Rihanna
Bridgetown, Barbados superstar who became the best-selling digital singles artist of all time and built the most successful celebrity beauty brand in history with Fenty Beauty.
Pantheon Standing
| List Name | Rank | Combined |
|---|---|---|
| Greatest R&B / Soul Artists of All Time | #1 | 96.0 |
The Age Divide
Voters under 30 and over 35 rank Rihanna significantly differently across lists.
The Cultural Record
Discography
Bridgetown, Barbados superstar who became the best-selling digital singles artist of all time and built the most successful celebrity beauty brand in history with Fenty Beauty
Awards & Recognition
9 Grammy Awards
View All 9 Grammy Wins →—
Super Bowl LVII halftime performer
Fenty Beauty founder
The Case For Rihanna
“The longevity argument alone puts them in a category of one. While others burned bright and faded, this figure consistently reinvented and dominated across decades, eras, and cultural shifts that would have destroyed lesser talents.”
“Technically unmatched. The craft here is evident in every performance, every work — the kind of effortless execution that only comes from thousands of hours of mastery made invisible. They make the impossible look inevitable.”
“Commercial success should never be held against artistic legacy. The ability to dominate charts while maintaining critical respect is a skill unto itself — one that this figure has mastered better than any peer in the conversation.”
Rank History
Ranking history will be available once voting opens for Rihanna.
Often Compared To
Sam Cooke
#2R&B / Soul — Clarksdale, Mississippi · 1957–1964
Chicago singer who invented soul music by crossing gospel into pop, became the first major Black artist to own his publishing rights, and wrote A Change Is Gonna Come weeks before his death.
Silk Sonic
#3R&B / Soul — Los Angeles, California · 2021–2022
The 1970s soul supergroup of Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak who released An Evening with Silk Sonic — a retro-funk love letter that swept the 2022 Grammys.