Under her umbrella

With Britany Spears busy growing her hair back, Lindsay Lohan busy growing up and Paris in jail, the world has been busy scrambling for a new pre pubescent pop-muse. Enter Rihanna, a 19-year-old Caribbean-born princess who could turn out to be the bigger than all of them.

In much the same vein as Beyonce, Rihanna is a gorgeous caramel-skinned singer and dancer and, before too long, probably a seasoned actor as well – perfect Men’s Style material. The twist with this bronzed belle is that she is not from the United States, she’s from the tiny island of Barbados – the same island that produced sports stars such as Joel Garner, Wes Hall – two of the greatest cricketers of all time.

Rihanna first started to shine on stage at her secondary school when she won the Miss Combermere Beauty Pageant. She was discovered aged 15, when one of her friends introduced her to producer Evan Rogers, who was vacationing in Barbados with his wife. Rogers, helped her record in the U.S. which was sent to various recording companies. One copy of Rihanna’s work went to Jay-Z (Beyonce’s boyfriend), who eventually signed her to DefJam Records.

Her first album was a five-track effort called Music of the Sun, released in August 2005 and the first single “Pon De Replay”, peaked at No.2 on both the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and the UK Singles Chart.

To further promote the album, Rihanna toured as an opening act for Gwen Stefani. Stefani is arguably the most original pop star in the industry and touring with her turned out to be a great move because Rihanna’s album sold more than 500,000 units in the U.S. and over two million worldwide.

Her second album, A Girl Like Me came out in April 2006 and the lead single, “SOS”, was used in her endorsement deal with Nike. The song became Rihanna’s first No.1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart; it also debuted at No.1 on the Hot Digital Songs chart. “SOS” also peaked at No.1 in Australia and No.2 in the UK.

In 2006, Rihanna participated in several endorsement deals, including Nike and J.C. Penney. The second single, entitled “Unfaithful”, was written by Ne-Yo, and – in somewhat of an industry role reversal – it addresses the feelings of guilt that a woman faces as she cheats on her boyfriend.

Rihanna hit the studio in early 2007 again with Ne-Yo, Justin Timberlake, Stargate, Timbaland among others recording for her third album, Good Girl Gone Bad. The album was released in the U.S. on June 5. And the producers later added Jay-Z and Ne-Yo as featured artists and Jay-Z’s cameo in “Umbrella”, the first smash single, is particularly powerful.

Rihanna now has Clinique in her portfolio and who have produced a fragrance for her called “Happy”. She has also recorded a song called “Winning Women” with Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger for Proctor&Gamble’s female deodorant “Secret”.

With Nike, Clinique, P&G and now Covergirl in her portfolio, as well as industry icons such as Jay-Z backing her, it seems Rihanna is on the way to mimicking her hero, Bob Marley. Ya marn!