Born Anna Mae Bullock into a sharecropping family in Brownsville, Tennessee. Growing up, she frequently moved from one place to another, living with her paternal grandparents in Nutbush, where she sang in the church choir, and later with her maternal grandmother in Brownsville until she reunited with her mother in St. Louis, Missouri. As a teenager, she worked as a domestic worker, and after graduating high school, she worked as a nurse’s aide. At the time, she frequently went to R&B clubs, where she first saw Ike Turner perform with his band, the Kings of Rhythm. Soon, she joined the band as a featured vocalist. In 1960, under the stage name Tina Turner, she recorded the single “A Fool in Love,” which reached No. 2 on the Hot R&B Sides chart and No. 27 on the Billboard Hot 100. Not long after, the two became a couple and married; together, they toured the US and released numerous singles. In 1966, the duo signed with the producer Phil Spector and released their first album, River Deep – Mountain High, which became a hit, especially in Europe. Despite their success, Ike was physically and mentally abusive toward Turner, and in 1976, at the age of 37, Tina fled from their home with only 36 cents in her pocket. In the following years, Tina struggled to manage herself. She mainly performed in cabaret clubs and made numerous guest appearances alongside various artists. In 1984, at 45, she released her first solo album, Private Dancer, which received critical and commercial acclaim, selling over 20 million copies worldwide and earning her three Grammys. In 1986, her European record label (EMI) sent the German music executive Erwin Bach to greet her at the airport. A few months later, they became a couple (he was 16 years her junior) and married in 2013. Her success continued to grow with her following albums, Break Every Rule (1986), Foreign Affair (1989), and Wildest Dreams (1996). She reached no.1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and topped the lists with various singles, including What’s Love Got to Do With It, Typical Male, and The Best. As music genres changed in the 90s, Turner delved into rock while combining her R&B background. Her powerful and soulful voice made her known as one of the greatest vocalists in the music industry, as it was characterized by the combination of strength and grit while possessing a wide vocal range, allowing her to navigate between lower registers and higher octaves. In 1994, at 55, Turner moved to Zurich, Switzerland. She continued to record albums and release singles, including the James Bond title song “Goldeneye,” and “He Lives in You” for The Lion King 2. Over the next decade, Turner remained active in the music industry. She released successful compilation albums such as “Wildest Dreams” (1995) and “Twenty-Four Seven” (1999), as well as a studio album titled “All the Best” (2004). Turner also embarked on world tours and, made live appearances, performed at benefit concerts. In 2008, 69 years old Turner embarked on her Tina! The 50th Anniversary Tour became a massive success and a top-selling ticketed show in 2008 and 2009. She announced that this would be her farewell tour, and afterward, she would retire from the music industry. However, she occasionally made appearances and continued to record new materials. In 2013, at 73, Turner married her longtime partner, German record executive Erwin Bach. Three months afterward, she suffered a stroke and had to learn how to walk again. Three years later, she was diagnosed with intestinal cancer, and the following year, she had a kidney transplant with her husband as her donor. Over the years, Turner participated in philanthropic work. She established the Tina Turner Foundation to support various causes, including art education, fighting against human trafficking, and improving the lives of underprivileged children. Throughout her career, Turner recorded ten albums, selling over 200 million records, went on dozen tours, and received hundreds of awards and honors, including the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and the Kennedy Center Honors – the highest form of recognition of excellence in the arts in America, US. Her music and life story have inspired many people, including musicians such as Mick Jagger, Beyoncé, Mariah Carey, and Mary J. Blige. She died at 83 in Switzerland. Read more...

