Rihanna Rihanna was born on the Caribbean island of Barbados in the parish of St. Michael. She was discovered by music producer Evan Rogers while he was vacationing in Barbados with his wife Jackie, who is also a Bajan. Rogers, along with his partner Carl Sturken, helped Rihanna record demo material that was sent to various recording companies including Def Jam, where Rihanna auditioned for CEO Jay-Z and was signed on-the-spot.
Her debut album Music of the Sun, which she co-wrote, was released during the summer of 2005 and was led by the single "Pon de Replay", which peaked at number two on both the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and the UK singles chart. The second single, "If It's Lovin' That You Want", was less successful than its predecessor but stilled reached the top twenty in most regions. The album itself peaked within the top ten in Australia, Canada, and the U.S., and within the top forty in the UK. Music of the Sun has received several Platinum certifications around the world since its release, and has helped solidify Rihanna's presence on the music scene. She was recently on tour with "Gwen Stefani", who is well known for her cutting edge genre between pop and hip-hop. With so much success Rihanna feels like she has grown 5 years in one year. This is the toll the industry takes on musicians and she is now living and loving the life. Although she is doing this by herself without her family and friends by her side because she decided to leave them in Barbados, she is still hanging strong and growing and maturing vocally and emotionally as time progresses.
In 2006, Rihanna landed several endorsement deals, including ones for Nike and J.C. Penney. In addition to a cameo role in Bring It On 3, she is also releasing her next album, titled A Girl Like Me, this spring. The lead single off the album "S.O.S. (Rescue Me)" was recorded for her recent endorsement deal with Nike.
Despite some lack of support from Urban stations Rihanna's new single "S.O.S. (Rescue Me)" manage to strive into the billboard top 40, the songs has charted on almost all the billboard charts with the exception of the R&B/Hip-Hop chart and the R&B/Hip-Hop airplay chart. The song is currently #30 on the billboard Hot 100. Rihanna's next single "Unfaithful" has currently been leaked on the internet. It is a slow ballad which is very different from Rihanna's earlier works.
