World News for Students of English

13-08-2021 07:00

A US business magazine Forbes annually produces a list of the world’s richest people. According to Forbes, Barbados-born singer Rihanna is now worth 1.7 billion dollars, making her the wealthiest female musician in the world.

However, it is not Rihanna’s music that’s made her so wealthy. Forbes estimates that 80% of her fortune comes from the value of Fenty Beauty, a 50-50 joint venture with French luxury goods brand LVMH. It was launched in 2017, and it’s run by the world’s second richest person, Bernard Arnault. The rest lies in Rihanna’s stake in her lingerie company Savage x Fenty, worth an estimated 270 million dollars, and her earnings from a lucrative music and acting career.

However, not everything that Rihanna touches turns into gold. In February, the singer confirmed that they had shut down their other business, a high-end fashion and accessories business that was launched in 2019. However, like many luxury fashion brands, the high-priced line suffered during the pandemic, releasing its last collection in November 2020.

Difficult words: joint venture (a business created by two or more people or groups who share its ownership), stake (when someone invests money in a business), lucrative (very profitable), everything you touch turns into gold (you make a lot of money easily).

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