About
Talent and a dose of good luck got Barbados-born Rihanna signed to Def Jam when she was 16 years old. She was discovered by producer Evan Rogers, who was visiting Barbados in 2003, and went on to so impress Def Jam CEO Jay-Z that he grabbed her for a multi-album contract. The singer's first single, "Pon De Replay," was released in June 2005, with the full album Music of the Sun dropping in August 2005. But her big break came in 2006 with the release of the single "S.O.S." and the subsequent album A Girl Like Me. The single, which sampled Soft Cell's "Tainted Love," was one of the most critically acclaimed and commercially popular songs of that year. Though Rihanna had basically moved away from dancehall, she was moving toward a new aesthetic that married R&B;, synth-pop and hip-hop. She continued in this direction with 2007's Good Girl Gone Bad, which featured the infectious singles "Umbrella" and "Shut Up and Drive."
- Sam Chennault