Richest female artist in UK

Rihanna has been named as the world’s richest female musician after she debuted at No.3 in The Sunday Times‘ list of the wealthiest musicians.

With an estimated fortune of £468m, the singer has entered the list behind Andrew Lloyd Webber and Paul McCartney, who are both reportedly worth £800m.

It puts her just ahead of Elton John, with Rihanna’s worth being largely attributed to a 15% stake in the French luxury company LVMH – which is worth £351.6m.

She has also scored huge success with Fenty Beauty, which is now valued at $3 billion (£2.8bn). Rihanna’s reported stake of 15% is said to be worth a cool £351.6 million.

Behind Elton John at number four is Mick Jagger, who takes fifth spot with a fortune of £285m.

His Rolling Stones bandmate Keith Richards is tied in sixth place with Olivia and Dhani Harrison. They are worth £270m.

Elsewhere in the list, Sir Ringo Starr is in eighth place with a £260m fortune and Riverdance founder Michael Flatley, said to be worth £206m, is in ninth. Ed Sheeran rounds off the Top 10, having finished 17th in 2019.

Robert Watts, the compiler of The Sunday Times Rich List, said: “Rihanna typifies the seismic change we’ve seen in the Rich List in recent years. Once dominated by inherited wealth, the bulk of our 1,000 entries are now self-made people with modest and even troubled starts in life who are driven to work exceptionally hard.”

It comes as Rihanna fans await news of her ninth album, having promised in an Instagram comment last year that it would be released in 2019.

In March the singer was reported to have given $5 million (£4m) in help to impoverished countries affected by the coronavirus pandemic, along with $700,000 (£562k) in ventilators to her country of Barbados. She has also donated Personal Protective Equipment to the state of New York and given over $2 million (£1.6m) to domestic abuse victims affected by the crisis.

Rihanna also admitted in February that she liked to “antagonise” her fans when it came to the release of her ninth album. “They antagonise me, too!” she explained. “So they get it right back.”