A day after announcing that Jay-Z is a certified billionaire, Forbes magazine revealed on Tuesday, June 4, 2019, that Rihanna is the richest female musician in the world.
The Barbados-born beauty and “Diamonds” singer with more than 71 million Instagram followers beat out some of the music industry’s biggest female performers to take the crown.
Forbes credits the 31-year-old with becoming the first Black woman to lord over a major luxury fashion house, Fenty Beauty, for helping her to amass a vast $600 million fortune and thus take the title as the wealthiest female musician in the world.
Rihanna is a shoulder-length ahead of the Madonna, who has $570 million, and is significantly ahead of Céline Dion and her $450 million fortune. Beyoncé is listed in fourth place at $400 million.
Forbes, the nation’s most esteemed financial magazine, breaks down how Bad Girl RiRi, who broke Michael Jackson’s record for the most Top Ten Billboard hits of all time, amassed her vast fortune.
“Most of that comes not from music but from her partnership with LVMH, the French luxury goods giant run by billionaire Bernard Arnault,” Forbes states on its website. “Rihanna and LVMH co-own the makeup brand Fenty Beauty. It launched in September 2017 at Sephora, another LVMH brand, and online at FentyBeauty.com, quickly becoming a viral success.”
Forbes said the phenomenal sales of Fenty Beauty are bolstered by Rihanna’s mammoth fame and zealous worldwide social media following that few can match.
Perhaps this is why national beauty chain Sephora quivered when SZA claimed she was racially profiled while shopping for Fenty products in their Calabasas, California, location. Sephora announced they are shutting down all of their 400 stores nationwide on Wednesday to make their 1600 employees undergo racial-sensitivity training.
Currently, Rihanna has a 15 percent ownership stake in Fenty Beauty, which has an estimated worth of more than $3 billion.
