How DID Rihanna get so rich?
While hiding out in North London, the singer has amassed almost half a BILLION pounds, thanks to big pants, 50 shades of make-up...and turning luxury fashion on its head
SHE’S the pop star who’s richer than Elton John, lives next door to Sir Paul McCartney in London and has gone from being a teenage ‘one-hit wonder’ to a globally successful fashion and beauty mogul.
Barbadian singer Rihanna — born Robyn Rihanna Fenty — is said by the new Sunday Times Rich List to be worth £468 million.
This makes her the third richest person in the musicians’ list, just behind Andrew Lloyd Webber and former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney, who tie for the top spot on £800 million each.
Forbes magazine, meanwhile, estimates her wealth slightly higher, at £488 million.
Extraordinarily, her record-breaking music career has been eclipsed by her fashion success, and she is the first black woman to run a luxury fashion house, Fenty Maison, which is part of the conglomerate LVMH.
An outsider in the fashion world, she has proved to be a game-changer. Her racy lingerie line has taken on rival firm Victoria’s Secret, while her clothes range dispenses with the ‘seasons’ which have ruled the business for decades.
She says her success is all down to her work ethic. ‘It’s all me behind everything,’ she says.
So how did she do it? ALISON BOSHOFF reports.
THE MUSICAL MAESTRA
BoRn in Bridgetown, Barbados, Rihanna’s mother was an accountant and her father a drug addict and alcoholic who worked in a warehouse. As a child, Rihanna sold clothes on a street stall and dreamed of being a pop star.
At 15, she was talent-spotted by a record producer and went to new York where she auditioned for Jay Z at Def Jam records.
Signed on the spot in 2005, her first mega-hit was Umbrella in 2007, which was no. 1 in the UK for ten weeks, and reached no 1 in 13 countries.
Coldplay’s Chris Martin called her the ‘Frank Sinatra of our generation’, adding that her voice is ‘this whole rich thing, solid like a tree trunk’.
now 32, she has sold more than 250 million records, won nine Grammys and is the second highest streamed female artist of the past decade, even though she hasn’t released an album in four years. She is estimated to have earned around £18million from record sales alone. She is also a co-owner of streaming service Tidal.
Her highest-earning tour was the Diamonds World Tour in 2013, which garnered more than £114 million, according to Billboard magazine. The Samsung sponsorship for her 2016 tour was worth £20 million.
In an interview she said: ‘When I was younger, I couldn’t afford anything but a pair of Timberlands. That was my Dior. And I had to save my money for a whole school year to get those, and I did it.
‘I never thought I’d make this much money, so a number is not going to stop me from working. I’m not driven by money. My money is not for me; it’s always the thought that I can help someone else.’
Her charity, Clara Lionel Foundation, named after her grandparents, recently donated $5million to help fight coronavirus.
FROM SINGER TO TREND-SETTER
FRoM the outset, Rihanna’s unique style made her a sought-after model. The canary yellow gown with a 16ft train which she wore to the 2015 Met Gala Ball created such a stir that a documentary was made about it. not to mention a host of memes which likened the dress to a pepperoni pizza.
olivier Rousteing at Balmain said she was as iconic as Madonna. others noted that whatever she wore sold.
Early on, Rihanna advertised brands such as nivea and Kodak and launched a cheapand-cheerful fragrance range.
She then dipped her toe into collaborations, with a threeseason collection for River Island in 2013. Then, in 2015, she became a face of Dior. A year later, she started working with Puma. Her trainers sold out instantly and profits at the sportswear company were raised by 92 per cent.
Rihanna’s first ‘own brand’ Fenty Beauty launched in 2017, followed by Savage X Fenty lingerie in 2018 and Fenty Maison clothing and accessories in 2019.