Úrsula Hilaria Celia de la Caridad Cruz Alfonso was born in Havana, Cuba. She grew up in the same household as her extended family of 14 members. As the eldest of the children, she sang cradle songs to her siblings, cousins, and nieces. In addition to singing at home, she participated in school productions and community events. At the time, the musical climate in Cuba was diverse, and she was introduced to many genres and styles that would influence her career as a professional singer. After high school, she attended the Normal School for Teachers but left to study music theory, voice, and piano at Havana’s National Conservatory of Music and pursue a music career. She began competing in various amateur radio shows, winning first place time after time. She came to the attention of both the public and influential musicians and producers. One of them was Isolina Carrillo, who asked Cruz to join her vocal group Conjunto Sibone. Afterward, she joined other groups, and by the age of 22, she got invited to perform in Havana’s most popular cabarets, including the famous Tropicana Night Club. The following year, the new singing and dancing group Las Mulatas de Fuego (The Fiery Mulattas) hired her to perform with them throughout Latin America and make her first recording. In 1950, at 25, she was appointed lead singer of the Sonora Matancera band and became the group’s first Black singer and front person since it was founded 25 years earlier. During her 15 years with the band, she recorded 188 songs and regularly performed on TV shows, radio programs, and various venues throughout the continent. During the Cuban revolution of 1959, Cruz was touring in Mexico, and she and her band members were banned from returning to their homeland. They moved to the US and settled in New Jersey. At this time, she began to perform as a solo artist. In 1962, she married the band’s first trumpet player, Pedro Knight, who became her musical director and manager when she left the band and embarked on a solo career. Her success rose when she became recognized with salsa, a music genre that combined Afro-Cuban sounds with Latin American elements. She was known for her operatic voice that moved from high to low pitches and for improvising rhymed lyrics that she added to salsa music. Another trademark was her flamboyant costumes, including varicolored wigs, tight dresses, and eccentric high heels. In 1966, Cruz joined the Tito Puente Orchestra, and together they established the foundations of salsa music. The first album of Cruz and the orchestra, Son con guaguancó, featured what has become one of her signature songs, “Bemba colorá.” She recorded four more albums with the orchestra and several under the Tico label. At 49, Cruz signed with Fania Records, dedicated solely to salsa, where she was the only female artist. Under that label, she cooperated with the musician Johnny Pacheco and recorded the album “Celia y Johnny,” which included the song “Quimbera.” Cruz continued to perform and work with the best salsa artists of the time, including Willie Colon and Pete “El Conde” Rodriguez. She also reunited with Sonora Matancera to record another album titled Feliz Encuentro. In 1989, at 64, Cruz received her first Grammy award for Best Tropical Latin Album for Ritmo En El Corazón. Five years later, she was awarded the National Endowment for the Arts award – the US government’s highest recognition granted to an artist. Between albums, performances, and awards, Cruz developed her acting career, appearing in various American movies and Mexican telenovelas. In 2002, she was diagnosed with breast cancer but continued to create music. Her last album, Regalo del Alma, was released in February 2003. In the following month, she made her last public appearance in a tribute for her by the US Hispanic network Telemundo. She died a few months later, at the age of 77. Throughout her career, she recorded over 80 albums, earned 23 Gold Records, appeared in 15 movies, and won over 100 awards, including two American Grammys and three Latin Grammys. Read more...

Born Freda Josephine McDonald in St. Louis, Missouri, and grew up in poverty after her father left the family when she was only a few months old. At the age of 8, she started working as a domestic servant for white families to support her family. Later on, she lived on the streets and earned money as a street performer. At 13, she began to work as a waitress at the Old Chauffeur’s Club, where she met Willie Wells. The couple got married but divorced only a few months later. She joined a street performance group, and in 1923, at the age of 16, she moved with them to NYC, leaving her second husband, William Howard Baker, whom she married the previous year. In NYC, she performed at the Plantation Club while auditioning for serval productions, finally landing a role in the chorus line of the Broadway revue Shuffle Along. Her comic touch made her stand out as an audience favorite, and soon, she booked her next Broadway role in the course line of The Chocolate