthiest woman in music and the second richest woman in entertainment, behind just Oprah Winfrey.

It’s a long way from the girl who experienced childhood in a modest home in Barbados and used music as a way of getting away from her fierce father’s fight with drug and alcohol addictions.

Yet, regardless of her initial accomplishment as a pop star, her monstrous wealth isn’t because of her music.

Since launching her Fenty beauty brand in 2017, Rihanna has been working hard on making it into the $A1.8 billion empire it’s become.

Truth be told, she’s said it’s part of “the reason why an album isn’t being spat out like it used to”.

So exactly how has Rihanna become so rich? We investigate her earnings.

Alcoholic father

Rihanna – whose real name is Robyn Fenty – was raised in Barbados, however had a troublesome childhood, as her father fought with alcohol and drug addictions.

She revealed to Rolling Stone how he would beat her mom, and surprisingly hit her once as well.

Rihanna would attempt to get between her parents to break up a battle, and once attempted to distract them by breaking a glass bottle.

“Domestic violence is not something that people want anybody to know, so she would just hide it in the house,” she said.

Rihanna’s parents ultimately divorced when she was 14 years of age, and she took over as her younger brother’s carer while her mum worked full-time.

“I grew up fast, kind of like the second mum,” Rihanna told the Guardian.

In 2013, the singer quietly put her father Ronald through a $58,000 Malibu rehab program.

Today, their relationship is strong, she’s actually dealing with her dad.

‘Always wanted to be a pop star’

Rihanna has clarified she used music as an escape, and “she always knew she wanted to be a pop star”.

In 2003, she formed a musical trio with two of her classmates and found the opportunity to audition for record producer Evan Rogers, who was on holiday in Barbados with his wife.

Evan immediately loved her, and later disclosed to Entertainment Weekly that “the minute Rihanna walked into the room, it was like the other two girls didn’t exist.”

Throughout the span of the next year, Rihanna traveled to Evan’s home in Connecticut to deal with her demo album.

With the assistance of songwriter Carl Sturken, she made a four-song demo that included Pon de Replay, which would become her first hit single.

‘I left Barbados and didn’t look back’

Rihanna formally migrated to the States when she was 16.

“When I left Barbados, I didn’t look back,” she said. “I wanted to do what I had to do, even if it meant moving to America.”

Before long, her demo fell under the control of recording organization Def Jam.

She auditioned for them and legendary rapper Jay-Z, who was so impressed he signed her “that same day”.

After eight months Rihanna released her debut album Music of the Sun, which went platinum.

Breaking chart records

Her follow-up album A Girl Like Me was released in 2006, however, it wasn’t until her third album, Good Girl Gone Bad, turned out in 2007 that things truly began looking up.

It included the hit single Umbrella, which figured out how to remain at the top of the UK singles chart for 10 consecutive weeks, the longest run at number one for any single of that decade.

It’s additionally listed in Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time and won her first Grammy Award.

She has since proceeded to win countless awards and worked with legends including Kanye West and Calvin Harris.

She is currently the second biggest-selling female artist ever just to Madonna, having moved 250 million records, and seven of her eight studio albums have been in the top 10 in the UK.

In any case, since she released Anti in 2016, Rihanna has been focusing on her business instead of her music.

$3.7b beauty brand

Rihanna launched her cosmetics brand, Fenty Beauty, back in 2017, close by luxury goods giant LVMH, which owns 50% of the business.

With its point of speaking to “every type of woman” and the release of 40 unique foundation shades, Riri’s business immediately took off.

It racked up sales totaling over AU$13 million in the first two weeks, and, in under four years, Rihanna’s makeup brand has transformed into a billion-dollar business.

After their first calendar year, the line “was bringing in more than AU$744 million in annual revenues,” Forbes uncovered.

It beat Kylie Jenner’s Kylie Cosmetics, Kim Kardashian West’s KKW Beauty, and Jessica Alba’s Honest Company.

The co-founder of Bluestock Advisors, Shannon Coyne clarified: “A lot of women felt there were no lines out there that catered to their skin tone. It was light, medium, medium-dark, dark.

“We all know that’s not reality. She was one of the first brands that came out and said ‘I want to speak to all of those different people.’”

Last year, she launched Fenty Skin – which makes certain to bring in her much more cash.

Also, Forbes assessed that Fenty Beauty overall merits an incredible AU$3.7 billion and will probably keep on developing as LMVH said it has “maintained its appeal as a premier makeup brand.”

$363m lingerie brand

A year after transforming the beauty industry, Rihanna launched her lingerie organization, Savage x Fenty.

The underwear models were recognizably not quite the same as different brands like Victoria’s Secret, as there were women of all shapes, sizes, and races – and included pregnant ladies.

What’s more, the lingerie brand even creates its own runway show, streamed on Amazon, with artists like Lizzo performing.

Discussing the brand’s first runway show in 2018, Rihanna said: “I wanted to include every woman. I wanted every woman on the stage with different energies, different races, body types, different stages in their womanhood, culture.

“I wanted women to feel celebrated and that we started this s**t. We own this. This is our land because really it is.

“Women are running the world right now and it’s too bad for men.”

Because of Rihanna’s sponsorship, as well as the brand’s inclusive models, it has become a tremendous achievement and is presently worth $A363 million.

Makeup over music

Because of the achievement of her businesses, Rihanna has diverted her consideration from her music – from which the rest of her fortune comes from.

“I used to be in the studio, only the studio, for three months straight, and an album would come out,” she said. “Now, it’s like a carousel.

“I do fashion one day, lingerie the next, beauty the next, then music the next. It’s like having a bunch of kids, and you need to take care of them all.”

Fans have been frantic for new music, yet Rihanna is keeping schtum on when we can anticipate it.

“I can’t say when I’m going to drop,” she told Vogue in 2020 of potentially releasing her ninth studio album in the future. “But I am very aggressively working on music.”

Furthermore, we can be certain that her pot of money will settle the score greater at whatever point she brings it out.