Rihanna Biography
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Rihanna was born Robyn Rihanna Fenty in 1987 to
a Barbadian father and a Guyanese mother in the Parrish of St. Michael,
Barbados, an island in the Caribbean.
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She had a fairly common childhood growing up.
She attended the Charles F. Broome Memorial School, then attended the
Combermere School in Waterford, St. Michael. She was an average teenage
kid, except she did win the beauty pageant at the Combermere High School in
2004 – of course she sang as her talent.
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She never tried to pursue a career in music
when she was younger. However, she did like to sing and would do so for her
own enjoyment or the enjoyment of her friends and family.
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She came into the world of the music industry
almost overnight. A friend introduced her to a music producer named Evan
Rogers, from New York City, who was vacationing with his wife Jackie during
December 2003. His wife was born in Barbados and had shared the mutual
friends with Rihanna. She sang a song for him and he was instantly
mesmerized by her voice, look and style.
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In 2004, together with Rogers (and co-producer
Carl Sturken), produced a demo CD with twelve of Rihanna’s songs and sent
them off to various record labels and people within the industry. [Note:
the demo included her first hit “Pon De Replay”.]
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In January 2005 she moved to New York to be
closer to the action. In February, 2005, when Jay Z (Shawn Carter), rapper
and CEO of Def Jam Recordings, heard the demo, he just had to sign her. The
rumor is that he would not let her leave his office until she signed. In
fact, they did not finish up the negotiations until 4:30 the following
morning. Def Jam was lucky to get her. She was sought after by many other
labels – in fact, she had to cancel meetings with seven other recording
companies after signing with Jay Z.
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She signed a contract for six albums, and
Rihanna went to work recording and co-writing the songs for her first album
(LP) entitled Music of the Sun. The album is to be released on
August 30, 2005. You can hear her Caribbean influences transfused in the music
along with reggae, hip hop, R&B, soul and “soca” the cultural music of
Barbados. The album also includes tracks that feature Elephant Man and Vybz
Kartel.
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Her first single from the album, “Pon De
Replay” was released in June 2005, before the album was released and quickly
made it to #2 on the US charts and #15 in Canada. An accompanying video was
released in 2005 and included scenes of this beautiful young woman singing
the song. The single has also been nomitated for the 2005 Teen Choice Awards
for Choice Summer Song.
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Musical influences:
Mariah Carey, FeFe Dobson, Whitney
Houston, Alicia Keys,
Beyonce Knowles.
Biography by Ian Ripley,
PopStarsPlus.com, Sr. Staff Writer
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