<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



Rihanna confirmed Wednesday she will release her first new song in five years on Friday, marking the singer’s long-awaited return to music after focusing on her makeup and lingerie lines.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">KEY FACTS</h2>



The single, called “Lift Me Up,” is part of the soundtrack for the upcoming movie&nbsp;Black Panther: Wakanda Forever—Marvel Studios&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/MarvelStudios/status/1585073731524706305?s=20&amp;t=Kd8MD4ZG4hA8AbKWGJqplA" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tweeted</a>&nbsp;a video of the movie’s logo, with the letter “R” moving out and glistening, the same “R” Rihanna shared&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/rihanna/status/1585302326318813185?s=20&amp;t=qQ7k1WV_HzaXDt8VlwOWpQ" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">on social media</a>&nbsp;on Wednesday.&nbsp;



The short clip of the tune shared by Rihanna features her humming.&nbsp;



The song was written as a tribute to&nbsp;Black Panther&nbsp;star Chadwick Boseman, who died from cancer in 2020,&nbsp;<a href="https://variety.com/2022/music/news/rihanna-song-black-panther-wakanda-forever-1235412876/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Variety</a>&nbsp;reported.



Many fans expected Rihanna’s return to music was coming after she announced last month she would perform at the upcoming Super Bowl halftime show.&nbsp;



However, the singer has not announced any plans of releasing her ninth studio album.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">FORBES VALUATION</h2>



Rihanna first became a billionaire in August and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/maddieberg/2021/08/04/fentys-fortune-rihanna-is-now-officially-a-billionaire/?sh=580a927f7c96">Forbes&nbsp;estimates</a>&nbsp;her net worth is $1.4 billion.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">KEY BACKGROUND&nbsp;</h2>



Rihanna last appeared on N.E.R.D.’s song “Lemon” in 2017. Her last album&nbsp;Anti&nbsp;was released in 2016. During her hiatus from music, she’s grown her Fenty business empire, including her Fenty Beauty makeup line, her Fenty Skin skincare line and her Savage X Fenty lingerie line. This year, she confirmed she was pregnant with her first child, with her boyfriend, rapper A$AP Rocky. The couple&nbsp;<a href="https://www.tmz.com/2022/05/19/rihanna-asap-rocky-gives-birth-welcomes-baby-boy/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reportedly</a>&nbsp;welcomed a baby boy in May.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">WHAT TO WATCH FOR&nbsp;</h2>



Wakanda Forever&nbsp;is the sequel to 2018’s wildly successful&nbsp;Black Panther, and will be released in theaters on November 11. The first movie’s soundtrack was curated by Kendrick Lamar, and his song for the film with SZA, “All The Stars,” was nominated for the the Oscar for Best Original Song. Rihanna’s annual Savage X Fenty fashion show hits Amazon Prime Video on November 9, and is set to feature performances by Burna Boy and Anitta, and appearances by Sheryl Lee Ralph, Cara Delevingne and Simu Liu.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">BIG NUMBER</h2>



9. That’s how many Grammy awards Rihanna has won.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/carlieporterfield/2022/09/25/rihanna-will-headline-next-years-super-bowl-halftime-show/?sh=ecf577b1e7ca">Rihanna Will Headline Next Year’s Super Bowl Halftime Show</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)&nbsp;



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/marisadellatto/2022/01/31/rihanna-is-pregnant-and-expecting-baby-with-boyfriend-aap-rocky/?sh=6f4f991877a5">Rihanna Is Pregnant And Expecting Baby With Boyfriend A$AP Rocky</a>(Forbes)&nbsp;



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/maddieberg/2021/08/04/fentys-fortune-rihanna-is-now-officially-a-billionaire/?sh=f9b2acc7c96b">Fenty’s Fortune: Rihanna Is Now Officially A Billionaire</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)

Marvel Studios’ “Black Panther 2: Wakanda Forever” Premiere

Rihanna Released Her First New Music In Five Years On Friday

How the singer became the richest female musician on the planet. Hint: it wasn&#8217;t performing.



