Rihanna gave us her last album a decade ago, but she’s still breaking music records. She is now the first female artist in the history of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) to have over 200 million singles certifications.
With 200.5 million singles certifications to be exact, the 38-year-old singer and entrepreneur is the third-ranking musical artist on the association’s all-time digital singles units list, behind Drake, who has 277.5 million units, and Morgan Wallen’s 215 million units.
RIAA defines one unit as either one permanent digital download or 150 on-demand audio and/or video streams to qualify for certification.
Last December, Rih also hit another music milestone when Billboard announced that her eighth and most recent studio album, “ANTI,” had spent 500 weeks on the Billboard 200, the first Black woman in history to achieve this.
“God ain’t forget bout me,” she said at the time, celebrating the moment.
Rihanna released the certified sextuple Platinum album, “ANTI,” in 2016, which brought us hits like “Needed Me,” “Work,” and “Love On The Brain.” Since then, the beauty mogul has become a billionaire, storming the business world with her cosmetics company, Fenty Beauty, and lingerie brand Savage X Fenty. And she’s had three children with her longtime partner, rapper A$AP Rocky.
The Bajan artist has given us a song here and there since “ANTI,” and has said over the years that a ninth album is coming, telling Harper’s Bazaar in 2025 that her next project is “not going to be anything that anybody expects.” She also teased fans earlier this year with an Instagram post of her in the studio, though no word yet as to when we’ll hear the final product, nicknamed “R9” by fans, that she’s been reportedly mulling over for these last few years.
But until then, this new accomplishment shows that Rihanna lovers are still savoring the tracks that have shaped our sound for the last 20 years.
