Rihanna is now a billionaire, but her music is not what put her over that mark, according to Forbes, which lists the singer at #16 on its 2021 list of America’s 100 richest self-made women.
The singer launched Fenty Beauty in 2017, and Forbes estimates that $1.4 billion of her current $1.7 billion net worth is from the cosmetics company, of which she owns half.
A newcomer on the list who also parlayed a career in the spotlight into a beauty business is model Cindy Crawford, who has built Meaningful Beauty into a $400 million brand with annual revenue of more than $100 million. Crawford, like Rihanna, owns 50% of her brand.
She is listed at #100 with a net worth of $225 million.
Also new to the list is Dolly Parton, whose music and amusement park empire landed her at #86 with a net worth of $350 million.
The latest Forbes list includes a record 26 billionaires, including Oprah Winfrey, #12 with $2.7 billion; Kim Kardashian West, whose Skims brand of foundation wear outfitted the U.S. Olympic team (#24, 1.2 billion); and 23andMe’s Anne Wojcicki (#25, $1.1 billion) and Whitney Wolfe Herd of Bumble (#21, $1.3 billion), who took their companies public last year.
Overall, the worth of the women on the list rose by 31% this year to $118 billion, Forbes said. Two thirds of the 100 founded or cofounded a company.
At #91 is newcomer Indra Nooyi, the former Pepsi CEO and Amazon board member, whose large net worth comes primarily from company stock.
Topping the list for the fourth year in a row is Diane Hendricks, whose fortune came from her family’s Wisconsin roofing business, ABC Supply. Her $11 billion net worth this year making her the first self-made woman from the U.S. to surpass a $10 billion net worth.
Net worth for the women on the list was calculated using stock prices from July 2, 2021, before the sale of Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine.