It’s no secret that Rihanna is among the most captivating singers of this century.
She has thrilled the world with hit after hit, and there’s hardly a household that doesn’t know her songs.
However, Rihanna is also one of the wealthiest Black women in the world.
Despite being in the industry for less than 20 years, she is already the world’s most financially successful female musician, with $1.7 billion.
Actually, Oprah is the only female entertainer worth more than Rihanna.
How did the songstress from Barbados reach this point, though? Let’s take a look!
Music Career
After the gargantuan success of her debut single, “Pon de Replay,” Rihanna released 8 full-length albums, each of which has been a bestseller.
The albums are:
- Music of the Sun (2005): sold over 1.7 million copies worldwide
- A Girl Like Me (2006): sold over 3.7 million copies worldwide
- Good Girl Gone Bad (2007): sold over 9 million copies worldwide
- Rated R (2009): sold over 3.3 million copies worldwide
- Loud (2010): sold over 6.6 million copies worldwide
- Talk That Talk (2011): sold over 3.8 million copies worldwide
- Unapologetic (2012): sold over 3.7 million copies worldwide
- Anti (2016): sold over 1.2 million copies worldwide
In total, Rihanna’s albums have sold over 60 million copies.
While an impressive figure, this is not on the level of artists like Adele or Taylor Swift.
And in most of her songs, Rihanna does not receive songwriting credits.
This means that she does not earn as much as she could have if she had written her own songs.
However, Rihanna is not a one-trick pony.
Instead, she used her music career to diversify her income and become a fully-fledged entrepreneur.
Acting
It should be no surprise that Rihanna has dabbled in acting.
Her films include:
- Battleship
- This is the End
- Home
- Valerian and The City of a Thousand Planets
- Ocean’s 8
- Guava Island
Movies are probably her lowest earner, but they have helped to show her creative range.
Fenty Beauty
This is Rihanna’s biggest money earner.
She has a 50% stake in it, around $1.4 billion.
Rihanna launched Fenty Beauty with LVHM, the French luxury goods empire.
Fenty Beauty caters to Black women by offering products in multiple shades and colors that fit them.
The brand was instantly successful.
Fenty Beauty earned annual revenue of $550 million in just its first year.
And right now, the beauty brand is worth more than $2.8 billion.
Savage x Fenty
Savage x Fenty is Rihanna’s lingerie line.
The line allows people of all shapes, sizes, and races to feel sexy about themselves.
Savage x Fenty has products that range from provocative to basic.
This has been another significant success for Rihanna.
Savage x Fenty’s current valuation is $1 billion, with Rihanna having a 30% stake.
This is impressive for a brand that didn’t exist before 2018.
Real Estate
Rihanna has also dabbled in real estate.
Her main home is a condo in Century City, California, worth around $5.2 million.
Rihanna also owns a compound in Beverly Hills made of two neighboring properties.
This property was worth $23.8 million when she bought it.
She also bought a home in Hollywood Hills worth $6.8 million, a home in Barbados, and a high-rise apartment in LA’s Wilshire Corridor.
Perfume
Rihanna’s first fragrance is Eau de Fenty.
The perfume is a blend of patchouli, Bulgarian rose, blueberry, tangerine, musk, and magnolia.
Rihanna wanted Eau de Fenty to represent every gender from every walk of life.
You can see this in the bottle’s design, color, and fragrance.
Each bottle of Eau de Fenty costs upwards of $120.
Rihanna: A Self-Made Black Woman Billionaire
Rihanna’s wealth has not come from generational wealth.
She worked hard for it and is now reaping the plentiful rewards.
Her businesses are primed to grow even more, and we can be sure she will make further investments in the future.
For now, we can only be happy that more Black women are making serious money moves and forcing the world to pay attention.