When Robyn Fenty, known to the world as Rihanna, launched Fenty Beauty in 2017, she sought to create a cosmetics company that made “women everywhere (feel)&nbsp;included.” A perhaps unintended consequence: The beauty line has helped her enter one of the world’s most&nbsp;exclusive&nbsp;ranks: Billionaire.



Rihanna is now worth $1.7 billion,&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;estimates—making her the wealthiest female musician in the world and second only to Oprah Winfrey as the richest female entertainer. But it’s not her music that’s made her so wealthy. The bulk of her fortune (an estimated $1.4 billion) comes from the value of Fenty Beauty, of which&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;can now confirm she owns 50%. Much of the rest lies in her stake&nbsp;in her lingerie company, Savage x Fenty, worth an estimated $270 million, and her earnings from her career as a chart-topping musician and actress.



While Barbados-born Rihanna isn’t the only celebrity to capitalize on her social media presence —she has 101 million followers on Instagram and 102.5 million on Twitter—to build a beauty brand, she is the most successful beauty entrepreneur to do so. Fenty Beauty, which is a 50-50 joint venture with French luxury goods conglomerate LVMH (run by Bernard Arnault, the world’s second richest person), launched in 2017 with the goal of inclusivity. Its products come in a diverse range of colors—foundation is offered in 50 shades, including harder-to-find darker shades for women of color—and are modeled in its advertising by an equally diverse group of people.&nbsp;



Available online and at Sephora stores, which are also owned by LVMH, the products were an instant success. By 2018, its first full calendar year, the line was bringing in more than $550 million in annual revenues, according to LVMH, beating out other celebrity-founded brands like Kylie Jenner’s Kylie Cosmetics, Kim Kardashian West’s KKW Beauty and Jessica Alba’s Honest Company.



“A lot of women felt there were no lines out there that catered to their skin tone. It was light, medium, medium dark, dark,” says Shannon Coyne, cofounder 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.’”



While cosmetics sales slowed during the pandemic, beauty companies are worth as much as ever. Stocks of larger beauty conglomerates like Estee Lauder and L&#8217;Oreal have bounced back, reaching all-time highs and trading at impressive 7.5 (or more) times annual revenues. Meanwhile independent brands like Beautycounter and Charlotte Tilbury inked deals with investment firms earlier this year at billion-dollar valuations.



That is good news for Rihanna. Thanks to the impressive multiples at which beauty companies are trading, Fenty Beauty is worth a conservative $2.8 billion,&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;estimates. And all signs point to the company continuing to grow. In its annual report for 2020, LVMH said Fenty Skin, which launched last year, was off to a “very promising start” and “generated unprecedented buzz,” and that Fenty Beauty &#8220;maintained its appeal as a premier make up brand.&#8221;



Fenty Beauty isn’t Rihanna’s only billion-dollar brand. In February her lingerie line&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/maddieberg/2021/02/10/rihannas-lingerie-line-savage-x-fenty-raises-115-million-on-same-day-lvmh-announces-its-closing-her-fashion-house/">Savage x Fenty raised $115 million in funding</a>&nbsp;at a $1 billion valuation. The company, which launched in 2018 as a joint venture with TechStyle Fashion Group, counts blue-chip investors like Jay-Z’s Marcy Venture Partners and private equity firm L. Catterton (<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/sergeiklebnikov/2020/05/12/why-a-private-equity-firm-backed-by-bernard-arnault-is-putting-400-million-into-norwegian-cruise-line/?sh=7fa14e343504">in which Bernard Arnault is an investor)</a>&nbsp;as shareholders. Rihanna maintains a 30% ownership stake,&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;estimates. The latest round of funding will reportedly be used for customer acquisition and retail expansion.&nbsp;



