When Rihanna takes the stage at the Super Bowl Halftime Show on Sunday, she will embody not only a musician who scaled the charts to become a global superstar but also an even rarer accomplishment: She’s one of the world’s few self-made female billionaires.
Rihanna has a net worth of $1.4 billion, making her the richest musician and the second wealthiest female entertainer, after Oprah, who is worth $2.5 billion, according to Forbes magazine.
While music is what made Rihanna famous, it’s her Fenty beauty line that has taken her wealth into the stratosphere. The singer, who debuted her makeup line in 2017, gained fans for the brand’s diverse range of colors that offered foundations in a wide variety of skin tones.
Fenty Beauty — branded after Rihanna’s real name, Robyn Fenty — is a 50/50 venture with French luxury goods conglomerate LVMH, which also owns major fashion brands like Louis Vuitton. The Fenty line generated more than $550 million in sales in 2020, Forbes noted.
Rihanna also owns a 30% stake in the Savage x Fenty lingerie line, which raised $115 million in funding at a $1 billion valuation in February 2021, the magazine noted.
Billionaires’ lists are typically dominated by White men, ranging from self-made billionaires such as Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to people who inherited great wealth, such as Jim Walton, a son of Walmart founder Sam Walton. Rihanna told the New York Times in 2021 that she hoped her new billionaire status would inspire others like her.
“[I]t feels good to be able to inspire young women and boys, who like me, come from humble beginnings, who come from parents who are immigrants or who are immigrants themselves, to be able to do this,” she told the publication.
Rihanna echoed some of those sentiments with CBS News, noting that she wants her halftime performance to provide representation for immigrants — she’s originally from Barbados — as well as Black women.
“Representing for immigrants, representing for my country, Barbados, representing for Black women everywhere,” Rihanna said. “That’s really important, that’s key for people to see the possibilities. And I’m honored to be here, and I’m honored to be doing this, this year.”
