Barbados to establish new museum in honour of Rihanna’s extraordinary career

For millionaire female singer, Barbados Rihanna, there seems to be so much happening, and so fast for her lately, on the back of the recent announcement by Forbes that she had stepped into the annals of history as the richest female entertainer at a $600 million net worth.

This time around, it is her home country of Barbados that is doing something extremely big for and in her name. Making the announcement recently, the country’s first female prime minister, Mia Amor Mottley said there were plans far-advanced between Rihanna’s team and her government to create a museum that honors her work in the country.

She becomes one of a handful of celebrities including ABBA, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Britney Spears to have celebrity museums in their names.

“We’ve been discussing with her [Rihanna] family – her brother in particular and her management – the need for them to establish a major museum with the government in Westbury Road so that people who leave the cruise terminal or who are at Kensington visiting for cricket have another iconic thing besides the Legends of Barbados Museum there at Herbert House,” Mottley said.

“We hope that her family and government can work together to make that a meaningful experience in the same way that when you go to Kingston, you can go and visit Bob Marley’s house.”

Born Robyn Rihanna Fenty and raised in Barbados before she set off to the United States as a teenager to start her music career, the millionaire 31-year-old is now a chart-topping musician, acclaimed actress, major fashion designer and shrewd businesswoman.

Earlier last year, the country of Barbados named her as an ambassador of education, tourism and investment, renaming the street she grew up on as “Rihanna Drive” in 2017 and built a small monument for her.

Prime Minister Mottley is happy that Rihanna “… didn’t say ‘I want to build a business’ or ‘when I build a successful business’, she said ‘when I build my empire’ – and I’ve never forgotten that – and she has built an empire and is still building it,” she said during an interview at Kensington Town Hall.

“Anybody who could start going to school on a ZR [route taxi] from Westbury to Waterford and could now be the most successful woman entertainer in the entire globe in my view deserves to be recognized in her life as a living legend of Barbados as well.”

Praising Bajan cricket legend Sir Garfield Sobers, who was in the audience, Mottley drew parallels between the country’s cultural landmarks recognizing his achievements and her hopes for similar ones for Rihanna. Sobers is among those honoured in the Legends of Barbados Cricket Museum and an impressive statue depicting him batting stands outside the Oval, Barbados’ premier cricket ground.

The already popular online sensation, who was listed among Time Magazine’s 25 most influential People on the Internet in 2017, is also busy with other projects alongside her charitable work, including her Fenty Beauty makeup line, Savage x Fenty lingerie line, Fenty x Puma partnerships, and recording new music.