Not that everything Rihanna touches turns to gold.&nbsp; In February, LVMH and Rihanna&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/maddieberg/2021/02/10/rihannas-lingerie-line-savage-x-fenty-raises-115-million-on-same-day-lvmh-announces-its-closing-her-fashion-house/?sh=4568e2373660">confirmed in a statement to&nbsp;Forbes</a>&nbsp;that they had shut down their other venture, a high-end fashion and accessories house also called Fenty. Launched in 2019, Fenty sought to extend Rihanna’s brand of inclusivity and offer styles in a range of sizes. But like many luxury fashion brands, the high-priced line suffered during the pandemic, releasing its last collection in November 2020.



The only complaint some fans may have about her career as a fashion and beauty mogul? It keeps her busy. The singer, who used to release an album almost every year, hasn’t released a new album since 2016’s&nbsp;Anti.&nbsp;



From a financial perspective, that may be just fine: “She is creating a brand outside of herself. It’s not just about Rihanna,” says consultant Coyne. “Even if you don&#8217;t like her music, she’s created a real style in the fashion and beauty space.”



by&nbsp;Madeline Berg, Forbes Staff

Rihanna’s Savage X Fenty Show Vol. 2 presented by Amazon Prime Video – Show & BTS

Fenty’s Fortune: Rihanna Is Now Officially A Billionaire

Jay-Z reaped a massive windfall selling a piece of his champagne brand to luxury goods giant LVMH – but it doesn’t beat stars like Dr. Dre or Kylie Jenner when they sold their stakes in major companies.



By Abigail Freeman,Forbes Staff



It turns out Jay-Z’s luxury champagne brand is worth more than “half a B.”



The partnership announced on Monday between Jay-Z and the wine and spirits division of LVMH makes the billionaire rapper the latest celebrity to pocket a windfall by selling part of a consumer brand to a major distributor. The deal appears to have valued the brand, Armand de Brignac, at more than $600 million, which would land him a cash payment of at least $300 million—about $50 million more than he would have made based on the $500 million value he rapped about in Meek Mill’s 2018 song “What’s Free.” &nbsp;



The founder of RocNation sold 50% of the champagne business to LVMH’s Moët Hennessy in a move aimed at “taking the business to new heights across the world,” according to Moet’s CEO Philippe Schaus.&nbsp; LVMH is known to bid competitively, and that certainly appears to have been true for this latest deal.&nbsp;



Forbes&nbsp;values the deal for the bubbly wine, known by its nickname Ace of Spades thanks to its logo design and several of Jay-Z’s lyrics promoting it, at roughly $630 million, based on conversations with five beverage analysts and industry insiders. That’s double&nbsp;Forbes’ previous valuation of the brand. The terms of the deal have not been publicly reported by LVMH or Jay-Z, whose company will still handle production. Neither side would comment, but based on analyst estimates, Jay-Z likely pocketed at least $315 million in the deal.&nbsp;&nbsp;



“The multiples for Armand de Brignac—based on the category and volume size of the brand—far outreach brands that don’t have that celebrity ownership,” says beverage market analyst Eric Schmidt.&nbsp;



Still, it’s not the biggest celebrity cash out by a long shot: Kylie Jenner sold 51% of her cosmetics company to Coty in a deal that valued the brand at more than $1 billion; she got $540 million pre-tax. Rapper-Producer Dr. Dre sold his audio product company Beats to Apple in 2014 for $3 billion, pocketing $585 million himself before taxes.&nbsp;



Plenty of other pop stars have followed suit, not just selling out or selling stakes but often partnering with global giants. LVMH struck an earlier deal with Jay-Z protégé&nbsp; Rihanna in 2017 to launch Fenty Beauty, and most recently invested indirectly in her lingerie line Savage x Fenty earlier this month. The value of her stakes in both businesses totals $530 million.&nbsp;



“With celebrity association, particularly in the earlier years, the valuation of a company could be higher by three to seven times,” says food and beverage marketing consultant Arthur Gallego. “But I don’t think it works for every celebrity. There’s got to be something authentic about it.”