BOOSTING THE BOTTOM LINE
BEFoRE Rihanna started her fashion empire, she was worth a fraction of what she is today. In 2016, Forbes magazine estimated her worth to be in the region of £61 million. That has now rocketed and she is said to be richer than Mick Jagger or Rod Stewart. Her partnership with LVMH — which includes Louis Vuitton, Dior and Givenchy — is responsible for this leap. Her cosmetics brand with them is valued at £2.45 billion, with her reported 15 per cent stake worth £351 million. Robert Watts, compiler of the Sunday Times Rich List, said Rihanna’s inclusion typifies the ‘seismic change’ that has taken place in recent years. He said: ‘If you look through the yellowing pages of the first list in 1989, it looks like a rogues’ gallery of middle-aged and elderly white men. It was earls, dukes and figures from manufacturing and finance. ‘now, money is being made in different ways, and by all sorts of different people — such as Rihanna.’ Fenty Beauty’s sales are reported to stand at £460million. It is a part of LVMH’s perfumes and cosmetics division, which documents show made £6.2 billion in 2019. The company does not break out any sales figures for Fenty itself. However, in its last annual report, LVMH notes that the Fenty Beauty brand ‘grew rapidly’ last year ‘confirming its global success’. It calls Fenty Beauty ‘a powerful concept, inclusive and highly relevant’.
MAKE-UP THAT’S MADE A FORTUNE
FEnTY Beauty, which Rihanna founded almost three years ago, is now a market colossus worth £2.45 billion.
In its first few weeks, it racked up a reported $100 million in sales, propelled by Rihanna’s fame.
Concealers and foundations are available in 50 shades. She told Vogue magazine: ‘I’m shocked by people saying: “What
made you think of making make-up for black girls?” I’m like: “What? You thought this was a marketing strategy? Like I’m a genius?”
‘It’s shocking most of the time, then it turns into disappointment that this is groundbreaking now. In my mind, this was just normal.’
Research analyst Stephanie Wissink says: ‘It challenged the standard convention that you only needed a very defined set of shades to satisfy a market. Not only did Fenty Beauty achieve meaningful sales, but it potentially changed the industry permanently.’
The brand’s most expensive product, at £110, is a set of four make-up brushes; the cheapest is a ‘Starlit hyper-glitz’ metallic lipstick, which costs £7.
Rihanna often posts videos of herself applying her make-up, and says she personally names products and colours.
She will soon launch her skincare line, Fenty Skin.
THE BILLION-DOLLAR FASHION HOUSE
BeRNaRd aRNauLT, chairman and chief executive of LVMH, invited Rihanna to create a fashion house from scratch. She told the New York Times: ‘They extended the offer to me and it was a no-brainer because LVMH is a machine. Bernard arnault was so enthusiastic; he trusted me and my vision.’ LVMH invested a huge £24.5million in setting up Fenty Maison, and it was the first time it had launched a new clothes designer since Christian Lacroix in 1987. Its last published figures, released in January, showed sales of £20.4billion in fashion for the group, but did not reveal how much Fenty contributed. Rihanna is a 49.99 per cent shareholder in the brand. She ditched the old luxury model of producing collections in seasons in favour of a ‘drop’ strategy — selling garments direct from her website with new items appearing every month. Garments so far have included a white denim corset dress, a power suit and voluminous leather trousers.
She told Vogue: ‘I’m not the face of my brand, but I am the muse, and my dNa has to run all the way through it. I don’t want anyone to think: “Rihanna would never wear that.” ’
ETERNAL SEARCH FOR MR RIGHT
RIHaNNa moved to London during her three-year romance with Saudi billionaire businessman Hassan Jameel. He has a home in the capital, and she would save days for him in her diary by using the letter P, for personal time.
But the couple parted ways at the start of this year, and she’s now said to be with rapper a$aP Rocky, a long-time friend.
She says she hopes to have three or four children, and is willing to do so without a partner.
‘They diminish you as a mother if there’s not a dad in your kids’ lives. But the only thing that matters is happiness, that’s the only healthy relationship between a parent and a child. The only thing that can raise a child truly, is love.’
BUT DON’T STOP THE MUSIC
RIHaNNa’S ninth album is overdue, and her fans are impatient for more. She has said she is ‘very aggressively working on music’ that is reggae-inspired, and that it will come out when she is ready.
She said: ‘Me the designer, the woman who creates make-up and lingerie — it all started with music. all of these other things flourish on top of that foundation.’