Robyn Rihanna Fentyborn February 20, 1988), known mononymously as Rihanna, is a Barbadian recording artist. Born in Saint Michael, Barbados, Rihanna moved to the United States at the age of 16 to pursue a recording career under the guidance of record producer Evan Rogers. She subsequently signed a contract with Def Jam Recordings.
In 2005, Rihanna released her debut studio album, Music of the Sun, which peaked in the top ten of the Billboard 200 chart and features the Billboard Hot 100 top five hit single "Pon de Replay". In less than a year, she released her second studio album, A Girl Like Me (2006), which peaked within the top-five in the United States, and produced her first Hot 100 number one single, "SOS". Rihanna's third studio album, Good Girl Gone Bad released in May 2007, spawned the international hit singles "Umbrella", "Don't Stop the Music", "Take a Bow" and "Disturbia", with an additional four singles being released. The album was nominated for nine Grammy Awards, winning Best Rap/Sung Collaboration for "Umbrella". Her fourth studio album Rated R (2009), produced the top-ten singles "Russian Roulette", "Hard" and "Rude Boy", with the latter achieving the number-one spot on the Billboard Hot 100. Loud (2010), Rihanna's fifth studio album, spawned the number-one hits "Only Girl (In the World)", "What's My Name?" and "S&M". "We Found Love" served as the lead single from Rihanna's sixth studio album, Talk That Talk (2011). The song was an international success, topping the charts in eighteen countries.
Rihanna's work has earned her numerous awards and accolades, including five American Music Awards, eighteen Billboard Music Awards, two BRIT Awards and six Grammy Awards. She has achieved a total of eleven number one singles on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, becoming the youngest solo artist to achieve the feat. Billboard named Rihanna the Digital Songs Artist of the 2000s decade, and ranked her as the seventeenth artist of the same decade. She is the highest-selling digital artist in US history, having sold 47,571,000 million singles as of 2012. Furthermore, she has also shipped 7.3 million album units in the United States as of September 2011. Some of her singles have earned their place on the list of best-selling singles worldwide. Rihanna has sold more than 25 million albums and 60 million singles worldwide since the beginning of her career in 2005, which makes her one of the best selling artists of all time. In June 2011, Forbes reported that Rihanna had earned $29 million between May 2010 and May 2011.
Domestic violence case and Rated R
On February 8, 2009, Rihanna's scheduled performance at the 51st Grammy Awards was cancelled.[66] Reports later surfaced regarding an alleged altercation with then-boyfriend, singer Chris Brown, who was arrested on suspicion of making criminal threats.[67] On March 5, 2009, Brown was charged with assault and making criminal threats.[68] Due to a leaked photograph from the Los Angeles Police Department obtained by TMZ.com—which revealed Rihanna had sustained visible injuries — an organization known as STOParazzi proposed a law called "Rihanna's Law," which, if enacted, would "deter employees of law enforcement agencies from releasing photos or information that exploits crime victims."[69] Gil Kaufman of VH1 reported the "nonstop coverage of the Rihanna/Brown case has brought up a number of issues regarding the privacy of alleged victims of domestic violence, including the decision by almost all major news outlets to divulge the identity of the victim—which is not typically done in domestic-violence cases" and the controversial distribution of the leaked photograph. Rihanna was subpoenaed to testify during a preliminary hearing in Los Angeles on June 22, 2009. Rihanna's attorney, Donald Etra told US Weekly, "The DA told me Rihanna will be subpoenaed. I will accept on her behalf."[72] On June 22, 2009, Brown pled guilty to the felony assault. In exchange for his plea Brown received five years probation and was ordered to stay fifty yards away from Rihanna, unless at public events, which then would be reduced to ten yards.[73] However, in February 2011, at the request of Brown's lawyer, Judge Patricia Schnegg modified with Rihanna's consent the restraining order to a "level one order," allowing both singers to appear at awards shows together in the future.[74][75] The following year, a police statement outlining what Rihanna said happened during the events, was leaked online. Statements in the documents were made by the responding LAPD officer.
Rihanna made her first appearance in a music video since the assault, as the central character in Kanye West's clip, "Paranoid". She also collaborated with Jay-Z and West on "Run This Town" which peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100, number one in the UK, and reached the top ten in ten other countries. The song won 'Best Rap Song' and 'Best Rap/Sung Collaboration', at the 52nd Grammy Awards. Her fourth studio album, Rated R was released in November 2009,[80] and was described as having a very dark and mature atmosphere due to previous events. Rolling Stone was favorable of the album commenting that "Rihanna has transformed her sound and made one of the best pop records of the year". The album debuted at number four on the Billboard 200 and was certified Platinum by the RIAA for shipment of over one million copies. Debut single, "Russian Roulette", received commercial success, reaching number one in Norway and Switzerland. It also reached the top ten in sixteen other countries including in the UK at number two, and number nine on the US Billboard Hot 100. The second single, "Hard" was released predominantly in the United States only. However, besides from reaching the top ten in the country at number nine, it also charted in other countries such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. "Rude Boy", the third global single, became the biggest worldwide success from the album, topping the Billboard Hot 100 for six weeks, as well as claiming top ten positions in twenty-two other countries. Two other singles were released from Rated R, United States and Australian only single, "Rockstar 101" and the final European single, "Te Amo". "Rated R: Remixed" was released in the spring of 2010 and featured ten tracks from the album revamped as remixes by Chew Fu.] Further promote the album, she embarked on her second worldwide tour, the Last Girl on Earth Tour, performing 67 shows.
Rihanna possesses a mezzo-soprano vocal range, that spans nearly three octaves. Volume 65 of the Contemporary Black Biography book series notes that "Rihanna is the rare rhythm and blues (R&B) diva to emerge from the Caribbean world.Becoming an international sensation, Rihanna is known for blending R&B with Caribbean music, such as reggae and dancehall.