Dandies. In 1925, at 18, Baker moved to Paris to dance in La Revue Nègre at Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, where she introduced to the French audience her danse sauvage (savage dance), wearing nothing but a skirt made of a string of bananas. Her star was on the rise, and she became one of the most popular entertainers in France, being admired by artists such as Ernest Hemingway, Jean Cocteau, and Picasso, who drew paintings of her. After a successful European tour in 1929, she acted in numerous films. With the money she earned, Baker bought an estate in the South of France called Château des Milandes. In the mid-30s, she sailed back to the US, trying to establish herself as a performer in her home country, but left after being scrutinized by the critics and receiving racist reactions from the crowd. On her return to France, she married her third husband, the French industrialist Jean Lion, and gave up her American citizenship to become a French citizen. When WW2 erupted, Baker was recruited by the Deuxième Bureau, the French military intelligence agency. As an entertainer, she traveled across occupied Europe and socialized with German politicians and high-rank officials to gather information. When Nazi Germany invaded France, she moved to her estate in the south, joined the Red Cross, and worked for Free France – the exiled French government. Later, she relocated to the French colony in Morocco, smuggling hidden messages in music sheets while entertaining the troops in North Africa and the Middle East. After the war, she received numerous honors for her work with the resistance. In 1947, Baker married her fourth husband, the French orchestra leader Jo Bouillon, returning to Paris and the stage, more popular than ever for her performance and tribute to the war effort. In 1951, she was invited to perform in the US and was appalled by the racial discrimination she had encountered. Though no longer an American citizen, she began to work with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and by refusing to perform in segregated venues, she helped to integrate live shows in Miami and Las Vegas. Baker could not get pregnant because of a hysterectomy due to complications of a stillbirth she had during the war. In the early 1950s, she began adopting children from different ethnicities and religions, calling her family The Rainbow Tribe. They lived on her estate in Southern France, which included a farm, rides, and numerous hotels. She charged an entrance fee for guests to use the facilities and watch her children sing, dance, and view her “experiment in brotherhood.” In 1968, at the age of 62, after a few years off the stage, she realized that her popularity had declined. In 1973, she made a comeback when performing at Carnegie Hall in NYC and was greeted with a standing ovation. In Paris, two years later, she had 50 years in business revue financed by Princess Grace and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. The sold-out show was attended by A-listers such as Liza Minnelli, Mick Jagger, and Diana Ross. Four days later, she suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and was found in her bed surrounded by newspapers with raving reviews of her show. She died in the following year at the age of 68. Read more...

Mary Violet Leontyne Price was born in Laurel, Mississippi. From an early age, she showed musical talent. At the age of four, she already played the piano, and growing up, she sang with the choir of her community church. At the age of 9, she went on a school trip to listen to Marian Anderson sing. The experience inspired her to pursue a professional music career. She attended Oak Park Vocational High School, where she stood out as a pianist and a member of the glee club, and in her free time, she earned extra money by singing at funerals and community events. After graduation, Price studied music education at the College of Education and Industrial Arts in Wilberforce, Ohio, but later changed to voice studies following the advice of the university president. In 1948, at 21, she moved to NYC and joined the studio of Florence Page Kimball at Juilliard. Her lyric soprano voice gained her many leading roles in school opera productions. Her performance as Alice Ford in Giuseppe Verdi’s Falstaff caught the attention of the composer Virgil Thomson, who cast her as St. Cecilia in his all-black production of Four Saints in Three Acts, and in 1952, 25 years old Price made her Broadway debut. Only a few weeks later, she sang the opening performance as Bess in George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, for which she received acclaim for both her flawless vocal and her interpretation of the role. Before the show embarked on a European tour, Price married her Porgy, the opera singer William Warfield. The couple divorced in 1973. Even though her voice was praised, she had limited opportunities in formal opera houses as a Black singer, and she mostly performed in duo concerts with her husband. In 