That Rihanna reign just won’t let up—and during Black History Month nonetheless.
The singer and entrepreneur set the web ablaze after she headlined the 2023 Super Bowl Halftime performance with a medley of some of her biggest hits. But what many onlookers didn’t realize was she was making history while making us dance.
As reported by Front Office Sports, she’s the first solo female billionaire to star in a Super Bowl Halftime Show. As the outlet pointed out, Dr. Dre was the most recent billionaire performer — but he was part of the group during Super Bowl 56 in Los Angeles.
The mastermind behind Fenty Beauty and Savage X Fenty brands has helped her push her net worth to a reported $1.4 billion net worth. This is especially noteworthy as she is entirely self-made.
As ESSENCE previously reported, in 2017, the year her cosmetics brand Fenty Beauty launched, the brand was an instant hit, largely because of her cemented status as a wildly popular beauty and style heroine.
George Acheampong, financial advisor and founder of investment advisory firm Capitalwize pointed out that celebrities are often boxed into certain spaces, which can work against them in business. However, this public image challenge was advantageous to Rihanna’s growth as an entrepreneur, he says.
“So much emphasis is placed on the art or talent of the artist as their main asset, but Rihanna was able to figure out early on that her greatest asset was leveraging her brand power into securing equity ownership and partnership with one of the worlds most prominent brands,” Acheampong said, alluding to her partnership with LVMH to launch her clothing brand. “As a result, she was able to achieve billionaire status by age 33, which is 16 years faster than Jay-z, whose label she ironically signed to at age 16. So arguably, he was able to chart the path for her to expedite her journey. Rihanna became an example of using artistry as a stepping stone to build real ownership and wealth.”