Rihanna made more from one powder compact at the Super Bowl than from performing the songs that made her famous

At the 2023 Super Bowl halftime show, Rihanna floated above the stage and paused mid-set to touch up her foundation in front of 118 million viewers. The songs she performed that night earned her almost nothing. The powder compact was making her a billionaire.

That is not a figure of speech. Rihanna's entire music career spanning two decades, 14 number-one singles, eight studio albums and an estimated 250 million records sold, has generated somewhere between $100 million and $200 million in total earnings, according to Forbes and industry estimates. Her ongoing streaming income today runs at approximately $5 million to $10 million annually. The Super Bowl performance itself, which triggered a 640% spike in catalogue streaming, produced approximately $97,000 in royalties in its immediate aftermath. She was not paid to perform.

The deal that changed the math was signed in 2016. Most celebrity beauty arrangements are licensing deals: the celebrity provides their name and image, a manufacturer handles production and logistics, and the celebrity collects a royalty of five to ten percent of net sales. A brand generating $300 million annually at a 7% royalty rate produces $21 million per year for the name attached to it. That is income. It is not wealth.

Rihanna refused that structure. Instead she negotiated a 50/50 joint venture with LVMH's Kendo beauty incubator, holding her stake through Roraj Trade LLC, her personal holding company. LVMH brought manufacturing expertise, Sephora's global retail network and luxury credibility. Rihanna brought creative direction, final approval on all products and something harder to quantify: the ability to make a product launch feel like a cultural event. When Forbes valued Fenty Beauty at approximately $2.8 billion in 2021, her stake was worth roughly $1.4 billion. A 7% royalty on the same revenue over the same period would have generated approximately $75 million. That gap, $75 million versus $1.4 billion, is the gap between being paid and owning.

Fenty Beauty launched in September 2017 with 40 foundation shades at a time when most prestige foundation ranges offered 12 to 15. The brief was explicit. "I wanted everyone to feel included," Rihanna said at launch. "That's the real reason I made this line." The response was immediate. The brand generated an estimated $100 million in its first 40 days. By year-end, LVMH confirmed revenue had surpassed $570 million annually. Darker foundation shades sold out first, proving a market the industry had spent decades not seeing. Within two years, Maybelline had expanded from 16 to 40 shades, CoverGirl and Dior followed. The impact acquired its own name: the Fenty Effect.

The brand has since extended into Fenty Skin, Fenty Fragrance, Fenty Hair and the separately structured Savage X Fenty lingerie line, in which Rihanna holds approximately 30% and which was valued at $1 billion in its last private funding round. Not every extension succeeded. Fenty Maison, the luxury fashion house launched with LVMH in 2019, closed after less than two years. Savage X Fenty hit headwinds more recently, contributing to a reported contraction in Rihanna's estimated peak net worth.

LVMH is now exploring the sale of its 50% stake in Fenty Beauty, working with investment bank Evercore on the process. JPMorgan analysts have valued the stake at between €1.5 billion and €2.5 billion ($1.6-2.75 billion). LVMH's motivation is strategic: as part of its largest portfolio review in nearly 40 years, the group is considering the disposal of Marc Jacobs, Make Up For Ever, Fresh and several other assets alongside the Fenty stake.

Fenty Beauty generated approximately $450 million in net sales in 2024, down from its $570 million peak in 2021, reflecting the broader cooling of the celebrity beauty market as early adopters moved on and competitors matched its shade range.

If Rihanna holds right-of-first-refusal provisions in the joint venture agreement, she could acquire LVMH's stake directly, becoming majority or sole owner of a brand her name built. Even without that option, the 50/50 structure she negotiated in 2016 means she retains full parity regardless of who sits across the table from her.

She has not released a studio album since ANTI in 2016. A decade of musical silence, and it has not materially altered her financial standing. That is the real story of Fenty Beauty. Not that Rihanna was lucky, but that when LVMH came to her with a deal, she understood the difference between being paid for her name and owning what her name could build. She structured accordingly. Everything else followed.