Rihanna

Growing up in Barbados, the 15-year-old Rihanna formed a girl group with two friends and happened to be seen by American producer Evan Rogers, who was holidaying in Barbados at the time. At 16 she moved to Connecticut to live with Rogers and his wife to develop her music. She recorded a demo that included her debut hit Pon De Replay and attracted the interest of Jay-Z, who signed her to the Def Jam label. Pon De Replay subsequently became a smash hit and Rihanna quickly became an international superstar and sex symbol with a string of further hits, notably Umbrella, the 2007 smash featuring Jay-Z, which topped charts all over the world. She pulled out of the 2009 Grammy Awards amid stories of a fight with her then-boyfriend, the rapper Chris Brown, who later pleaded guilty to assaulting her. Rihanna herself quickly recovered to continue her remarkably successful career.