1954, she made her recital debut at NYC’s Town Hall, and afterward, she went on a tour across North America as part of the Columbia Artists roster. Price made her TV debut as Floria in NBC’s televised production of Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca the following year. Afterward, she starred in three more NBC Opera broadcasts, singing the roles of Pamina in Mozart’s The Magic Flute, Madame Lidoine in Poulenc’s Dialogues of the Carmelites, and Donna Anna in Mozart’s Don Giovanni. In 1957, at 30, Price performed Verdi’s Aida, which became her signature role. That same year, she finally had her opera stage debut at the San Francisco Opera as Madame Lidoine in Francis Poulenc’s Dialogues des carmélites. Her performance made her famous, and she received invitations from the best opera houses and venues in Europe. In 1961, at 34, she made her debut performance at the Metropolitan Opera House as Leonora in Il Trovatore. It was the beginning of her residency as a prima donna at the prestigious establishment, and during the coming decades, she sang a series of leading roles, such as Cio-Cio-San in Madama Butterfly, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, Minnie in La Fanciulla del West, Liu in Turandot, and Cleopatra in r Samuel Barber’s Antony and Cleopatra, a role that was written especially for her. Price became the first African-American prima donna to receive an international reputation, opening the opera season and a box-office sell-out. She was featured on the cover of Time magazine and was paid the highest fee for a woman vocalist. Because of her extraordinary talent, the Met included her in their national tour, which included the segregated South, and in 1964, after a two-year boycott of segregated houses, Price became the first African-American to sing in the Deep South. By 1970, Price had reduced her operatic performances, and in the next two decades, she focused on recitals and concerts both in the US and abroad. In 1985, after 21 seasons with the Met, 16 roles, and 201 performances, she made her operatic farewell in her most recognized role of Aida, for which she received 25 minutes of a standing ovation. She continued performing in recitals that included operatic arias, French melodies, and spirituals. She also gave masterclasses at Juilliard and other schools and recorded numerous award-winning albums. In 1997, at the age of 70, Price officially retired from the stage, but four years later, she made one last performance in a memorial concert for the victims of the September 11 attacks, singing her favorite spiritual, This Little Light of Mine. Read more...

Ángela Peralta was born in Mexico City, Mexico. Her musical talent was noticeable from a young age, performing solo cavatina from the opera Belisario when she was 8 years old. She continued to sharpen her operatic skills, and at 15, Peralta made her operatic debut at the Teatro Nacional – Mexico’s premier opera house. Soon, she became known for her expressive timbre voice and high pitch range. After her successful show, Peralta traveled to Italy with her father to study singing, and in 1862, at the age of 17, she performed at the La Scala opera house in Milan. In the next two years, Peralta sang in the most prestigious opera houses in the world, including Rome, Lisbon, Madrid, St. Petersburg, and Cairo. During this tour, she became known as the Mexican Nightingale. In 1865, the 20 years old opera singer received a formal request from the Second Mexican Empire to return to her home country and sing in the National Imperial Theatre. In the following year, Peralta performed for Maximilian I of Mexico and Charlotte of Belgium and was named Chamber Singer of the Empire. In that same year, Peralta returned to Europe, making stops along the way to perform in major cities, such as NYC and Havana. On her arrival in Madrid, she married her cousin, Eugenio Castera. Peralta was also an accomplished pianist, harpist, and composer. After her wedding, she took some time off from singing and composed various songs and piano pieces, including waltzes, fantasies, and gallops. In 1871, at the age of 26, Peralta founded a touring opera company, where she often sang her most known roles of Lucia in Lucia di Lammermoor and Amina in La Sonnambula. In 1877, her husband died, and she began a relationship with her manager Julián Montiel y Duarte. The affair caused a scandal in Mexico City’s social elite, who boycotted her performances and paid hecklers to interrupt her shows. Though she managed to recover her reputation, Peralta made a vow to never perform in Mexico City again. In 1883, Peralta went on a tour in northern Mexico. When she arrived in Mazatlán, she and 76 of her company members contracted yellow fever. On her deathbed, she married her longtime lover, able only to nod to show her agreement. She died in her hotel room at the age of 38. In 1937, more than 50 years after she passed away, her remains were disinterred and moved from Mazatlán to the Panteón in Mexico City. Read more...

