Before Rihanna would work with Kanye West, Eminem, Drake, Jay-Z, Calvin Harris, David Guetta, and even Coldplay, before she won numerous Grammys, MTV Music Awards, Brit Awards, and a Razzy Award for her acting in the movie "Battleship."

Before she would show the world that bras are optional and before Chris Brown would physically and verbally assault her at home yet the two of them would romantically reunite four years later.

Before Barbados ever observed Rihanna's Day, here is a brief summary of Rihanna's life and career before she became famous.

On February 20, 1988, in St. Michael's Parish on the Caribbean island of Barbados, Robyn Rihanna Fenty was born. She is the oldest of three kids, including her stepbrothers. 

Her mother Monica Fenty, who is of Afro-Guyanese descent, is a retired accountant and a former working makeup artist. Ronald Fenty, her father, ran a warehouse and ran a street vendor business. He himself is of mixed Barbados and Irish ancestry.

Because of her father's alcohol, crack, and cocaine addictions, Rihanna had a challenging upbringing. Her parents separated when she was 14 as a result. Though it's crucial to note that her father had since recovered from his addictions. 

Rihanna had her own health issues where she battled with crippling migraines for numerous years of her youth. But she tried to hide her ailment from her friends and classmates so they wouldn't think she was abnormal.

She also had her first boyfriend at this time, and it was this relationship that gave rise to the song "Unfaithful" later in her career. She endured other tribulations as a child. She had actually seen an exorcism, so perhaps that served as the inspiration for her collaboration with Eminem on the song "Monster."

Being the oldest of her siblings, young Rihanna frequently assisted her father in hawking clothings in the streets of their neighborhood bridgetown, this usually happened over the weekend. She went to Combermere High School and Charles F. Broome Memorial Primary School.

After school or during summer breaks,she would train in a sub-military armycadet program as is typical of childrenfrom this region.

Because of her natural beauty, Rihanna  also won her high school's beauty paegentry and was crowned Miss Combermere even though her mother forbade her from using any cosmetics or other beauty aids. 

She began singing when she was seven years old, and it quickly became her true passion and gift. Madonna, Janet Jackson, Mariah Carey, and Beyonce were her musical role models. She was smitten by Beyonce to the point where she desired to start her own female group like Beyonce's 'Destiny Child'. She then formed the ensemble when she was only 15 years old after finding two buddies who shared her love of music.

The young girl, her band, and their singing abilities soon spread throughout Barbados. Evan Rogers, a writer and producer who was in town, was so stunned by everything that he heard, he then decided to hold an audition in his hotel room. 

The moment Rihanna entered the room, it was as if the other two girls simply did not exist. He then asked her to sing Hero by Mariah Carey as part of a solo performance.

When Rihanna moved from Barbados to Connecticut to live with Evan and his wife, she was just 16 years old. They started assembling some demo tape material in their home recording studio. Rihanna at one time decided not to finish high school and stopped looking back.

The demo was sent to Def Jam Records, whose CEO at the time was Jay-Z. Rihanna sang "Pon de replay" and Whitney Houston's cover of "For the love of you" during an audition with Jay-Z and LA Reid. 

After this New York City audition, Jay-Z made the immediate decision to sign Rihanna to a six-album record deal. 

Then they opened with her song "Pon de replay," which used a sample of the Sean Paul-famous jamaican rhythm of the time. Even though Rihanna initially detested the song, it was a huge success around the world.

More than 2 million copies of her debut record, "Music of the Sun," were sold, and she was making progress. She was able to fulfill a longstanding desire in America. She sang a song by Dusty's Child on stage with an all-girl ensemble for Destiny's Child.

Her follow-up album, "A girl like me," was published in 2006. She also published a song called "SOS," which propelled her to international popularity. At the BET Honors that year, she was nominated for two further awards.

Aditionally, she won three Billboard Music Awards, and the following year, for her song "umbrella," she won her first Grammy. She has since broken five Guinness world records in addition to all of this.