Jay-Z’s<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/2014/11/06/why-jay-zs-champagne-news-isnt-so-new/?sh=17b1677528d3">journey with Ace of Spades</a>&nbsp;began in 2006, a year after he signed Rihanna to her first record deal. At the time, the Brooklyn-born mogul called for a boycott from Cristal champagne after CEO Frédéric Rouzaud said, &#8220;What can we do? We can&#8217;t forbid people from buying it,&#8221; in response to being asked about the brand’s popularity among rappers at the time. Later that year, Jay-Z debuted his champagne brand by featuring its signature gold bottle in his &#8220;Show Me What You Got&#8221; video.



The popularity and strong sales of Ace of Spades helped boost Jay-Z’s fortune to $1 billion by 2019, earning him&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;recognition as the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/2019/06/03/jay-z-billionaire-worth/?sh=28eea6cf3a5f">first hip-hop artist</a>&nbsp;toreach the 10-figure milestone. The latest deal will likely bump that figure up, while leaving him with other assets to monetize, including RocNation’s entertainment business, music streaming service Tidal, an athlete representation agency, his master recordings and music publishing rights, and a second liquor brand, D’usse.



Here is how his windfall stacks up against some of the most notable celebrity deals inked in the past five years.



<h3 class="has-text-align-center wp-block-heading" id="h-george-clooney">George Clooney</h3>



<div class="wp-block-image is-style-default"><figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1148820506-1024x683.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-50129" width="403" height="268" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1148820506-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1148820506-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1148820506-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1148820506-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1148820506-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1148820506-600x400.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 403px) 100vw, 403px" /><figcaption> (Photo by Franco Origlia/Getty Images)</figcaption></figure></div>



British liquor giant Diageo purchased the movie star’s tequila company Casamigos in 2017 in a transaction that valued the company at up to $1 billion including $700 million up front and another $300 million based on performance over the following 10 years. The A-list actor netted more than $200 million pretax, making him Forbes’ top paid actor of 2018. He cofounded the company with nightlife entrepreneur Rande Gerber (husband of supermodel Cindy Crawford) and real estate tycoon Mike Meldman in 2013. Clooney, Gerber and Meldman each invested $600,000 apiece as equal partners to start up Casamigos, which loosely means house of friends, and then reinvested profits, earning them an impressive ROI. The star and his pals are still involved in the business.



<h3 class="has-text-align-center wp-block-heading">Kylie Jenner</h3>



<div class="wp-block-image is-style-default"><figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1205228158-683x1024.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-50131" width="378" height="566" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1205228158-683x1024.jpg 683w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1205228158-200x300.jpg 200w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1205228158-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1205228158-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1205228158-1365x2048.jpg 1365w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1205228158-300x450.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1205228158-600x900.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1205228158-scaled.jpg 1707w" sizes="(max-width: 378px) 100vw, 378px" /><figcaption> (Photo by Rich Fury/VF20/Getty Images for Vanity Fair)</figcaption></figure></div>



Jenner used $250,000 of her earnings from modeling to pay an outside company to make her first 15,000 lip kits, which sold out in minutes in 2015. Kylie Cosmetics quickly became one of the fastest growing makeup brands, thanks to the reality TV star’s massive social media following—now at 265 million followers across Instagram, YouTube and Twitter. Cosmetics giant Coty Inc paid $600 million for a 51% stake of the brand in January 2020; she pocketed $540 million, pretax. She still has <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/chasewithorn/2020/05/29/inside-kylie-jennerss-web-of-lies-and-why-shes-no-longer-a-billionaire/?sh=520c80cc25f7">an estimated 44.1%</a> stake—with Kris Jenner owning a small stake—in the brand, and she and her team oversee all creative efforts.  



