Rihanna was born in a parish in Barbados called St. Michael. She lived the life of a normal island girl going to Combermere, a top sixth form school. Rihanna won numerous beauty pageants and performed Mariah Carey "Hero" in a school talent show. Her life changed forever when one of her friends introduced her to Evan Rodgers, a producer from New York who was in Barbados for a vacation with his wife, who is a native. Rodgers arranged for her to go to New York to meet Jay-Z, CEO of Def Jam Records. He heard her sing and knew she was going to be incredibly successful. She was 16 when she was signed to Def Jam. Since then, she's amassed phenomenal success.
She is the eldest of three children born to Monica Fenty, an accountant, and Ronald Fenty, a warehouse supervisor. Rihanna's childhood was marred by her father's struggles with addictions to alcohol and crack cocaine and her parents' marital problems—they divorced when she was 14 years old. However, since that time, Rihanna's father has managed to conquer his addictions and the pair are now very close. "Now my dad is like the coolest person on the planet," Rihanna says. "He doesn't smother me. He lets me live my life. And he's been like that a lot, even when I was younger.
Rihanna is one of the most consistent hitmakers in pop music. By late 2010, she had appeared on 17 top 10 pop singles in the US. Among these are nine #1 smashes, "S.O.S.," "Umbrella,", "Take a Bow,", "Disturbia," "Rude Boy," "What's My Name?," "Only Girl (In the World)," "Live Your Life," and "Love the Way You Lie." Among her most frequent collaborators are the production team Stargate and fellow DefJam artist Ne-Yo.
