Rihana - Legacy

Legacy

Rihanna has earned numerous awards and honors throughout her career. She has sold over 150 million records worldwide, making her one of the best-selling music artists of all time. Her collaboration with Eminem, "Love the Way You Lie", together with "Umbrella", "Disturbia", "Only Girl (In the World)", "We Found Love", and "Diamonds", are some of the best-selling singles of all time worldwide. Rihanna has sold over 8.7 million albums in the United States, while Nielsen SoundScan ranked her as the best-selling digital artist in the country, breaking a Guinness World Record for digital single sales of over 58 million as of 2012. Since the beginning of her career in 2005, Rihanna has accumulated twelve number one singles on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. With this, she ties Madonna and The Supremes for fourth place, and is only the seventh artist to achieve this feat in the 54-year history of the chart. Rihanna has tallied eleven number ones on the US Radio Songs chart; this ties her with Mariah Carey for the most chart leaders since its inception in 1990. She has been named the top Pop Songs chart artist of the past twenty years by Billboard. She ranks first with most appearances (35), most top tens (23), and most number ones (10). Rihanna has sold over 14 million singles and six million albums in the United Kingdom as of June 2012. She was named the tenth best-selling singles artist of all time. In the UK she is the second best-selling female singles artist, behind Madonna. She has three singles that have sold over one million copies in the country: "Love the Way You Lie", "Only Girl (In the World)", and "We Found Love".

Rihanna has won seven Grammy Awards, including Best Rap/Sung Collaboration for "Umbrella", Best Dance Recording for "Only Girl (In the World)", and Best Short Form Music Video for "We Found Love". She is the only female multiple winner of the MTV Video Music Award for Video of the Year with her wins for "Umbrella" at the 2007 and "We Found Love" at the 2012 award ceremonies. Her albums Loud and Talk That Talk won the American Music Award for Favorite Soul/R&B Album in 2011 and 2012 respectively. Rihanna won two consecutive Brit Awards for Best International Female Artist at the 2011 and 2012 ceremonies.

In April 2012, the singer was placed at number twenty on Time magazine's list of the 100 Most Influential People in the World. The following month, Forbes ranked Rihanna fourth on their Celebrity 100 list, naming her one the world's most powerful celebrities, with earnings of $53 million between May 2011 and May 2012. Huffington Post Canada placed her at number one on the "Pop Power Rankings" in November 2012. Rihanna has made an impact on the social media, placing atop Forbes' list of Social Networking Superstars. She is the most popular person on the social network Facebook, has the fourth most followers on Twitter, and is the most-viewed artist on YouTube. Rihanna is the first artist to have twelve videos pass the 100 million views milestone on YouTube, thus achieving as many VEVO certified awards. This feat makes the singer the artist with the most honors. On March 7, 2013, Spotify announced that Rihanna is the most streamed artist worldwide. She was named the most influential pop star in the UK following data analysis of social media activity, airplay, and press coverage. Rihanna has seven wax figures of herself at Madame Tussauds Wax Museums in Berlin, Hollywood, Las Vegas, London, Sydney, Vienna and Washington D.C..

Rihanna has directly influenced artists such as Justin Bieber, Ellie Goulding, Kesha, Demi Lovato, and Willow Smith. British singer Rita Ora said, "I admire Rihanna. That work ethic and discipline is hardcore." Chris Martin, lead singer of Coldplay, has stated that he believes Rihanna is "the best singer in the world," and praised her "amazing voice." Mary J Blige said, "I am so proud of what Rihanna is doing. She is speaking to her generation." Speaking of their collaboration on "Love the Way You Lie", Eminem applauded Rihanna's contribution and said he felt that "only she could pull it off." Cheryl Cole said she admires the singer and further commented: "I love that sense of freedom about her. She’s gorgeous and free. A perfect pop star." Selena Gomez said of the singer: "I think she’s very strong and classy. I look up to that. She carries herself very well." In 2013, English singer-songwriter Dido expressed her love and admiration for Rihanna. In April 2013, British-Irish boy band The Wanted announced the release of their single "Walks Like Rihanna", inspired by the singer's attitude.