<h3 class="has-text-align-center wp-block-heading">Kim Kardashian West</h3>



<div class="wp-block-image is-style-default"><figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1205274440-1024x682.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-50132" width="424" height="282" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1205274440-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1205274440-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1205274440-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1205274440-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1205274440-2048x1363.jpg 2048w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1205274440-600x399.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 424px) 100vw, 424px" /><figcaption> (Photo by Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic)</figcaption></figure></div>



Kardashian West sold 20% of KKW Beauty to publicly traded Coty in a deal that closed in January, and took home $180 million pre-tax. Kardashian West still has a 72% stake, worth an estimated $500 million. The new partners plan to enter new beauty categories together and expand overseas. In the works: a skincare line set to launch in fiscal year 2022. Kardashian West filed for divorce from Kanye West, her husband of seven years, in February; the couple had signed a pre-nup. 



<h3 class="has-text-align-center wp-block-heading">Rihanna</h3>



<div class="wp-block-image is-style-default"><figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1208055829-1024x705.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-50133" width="491" height="338" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1208055829-1024x705.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1208055829-300x206.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1208055829-768x529.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1208055829-1536x1057.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1208055829-2048x1410.jpg 2048w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1208055829-600x413.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 491px) 100vw, 491px" /><figcaption>. (Photo by Paras Griffin/Getty Images for BET)</figcaption></figure></div>



The pop star has made the bulk of her fortune from Fenty Beauty, the makeup brand she started with LVMH in September 2017. Forbes estimates that LVMH owns 50% and she owns 15%, or $450 million worth, of the $3 billion (est. value) brand. Fashion house Fenty, which she launched less than two years ago as a joint venture with LVMH, has been less successful. Following a decline in business at Rihanna’s Fenty clothing line, LVMH said it is halting the luxury fashion house after less than two years of operation. Rihanna also has a roughly $80 millionstake in lingerie line, Savage x Fenty, a joint venture launched in 2018 with TechStyle Fashion Group. Investors in the business include L Catterton and Jay-Z’s Marcy Venture Partners. 



<h3 class="has-text-align-center wp-block-heading">Kanye West </h3>



<div class="wp-block-image is-style-default"><figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/GettyImages-1144131570-1024x683.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-47745" width="413" height="275" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/GettyImages-1144131570-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/GettyImages-1144131570-scaled-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/GettyImages-1144131570-scaled-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/GettyImages-1144131570-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/GettyImages-1144131570-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/GettyImages-1144131570-2048x1365.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 413px) 100vw, 413px" /><figcaption>. (Photo by Timothy Norris/Getty Images for Coachella)</figcaption></figure></div>



In a deal perhaps more reminiscent of Michael Jordan’s partnership with Nike or rapper Diddy’s Ciroc vodka with liquor giant Diageo, West gets much of his money from a profit sharing agreement with Adidas.&nbsp; West owns 100% of his super popular sneaker brand Yeezy. But it’s a complicated deal in which Adidas handles all the production, marketing and distribution, and West receives a royalty of approximately 11% of Yeezy revenue. Based on estimated revenues of $1.3 billion in 2019, West likely received royalties of over $140 million.&nbsp; That was more than either Jordan, who earned $130 million from his cut of Air Jordan sales, or Diddy, who pocketed $50 million, the bulk of his earnings, in beverage partnerships, mostly from Ciroc. Based on the royalty stream,&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;valued West’s business at nearly $1.3 billion.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Additional reporting by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/madelineberg/">Madeline Berg</a>.

2020 Roc Nation THE BRUNCH – Inside

Here’s How Much Jay-Z Made On His Ace Of Spades Deal—And How It Stacks Up Against Other Celebrity Cashouts

Each year, tens of thousands of people immigrate to the U.S., hoping for a better future. Robyn Rihanna Fenty’s story started the same way. Over a decade ago, Rihanna left her home country, Barbados, and her abusive addict father behind to launch her music career. 