Whitney Elizabeth Houston was born in Newark, New Jersey. Already as a child, she sang in church and received vocal lessons from her mother, the gospel singer Cissy Houston. At 11, she began to perform as a soloist in her junior gospel choir, and by the age of 14, she performed with her mother in various clubs and venues. At the age of 15, a photographer discovered her, and she went on to become a successful teen model, appearing in magazines such as Cosmopolitan, Glamour, and Young Miss and was one of the first Black women to appear on the cover of Seventeen magazine. While modeling, she continued to develop her music career, singing backup for artists such as Chaka Khan and Herbie Mann. Her vocal work for the funk band Material caught the attention of various record producers, including Clive Davis of Arista Records. In 1983, at the age of 19, Houston signed with the label, where she stayed for the rest of her career. In that same year, she made her TV debut, singing Home from the musical The Wiz on The Merv Griffin Show. In 1985, after two years of tireless work, she released her first album, Whitney Houston, which included three number-one singles – Greatest Love of All, How Will I Know, and Saving All My Love for You. The album stayed at the top of the charts for 14 non-consecutive weeks, became the biggest-selling album by a debut artist, and earned Houston her first Grammy. Following her success, she embarked on her first world tour. In 1987, at 24, she released her second album, Whitney, with four more number one hits. It became the first album by a female artist to debut at #1 on the Billboard Charts and awarded Houston her second Grammy for the single I Wanna Dance with Somebody. In 1992, at the age of 29, she married the singer Bobby Brown. That same year, she made her film debut, starring with Kevin Costner in The Bodyguard. The movie theme song, her cover of Dolly Parton’s I Will Always Love You, became her biggest hit ever, remaining number-one for 14 weeks and earning her three Grammys – the record of the year, the album of the year, and best female pop vocal performance. In the next decade, her acting career flourished, and she appeared in numerous films, including Waiting to Exhale and The Preacher’s Wife, recording the soundtracks of both. In 1998, she released her fourth studio album, My Love Is Your Love, for which she received another Grammy award. Since 1993, both Houston and Brown struggled with substance abuse, and she suffered emotional and domestic violence from Brown. By the early 2000s, this destructive way of life and abusive relationship affected her career, and she canceled many concerts. Despite her troubles, she continued to record, releasing two more albums, Just Whitney in 2002 and the holiday album One Wish in 2003. Over the next few years, Houston took some time off to reconstruct her life. She tried to overcome her drug addiction, and in 2007 she divorced Brown and won a custody battle of their daughter Bobbi Kristina. In 2009, at 46, she had a comeback with her last studio album, I Look To You, which debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 and sold over 300,000 copies. Afterward, she revived her acting career, working on the remake of the musical film Sparkle. In early 2012, at the age of 48, Houston was found dead at the Beverly Hills hotel due to accidental drowning. Over her career, she released seven studio albums, three soundtrack albums and won more than 400 awards. Read more...

Born Beverly Sainte-Marie on the Piapot reserve in the Qu’Appelle Valley, Canada. When she was an infant, her mother died in a car accident, and a couple of Mi’kmaq ancestry from Wakefield, Massachusetts, adopted her. At the age of 3, she taught herself to play the piano. At 16, she taught herself to play guitar and compose her own songs. After graduating high school, she studied Oriental philosophy and education at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. At the time, she began performing in coffeehouses, and in 1962, after receiving her degree, she moved to NYC. She became part of the bohemian art scene of Greenwich Village and soon went on tours, playing mainly at folk festivals and Indigenous reservations in Canada and the US. In 1963, a praising review in The New York Times led to a contract with Vanguard Records, and in the following year, 29-year-old Sainte-Marie released her first album, It’s My Way!. In the album, she used Indigenous vocal techniques and expressed her views on the treatment of Indigenous peoples, as can be seen in the song Now That the Buffalo’s Gone, in which she addressed Indigenous land rights and intercultural relationships. In her sixth album, Illuminations, she used electronically synthesized and manipulated instrumental sounds, becoming the first quadraphonic electronic vocal album to be recorded. In 1976, she released her 12th album, Sweet America, which included the song Starwalker – the first Indigenous-pop song, or powwow rock as Sainte-Marie dubbed it. At 35, she took time off from recording to spend time with her son. She began to paint, score films, and participate in various radio and TV shows. She joined the cast of Sesame Street for several years to raise awareness of Native American cultures. In 1982, she composed the song Up Where We Belong for the film An Officer and a Gentleman, for which she received an Academy Award, a BAFTA, and a Golden Globe. During this period, Sainte-Marie also began experimenting with computer-based visual art, exhibiting her work in museums across North America. After 16 years, Sainte-Marie resumed her recording career with the release, via the Internet, of her 14th album Coincidence and Likely Stories. Four years later, she released the collection album Up Where We Belong. It awarded her the Juno Award for Best Music of Aboriginal Canada Recording. In 2017, at 76, she released her 17th album, titled Medicine Songs. For which was awarded the Juno Award for Indigenous music album of the year and the Indigenous Music Awards for Best Folk Album. Sainte-Marie used her music and voice to advocate for various political causes. She was a loud advocate against the Vietnam War and was part of the militant American Indian Movement. She claimed that her activism caused her to be blacklisted by the US administration and limited her radio airplay and performances. In 1969, she founded the Nihewan Foundation for American Indian Education and built the curriculum for its Cradleboard Teaching Project – a partnership between Native and non-Native American communities that facilitates communication through computer networking. She often made public speeches to promote social issues of the Indigenous people and served as spokesperson for the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. Read more...

