Rihanna

With more than sixty million singles sold and a third of that number in albums, Rihanna is one of the best selling female artists of all time. The youngest artist, male or female, to land ten #1 singles on Billboards hot 100, she was named "Digital Songs Artist" of the decade 2000. Her overall ranking for the decade was at number 17. She also writes many of her own lyrics.

On 20 February 1988, Robyn Rihanna Fenty was born in Barbados. Hoping for a singing career, she relocated to the U.S. when she was only sixteen. When she auditioned for Jay-Z, he signed her with his Def Jam Recordings. Only a year after coming to the U.S., Rihanna's first album was released, "Music of the Sun."

The first album's feature song was Pon de Replay, which made the Hot 100, while the album made the top ten in the Billboard 200. It didn't take long for Rihanna's second album to come out in 2006. "A Girl Like Me" climbed into the top 5 albums of Billboard. SOS became Rihanna's first #1 single. By the third album in 2007, "Good Girl Gone Bad," Rihanna had name recognition. That album produced four top singles. Don't Stop the Music, Take a Bow, Disturbia, and Umbrella led to nine Grammy nominations. Umbrella gave her a win in the Best Rap/Sung Collaboration in which she has accompaniment by Jay-Z.

November 2009 saw the release of "Rated R," Rihanna's fourth album. The singles of note, which made the top 10, were Rude Boy, Hard, and Russian Roulette. Rude Boy made top placement on the Hot 100s. In 2010, the fifth album and the fifth successful one, "Loud," had three #1 singles. These were S&M, Only Girl (In the World), and What's My Name?

Some of the awards Rihanna has achieved are:

* 2007 Best-Selling Pop Female Artist; Female Entertainer of the Year
* Best International Female Solo Artist - 2011 Brit Award
* 4 Grammy Awards
* 18 Billboard Music Awards
* 4 American Music Awards