When Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley joined Trevor Noah for a bonus episode of What Now? that dropped on Tuesday, January 20, the conversation inevitably turned to the island’s most famous global ambassador: Rihanna, who is a native of Saint Michael parish on the island.
Noah joked about whether it ever bothered Mottley that people around the world assumed Rihanna was secretly running Barbados. Mottley laughed it off before offering a sharper truth. “No, Rihanna is phenomenal,” she said. “She has made Barbados known in places and with people that would not otherwise have known it.”
Mottley framed Rihanna as someone whose success is inseparable from where she comes from — culturally, socially, and philosophically.
“You can’t tell Rihanna’s story without talking about Barbados,” Mottley said, emphasizing that the singer’s worldview, work ethic, and even the way she speaks are rooted in her home. “The music, the way she sees the world, the way she interacts with the world — all of these things inform how she goes.”
According to Mottley, what truly sets Rihanna apart is how deliberately she translated those values into business. “People don’t appreciate that I genuinely feel that she is the businesswoman and artist that she is because of how she was raised,” she said, describing Barbados as a place where fairness and justice are ingrained early. “If you go anywhere, the first thing they tell you is, ‘You can’t unfair that body. That ain’t fair.’”
That principle, Mottley argued, is central to Rihanna’s empire. She pointed directly to Fenty Beauty as an example of values driving innovation. “When she decided to go into business, she said, ‘I’m going to do a makeup company because everybody’s been doing makeup for certain colors and certain hues,’” Mottley explained. “She said, ‘I’m going to do it for everybody because everybody matters. Everybody must be seen.’”
The results speak loudly. According to Forbes, Fenty Beauty didn’t just disrupt the industry with an inclusive product launch; it became a financial juggernaut within a few years, helping propel Rihanna to billionaire status.
Mottley stressed that this wasn’t accidental. “She wasn’t satisfied with that,” she said, noting how Rihanna carried the same thinking into Savage X Fenty. “You look at the shows — the lingerie is for every shape and size. For everybody.”
Music remains the foundation underneath it all. Rihanna’s catalog includes 14 Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 singles, and all eight of her studio albums have landed in the Billboard 200’s Top 10. Anti, her most recent release, continues to chart years later, underscoring a rare kind of longevity.
For Mottley, the throughline is authenticity. “When people ask why is she successful,” she said, “it’s because she’s authentic, ’cause she’s real, ’cause she’s living out what really matters.”