Born Marvyne Elisabeth Betsch in Jacksonville, Florida, to a wealthy Southern black family. Her great-grandfather, Abraham Lincoln Lewis, was the first Black millionaire in Florida who founded American beach in Amelia Island, Florida, the largest vacation resort for black families during the Jim Crow era. From a young age, Betsch showed musical talent, and by the age of 5, she played the piano. She went on to study piano at Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Ohio, but after seeing the opera Aida, she changed her course to vocal studies. In 1955, at the age of 20, she traveled to Europe to sharpen her skills. She studied voice in London and Paris, and within four years, she had her opera debut in Braunschweig, Germany. The crowd loved her, and she received accolades for her interpretations of Carmen and Salome. After ten years abroad, Betsch returned to the US and found out that the legacy of her great-grandfather was in danger. American Beach’s maintenance was neglected throughout the years, and with the desegregation of the beaches in 1964, the black community could choose better locations for its vacation. Betsch decided to fight for the preservation of the beach. In 1975, 40 years old Betsch gave up her singing career, moved to her great-grandfather’s beach house, and began to dedicate her time and efforts to protect American Beach and its inhabitants from development and destruction. She became active in various environmental organizations, gave tours about the American Beach and its black history, made media appearances to raise awareness of its historical and ecological importance, and spoke with passers-by about it. Her work gained her the nickname The Beach Lady. Betsch donated all her life earnings, of about $750,000, to environmental charities, studies, and projects. When she ran out of money, she sold her family home and slept at friends’ houses and even on a chair on the beach. Her sister rented for her a small trailer, and Betsch turned it into a museum about American Beach. In 2002, at 67, Betsch was diagnosed with cancer and had surgery to remove her stomach. Instead of slowing her down, her declining health motivated her to do more. In the same year, she saw her efforts paying off when the American Beach became a National Register of Historic Places. In her last years, she worked on establishing the American Beach Museum, which opened in 2014, 9 years after her death. Read more...

