Rihanna Is First Caribbean Born Entertainer To Be A Billionaire 

Rihanna is the first entertainer from the Caribbean to surpass an estimated net worth of US$1.7b.  According to Forbes, the superstar is second only to Oprah Winfrey as the richest female entertainer.

The Barbadian-born singer, who has been teasing the release of a Reggae album for the last three years, has put a pause on her music as she takes her cultural stock into the lucrative beauty and lingerie industries.

The Pon De Replay singer has a social media following of 103m on Instagram, and 102m and counting on Twitter. With these numbers, it is obvious that she has been able to turn her following into loyal customers.

“Bad Gyal Ri Ri” has earmarked a sizable portion of the beauty market with her 50% stake in the Fenty Brand, which has an estimated value of over US$2.8B, according to Forbes.  The other 50 percent is owned by LVMH, a company run by the richest man in the world, Bernard Arnault.

“By 2018, its first full calendar year, the line was bringing in more than $550 million in annual revenues, according to LVMH, beating out other celebrity-founded brands like Kylie Jenner’s Kylie Cosmetics, Kim Kardashian West’s KKW Beauty and Jessica Alba’s Honest Company,” according to a statement in Forbes from LVMH.

Rihanna’s penchant for turning cultural capital into financial capital seems to have no end in sight as Forbes is reporting that, “Fenty Beauty isn’t Rihanna’s only billion-dollar brand. In February her lingerie line Savage x Fenty raised $115 million in funding at a $1 billion valuation.  Rihanna maintains a 30% ownership stake”.

For those waiting on Rihanna’s reggae album, they may be waiting a little longer as she counts her chips in the beauty industry.