The secret ingredient to the speed-of-lightning success that is pop artist Rihanna’s career is evident in her perpetual high-energy spark on a photo shoot. Fresh from an early-morning shuttle from Boston, where she performed the night before, the 18-year-old singer endures hair, makeup and costume changes with the composure of a seasoned pro, then proceeds to dance and ham it up for the camera as the strains of Bob Marley filter through PM Lounge.
Five hours later, the only sign of fatigue is her switch from heels to flats. And the girl still hasn’t eaten a bite.
“It’s been crazy,” she admits of her whirlwind year, ignoring the intermittently buzzing Sidekick in front of her. “When I look back, I’m like, ‘Wow, I really did that. And I accomplished this.’ “
If Rihanna seems a bit awestruck by her rise, it’s understandable. Since hitting the scene last summer with her number-one single, “Pon de Replay” (off her debut album Music of the Sun), a disco-ready riff on the familiar refrain “Hey Mr. Deejay Play a Song for Me,” the Caribbean teenager has been going full-throttle. Eight months later, she released her second album, A Girl Like Me, with the single “S.O.S.” (a take-off of Soft Cell’s “Tainted Love”), hitting the top spot on the charts again. She’s fresh off her first headlining tour this summer, sponsored by Clinique Happy fragrance, for which she has recorded a specially written song, “Just Be Happy,” to make its debut this December.
“We chose Rihanna because we were writing a new song, and going through the avenue of music because music is everything to the younger generation,” explains Lynne Greene, global president of Clinique. “Rihanna, as a voice, fit the bill absolutely perfectly.”
As if that weren’t enough, Rihanna will be a headliner at the Fashion Rocks event in September, singing a duet with Elton John. She has also dabbled in acting, with cameo roles on All My Children and in Bring It On: All or Nothing.
But despite her desire to pursue more film gigs, Rihanna is firmly focused on her music. And to good end, for A Girl Like Me has received critical praise for its notable maturity. Mixing rock, Eighties-style influences, hip-hop, reggae and R&B, the album is a very personal endeavor for the singer.
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“I really got to be me. I really got to say, ‘OK, this is what I want to do.’ Because I don’t want to play a role for the rest of my life,” explains Rihanna, her green eyes widening. “I want to be me. I want people to fall in love with who Rihanna is, and that’s why I want the album to be about me so people can really find out who this girl Rihanna is, because they only know the ‘Pon de Replay’ girl.”
In “Dem Haters,” she sings about the backlash that comes with increased fame, while “Unfaithful,” the album’s second single, is a ballad about cheating on a boyfriend, penned by her fellow Def Jams recordings mate Ne-Yo, who also wrote “Just Be Happy” for Clinique.
“I honestly don’t think in the beginning she could have done a song like ‘Unfaithful,'” he notes, “because it wouldn’t have translated. Her first album, she was very much young and fun … just her look, her whole persona now is a lot more adult.”
Certainly, being discovered at 15 by Evan Rogers of the production company SRP would jump-start anyone’s maturity. Three months later, Rihanna found herself recording a demo and, at the tender age of 16, auditioning for Jay-Z, who signed her on the spot. “When I first went to meet him, I was trembling.”
It’s been a speedy trajectory from her early introduction to music.
As a little girl growing up in Barbados, the singer watched Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey videos raptly. “They were the first two artists that I really studied. I wanted to sound like that; I wanted to look like that; I wanted to do videos like that,” recalls Rihanna, who was born Robyn Rihanna Fenty. “I just developed a passion for music so much that I wanted to do it myself … I was singing all the time. I was singing in front of the mirror. I was singing in the shower. I was singing to my dolls.”
The former tomboy and still a teenager is even now coming to terms with her recent transformation, particularly her newfound love of fashion and makeup.
“I can’t believe it. I never thought I’d be, like, this girly!” she exclaims of her current look (she attended the CFDAs in June as a guest of Max Azria, and at Fashion Rocks will wear Zac Posen, whose designs she loves). “When I was growing up, I was with a lot of boys: the neighborhood, my brothers, my cousins. And I just thought the things they did were so much more fun than being in the house playing with dolls. I liked climbing trees. I liked falling. I liked fighting.”
Her fresh, frock-wearing incarnation may be a surprise to Rihanna, but its appeal to her fans is undeniable. Just ask Ne-Yo how he accounts for her enormous success.
“Besides the fact that she’s absolutely gorgeous?” he laughs. “She’s breathtaking. And she has one of those voices that’s distinct. You hear Rihanna singing and you automatically know it’s her.”
Rihanna credits her ambition and personal drive. Though, when it comes to that infectious energy, well, most of us are out of luck.
“I think youth is on my side, to be honest,” she smiles sweetly.
This article appeared in WWD Scoop, a special publication to WWD available to subscribers.