20 Rihanna

The past two years have been an insane whirlwind of success for Rihanna. In 2004, she was still a teenager who enjoyed participating in beauty pageants and school talent shows in her native Barbados. But a chance encounter with a record producer who was vacationing in her homeland turned her life around overnight. He helped Rihanna record a demo that caught Jay-Z’s attention, and before the young singer knew it, she had a record deal with Def Jam. Since 2005, she has pumped out two albums and a slew of chart-topping hits, including “Pon De Replay,” "SOS (Rescue Me)” and “Unfaithful.”

While many artists would sit back and bask in their own glory after reaching No. 2 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 with their first single -- in Rihanna’s case, it was “Pon De Replay” -- this talented and driven singer is clearly cut from a different cloth. In fact, she waited less than eight months to release her second album, A Girl Like Me, in April 2006. The risk paid off: "SOS (Rescue Me)" shot up to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, and “Unfaithful” became her third top 10 hit in the U.S. and the UK. Given her success, Rihanna was offered several endorsement deals from high-profile companies, including Nike and J.C. Penney, and AskMen.com readers voted her onto the 2007 list of the Top 99 Most Desirable Women -- her debut appearance.

With everything she has accomplished in such a short period of time, it’s hard to predict what Rihanna will do next. She made a cameo appearance in Bring It On: All or Nothing (2006), alongside Solange Knowles and Hayden Panettiere, so we can only hope to see more of her on the big screen in 2007. Fortunately, we can be certain that we’ll have the chance to ogle her exotic looks in magazines and on billboards, as she will be a spokesperson for CoverGirl.

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20 Rihanna