Her journey kicked off with the help of fellow musician (and&nbsp;now billionaire) Jay-Z, who heard a demo of one of her songs. Since then, Rihanna has not only rocked the music industry, she’s also become a force in the beauty and fashion industries.



Building on her fame and her experiences as a woman of color, Rihanna launched makeup brand Fenty in partnership with luxury goods group LVMH in late 2017. &nbsp;



READ MORE | <a href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/woman/2019/06/04/how-rihanna-created-a-600-million-fortune-and-became-the-worlds-richest-female-musician/">How Rihanna Created A $600 Million Fortune—And Became The World’s Richest Female Musician</a>



The Fenty line, which includes shades of makeup for a wide range of skin colors and tones, pulled in an estimated $570 million in sales last year. In 2018, she started the Savage X Fenty lingerie line with Los Angeles-based online fashion firm TechStyle Fashion Group. 



That was just the first of her forays into clothing design. Last month Rihanna and LVMH announced a new luxury fashion house, Fenty, which will be based in Paris. She becomes the first black woman to lead a major fashion&nbsp;maison.



Primarily thanks to her ventures outside of music,&nbsp;Rihanna&nbsp;is worth an estimated $600 million, according to&nbsp;Forbes.&nbsp;She debuts as one of 19 immigrants on&nbsp;Forbes’ 2019 list of America’s Richest Self-Made Women, which altogether features 80 women.



 Two other newcomers to the list were born outside the U.S. as well: Ashley Chen of Taiwan and Neha Narkhede of India. The women immigrants hail from around the globe, from Canada to South Korea, from 14 different countries on four continents; nine moved here from an Asian country. Together this cohort of immigrants, which make up nearly one- fourth of the women in the self-made ranks, is worth an estimated $18.4 billion—23% of the total.



READ MORE | <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="From Beyoncé Knowles-Carter to Kim Kardashian West, America’s Richest Self-Made Women Under 40 (opens in a new tab)" href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/woman/2019/06/05/from-beyonce-knowles-carter-to-kim-kardashian-west-americas-richest-self-made-women-under-40/" target="_blank">From Beyoncé Knowles-Carter to Kim Kardashian West, America’s Richest Self-Made Women Under 40</a>



This is the fifth year that&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;has celebrated the nation’s most successful women. The U.S. continues to serve as a beacon for ambitious women who want to transform industries, be it in retail, defense or other industries. In spite of the federal government’s crackdown on immigration, the nation’s most successful immigrant women continue to embody the power of the American Dream.



Thai Lee, who is the most successful woman immigrant in the country, has lived that dream, working very hard along the way. Lee, who was born in Bangkok, grew up in South Korea but moved to the U.S., where she and her older sister lived with a family friend and attended high school in Amherst, Massachusetts. Lee later attended Amherst College to study economics and biology, and received her M.B.A. from Harvard Business School in 1985. 



She went on to work at U.S. companies like Procter &amp; Gamble and American Express for four years, but in 1989 she and her then husband bought a software reseller for less than $1 million. They renamed it SHI International, which now works with customers like Boeing and Johnson &amp; Johnson and reported $10 billion in sales in 2018.



China native&nbsp;Weili Dai, Panda Express cofounder&nbsp;Peggy Cherng&nbsp;and Turkish-American billionaire&nbsp;Eren Ozmen, who grew up in Diyarbakir—a city in Turkey close to the Syrian border—all similarly moved to the U.S. in pursuit of a better education. Ozmen sold baklava and worked as a janitor at aerospace and defense company Sierra Nevada to support herself while attending business school at the University of Nevada, Reno. 