Robyn Rihanna Fenty was born in Saint Michael, Barbados. Growing up, she witnessed her father struggles with alcohol and drug addiction and physically abusing her mother. It caused her chronic headaches, which improved at the age of 14 when her parents divorced. Singing was her way to release the tension at home, and at the age of 15, Rihanna formed a girl singing group with two of her friends. The trio landed an audition with the producer Evan Rogers, who invited her to a solo audition and then helped her record a demo tape. In the following year, 16 years old Rihanna moved to the US. She lived with Rogers and his wife and signed on a six-album record deal with Jay-Z’s record label Def Jam. At 17, Rihanna released her debut single, Pon de Replay. The song was an immediate success and paved the way to her first album, Music of the Sun, which sold over 2 million copies and received a gold certification from the Recording Industry Association of America. Within less than a year, she released her second album, A Girl Like Me that included the number one hit SOS. The album topped the charts in more than 10 countries and gained Rihanna her first certified Platinum. In her third album, Good Girl Gone Bad, Rihanna leaned into R&B. The album was sold in over 8 million copies, and its lead single, Umbrella with Jay-Z, earned Rihanna her first Grammy Award. In 2009, at the age of 21, Rihanna was physically assaulted by her boyfriend, Chris Brown. The incident got covered by tabloids all over the world. Her following album, Rated R, was influenced by her experiences and feelings of revenge. Two years later, she released her fifth studio album, Loud, which included the hits Only Girl (In the World) and S&M. At 23, she became the youngest artist to have 10 number one hits on the Billboard chart and the fastest to reach that milestone. By the age of 28, Rihanna recorded three more top-of-the-charts albums and dozens of number-one hits, including We, Found Love, Diamonds, and Work. She collaborated with A-list artists like Paul McCartney, Eminem, Kanye West, Britney Spears, and Shakira. By 2021, her eight studio albums sold more than 250 million copies worldwide, she became the youngest solo artist to score 14 number-one singles on the billboard hot 100 and received hundreds of awards for her music, including 9 Grammy Awards, 13 American Music Awards, and 8 Billboard Music Awards. Between one record to another, Rihanna is running various successful businesses. In 2011, she launched her first fragrance, followed by six more for both men and women. At 27, she established Fr8me, a beauty and stylist agency that assists artists in editorial shoots, booking commercials, and red-carpet looks. Two years later, she founded Fenty Beauty, the first cosmetics company that offers 40 different shaded foundations, bronzers, and other products that fit any skin color. The brand has changed the cosmetics industry with its diversity and setting a new standard for all the other companies. Rihanna continued her method of inclusivity by opening Savage X Fenty, a lingerie brand that provides products in a wide variety of sizes and shades. In 2019, she launched a line of clothing, footwear, and accessories under the LVMH group. Throughout the years, Rihanna used her fame and influence to help society. In 2006, she founded the Believe Foundation for terminally ill children, and in 2012 she established the Clara Lionel Foundation to fund education and early response programs. She is a loud advocate against LGBT discrimination and for women’s rights. She is often performing on benefit shows and donates millions of dollars to various causes, such as the rehabilitation after Hurricane Sandy, COVID-19 relief, and more. Read more...

Carmen Amaya was born in Barcelona, Spain, to a gypsy Romani family. As an infant, she learned to dance from her mother and aunt. When she was only 4, she started to accompany her father in his performances at pubs and clubs. After the show, she picked the coins that the crowd threw on the floor. When she was 6, she caught the attention of a show businessman who booked her shows in better-respected venues, such as the Spanish Theater. The audience loved her, and she became known as La Capitana. In 1929, the 16 years old Amaya performed at the International Fair of Barcelona in front of Alfonso XIII, the King of Spain. A praising review about her in the newspaper Mirador made her famous across the country. For the next few years, she performed in the most prestigious halls in Spain, including the Zarzuela Theatre and the Fontalba Theatre, as well as in films, such as the musical La Hija de Juan Simón. In July of 1936, 23 years old Amaya and her cuadro (a troupe of musicians, dancers, and singers) performed in Madrid when the Spanish Civil War began. They managed to cross the border to Portugal and from there to Buenos Aires, Argentina. There, she continued to perform, and after 9 months, she embarked on a four-year tour through Latin America. In 1941, the company arrived in the US, where Amaya’s fame and reputation continued growing. She performed at Carnegie Hall, was invited to participate in several Hollywood films and the White House. By then, Amaya established herself as a renowned artist with a fascinating personality and sharp wit. Her dancing became known as the most daring flamenco, with constant improvisations and quick and rattling footwork that became her trademark. She broke the rules of traditional female flamenco by adding “masculine” elements and not emphasizing the “feminine” ones, such as upper torso movements. In 1947, at the age of 34, she returned to Europe, performing in Paris and London, before returning to her homeland Spain as a legend, the most outstanding flamenco dancer of her time. She continued to perform across Europe and Latin America for the next two decades. In 1963, Amaya’s health began to decline. Terminally ill with kidney disease, she did not stop performing until she was over-exhausted. On August 8, 1963, she performed her last dance, collapsing in the middle of the show. She died three months later at the age of 50. Read more...