b. Robyn Rihanna Fenty, 20 February 1988, Saint Michael, Barbados, West Indies. Vocalist Rihanna burst onto the US pop charts in summer 2005 with her catchy, Caribbean-infused single "Pon De Replay", before going on to enjoy a steady stream of hits that established her as one of the biggest pop stars of the new millennium.
Raised on the island of Barbados, Rihanna began singing at an early age but harboured no real dreams of launching a music career. This changed when, in December 2003, she was introduced to New York-based producer Evan Rogers who was visiting the island with his Barbadian wife. Rogers invited the budding singer to record a number of demo tracks that he then shipped around a number of leading US labels. As a result, the 16-year old became one of Jay-Z's first signings as the newly installed CEO of Def Jam Records. Rihanna moved to America at the start of 2005 to improve her chances of breaking into the lucrative US R&B market, working with Rogers and a number of leading producers on her debut album. "Pon De Replay" made rapid progress up the US charts, eventually peaking at the number 2 position in July 2005. The attendant Music Of The Sun featured a heady mix of dancehall, reggae and R&B tracks.
The swiftly recorded follow-up A Girl Like Me was premièred by the US chart-topping single "SOS", and also featured the wonderful Ne-Yo track "Unfaithful". By now Rihanna was being fêted as a superstar and she attracted a stellar cast list of producers and writers to help record her third album, Good Girl Gone Bad. Stargate, Timbaland, Ne-Yo and Justin Timberlake all figured, but it was the Jay-Z collaboration "Umbrella" that dominated the international charts in summer 2007. Further hit singles from the album included "Shut Up And Drive", "Hate That I Love You" (featuring Ne-Yo), and "Don't Stop The Music".