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Today she is the president and majority owner of Sierra Nevada, which racked up $1.9 billion in sales in 2018 and counts NASA as one of its clients. “Look at the United States and what women can do here, compared to the rest of the world. That is why we feel we have a legacy to leave behind,” Ozmen told&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;in&nbsp;2018. &nbsp;&nbsp;



Other women moved here in search of a better life and more opportunities. Makeup mogul Anastasia Soare immigrated from Romania to Los Angeles in 1989 and took a job in a beauty salon. Three years later she quit to start her own business and in 2000 launched her eyebrow products line, Anastasia Beverly Hills, now valued at over $3 billion. 



Forever 21 cofounder&nbsp;Jin Sook Chang&nbsp;pursued a similar path: She and her husband came to the U.S. from South Korea in 1981. Chang worked as a hairdresser for three years, while her husband worked&nbsp;three jobs. The couple used $11,000 they had saved to open a 900-square-foot clothing store in Los Angeles. Now Forever 21 has over 815 stores and an estimated $3.4 billion in annual revenue.



Another industry where women immigrants make their mark is technology. Twenty women entrepreneurs on&nbsp;Forbes’ list built a fortune in tech, including seven immigrants. One of those is Oracle co-CEO Safra Catz. Originally from Israel, Catz joined the software giant Oracle in 1999. Although Catz is not a founder, she has overseen more than 130 acquisitions worth a total of $60 billion and has become one of the top-paid CEOs in the country. Just in 2017, Oracle paid her $135 million in cash and stock, which helped her join the billionaire ranks in 2019.



Here’s the complete list of immigrants on this year’s list of America’s Richest Self-Made Women:



Thai Lee



Net worth: $3 billion



Country of origin: South Korea



Source of wealth: IT provider



Peggy Cherng



Net worth: $1.7 billion



Country of origin: Burma (Myanmar)



Source of wealth: fast food



Jin Sook Chang



Net worth: $1.5 billion



Country of origin: South Korea



Source of wealth: fashion



Eren Ozmen



Net worth: $1.4 billion



Country of origin: Turkey



Source of wealth: aerospace



Jayshree Ullal



Net worth: $1.4 billion



Country of origin: United Kingdom



Source of wealth: computer networking



Anastasia Soare



Net worth: $1.2 billion



Country of origin: Romania



Source of wealth: cosmetics



Safra Catz



Net worth: $1.1 billion



Country of origin: Israel



Source of wealth: software



Neerja Sethi



Net worth: $1 billion



Country of origin: India



Source of wealth: IT consulting



Weili Dai



Net worth: $960 million



Country of origin: China



Source of wealth: semiconductors



Christel DeHaan



Net worth: $950 million



Country of origin: Germany



Source of wealth: timeshares



Kit Crawford



Net worth: $890 million



Country of origin: Canada



Source of wealth: Clif Bar



Rihanna



Net worth: $600 million



Country of origin: Barbados



Source of wealth: cosmetics, music



Theresia Gouw



Net worth: $580 million



Country of origin: Indonesia



Source of wealth: venture capital



Celine Dion



Net worth: $450 million



Country of origin: Canada



Source of wealth: music



Adi Tatarko



Net worth: $430 million



Country of origin: Israel



Source of wealth: home design



Neha Narkhede



Net worth: $360 million



Country of origin: India



Source of wealth: software



Sonia Gardner



Net worth: $310 million



Country of origin: Morocco



Source of wealth: finance



Ashley Chen



Net worth: $300 million



Country of origin: Taiwan



Source of wealth: IT provider



Toni Ko



Net worth: $270 million



Country of origin: South Korea



Source of wealth: cosmetics



-Deniz Cam; Forbes Staff

gettyimages-968037506-594×594 (1)

Rihanna, Celine Dion, Safra Catz: Here Are The Most Successful Immigrant Women In The US

“Work, work, work, work, work, work.” That’s the opening line of Rihanna’s 2016 dancehall anthem titled, appropriately, “Work.” It could also serve as her personal motto.



