Rihanna is now officially a billionaire

Pop star and business woman Rihanna has just joined the exclusive list of successful black women, making it to Forbes billionaire's list.

According to Forbes on Wednesday Rihanna is now the world's wealthiest female musician. Her fortune currently stands at $1.7 billion and she stands second to Oprah Winfrey as the second richest black woman in the world. While Rihanna may be famous for hit songs like "Umbrella" and "Diamonds", her recent fame in the business industry is largely as a result of her fashion brands and companies.

In 2017, the 33-year old founded fashion company, Fenty Beauty, which is gotten from the singer's last name (Robyn "Fenty"). The company is was founded with luxury goods giant LVMH (run by Bernard Arnault, the second richest person in the world) and is currently valued at about $2.8 billion and her lingerie brand worth $270 million. The popstar also owns Fenty Skin and the Fenty lingerie Fenty x Savage, currently worth $1 billion.

Rihanna and LVMH could have possibly made more money or otherwise if they didn't shutdown their other business, a high-end fashion and accessories house, also called Fenty. The Fenty brand, which was founded in 2019, didn't stand the test of time, as the overly-priced line suffered during the pandemic. It released its last collection in November 2020, and announced the shutdown in February this year.

Rihanna owns about 30 percent of Savage x Fenty and nearly 50 percent of Fenty Beauty, according to Forbes estimate. The fashion brand's target is to offer consumers with a range of products that suits all skin types and colors. 

"A lot of women felt there were no lines out there that catered to their skin tone. It was light, medium, medium dark, and dark," said Shannon Coyne, co-founder of consumer products consultancy Bluestock Advisors. "We all know that's not reality. She was one of the first brands that came out and said, 'I want to speak to all of those different people."

Although Rihanna is not the only celebrity to capitalize on her social media presence — 101 million followers on Instagram and 102.5 million on Twitter — to promote her beauty brand and sell her products, she is the only celebrity and entrepreneur to successfully do so. The only concern her fans have about her new business interest is that it keeps her busy from working on her music.

"She is creating a brand outside of he self. It's not just about Rihanna," Coyne said. "Even if you don't like her music, she's created a real style in the fashion and beauty space." 

Despite the pandemic, demand for the beauty products remained fairly steady. Although a 2020 annual report from LVMH showed a drop in revenue, the company still said it "showed good resilience" and "a significant improvement in trends in all its activities compared to the first nine months of 2020. Although sales of cosmetics slowed down during the pandemic, beauty companies are fast recovering and worth Pre-Covid levels. Stocks of beauty companies Estée Lauder and L'Oréal, have both bounced back, hitting all-time highs and trading at about 7.5 times their annual revenues.