Famous first as a singer, Robyn Rihanna Fenty, age 31, has since evolved into a style icon and makeup entrepreneur—and soon she’ll be the first black woman in charge of a major luxury fashion house. All those efforts add up to a $600 million fortune, making her the wealthiest female musician in the world, ahead of the likes of Madonna ($570 million), Céline Dion ($450 million) and Beyoncé ($400 million).



Most of that comes not from music but from her partnership with LVMH, the French luxury goods giant run by billionaire Bernard Arnault. Rihanna (pronounced Ri-Ann-ah, not Ri-Ah-nah as she recently clarified) and LVMH co-own the makeup brand Fenty Beauty. 



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It launched in September 2017 at Sephora, another LVMH brand, and online at FentyBeauty.com, quickly becoming a viral success. Fenty Beauty racked up a reported $100 million in sales in its first few weeks, propelled by Rihanna’s fame and 71 million Instagram followers.



The entire personal care industry in America has grown huge in recent years. According to Grand View Research,&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/us-personal-care-products-market" target="_blank">it could swell to more than $200 billion in sales by 2025</a>, up from closer to $130 billion in 2016.&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="http://www.capstoneheadwaters.com/sites/default/files/Capstone%20Headwaters%20Personal%20Care%20Products%20%26%20Services%20M%26A%20Coverage%20Report%20-%20Q4%202018.pdf" target="_blank">The market saw a record&nbsp;</a>134 M&amp;A deals last year, including P&amp;G&#8217;s $250 million purchase of 10-year-old First Aid Beauty. 



Perhaps the most telling data point: 11 of the 80 women on&nbsp;Forbes&#8216; list of the Richest Self-Made Women made their money in beauty or skincare products. Many did what Rihanna did, turn to the low-cost marketing opportunity presented by social media. That works best for existing celebrities, as&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/natalierobehmed/2019/03/05/at-21-kylie-jenner-becomes-the-youngest-self-made-billionaire-ever/" target="_blank">Kylie Jenner and her Kylie Cosmetics</a>&nbsp;proved out, who can push their new products at their existing followers.



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Fenty Beauty has differentiated itself in another way, releasing 40 shades of foundation, far more than the handful of hues sold by other brands. “It challenged the standard convention that you only needed a very defined set of shades to satisfy a market,” says Stephanie Wissink, a research analyst at Jefferies. “Not only did [Fenty Beauty] achieve meaningful sales, but it potentially changed the industry permanently.”&nbsp;



Sales continue to soar. Fenty Beauty generated an estimated $570 million in revenue last year, after only 15 months in business. The entire operation is worth, conservatively, more than $3 billion.&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;estimates thatLVMH owns an estimated 50% of it, while Rihanna has about 15%, a figure a spokesperson for the artist disputed but wouldn’t clarify further.



The Barbados native, who overcame hardships including an abusive addict father and a well-publicized assault by then-boyfriend Chris Brown in 2009, also co-owns the Savage X Fenty lingerie line with Los Angeles-based online fashion firm TechStyle Fashion Group and has millions in earnings from her career touring and releasing as a singer, which make up the rest of her fortune.



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Her empire continues to grow. In May, LVMH and Rihanna announced Fenty, a new clothing house that will make high-end clothes, shoes, accessories and jewelry.



“They extended the offer to me and it was a no-brainer because LVMH is a machine,” Rihanna told&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/05/20/t-magazine/rihanna-fenty-louis-vuitton.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The New York Times Style Magazine</a>. “Bernard Arnault was so enthusiastic; he trusted me and my vision.”



The fashion line, which launched online in May, includes sizes up to U.S. 14, embodying the same inclusive ideal of Fenty Beauty. It will exist under the same umbrella as famous brands such as Dior and Givenchy, marking LVMH’s first new house in more than 30 years.



“What Fenty Beauty did to beauty, Fenty lifestyle is going to do to fashion,” says Wissink. “It’s going to raise the bar for what it looks like to build a brand that’s inclusive, game changing, global and iconic.”



-Natalie Robehmed; Forbes Staff

Tag: Rihanna

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