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League of Legends soon became more than a game — it brought in a brand new era of esports. With a current record of 8-2 and a favorable head-to-head against the next-best team — NAVI — KC will arrive in playoffs as the number one seed for a chance to come away with their second LEC trophy. It keeps schedules fast and introduces plenty of upsets – a single bad draft or level-one can cost even a top team the game.

Chiefs Esports Club

Its role extends beyond news reporting and features, to betista casino login direct involvement in major events, including (since 1909) the organization of the Giro d’Italia (lit. ’Tour of Italy’) road cycling stage race.
Every League of Legends Worlds winner from 2011 to 2024, along with the region that lifted the Summoner’s Cup. The controversial owner of X has made a post saying that he wants his AI, known as “Grok”, to beat “the best human team” in League of Legends in 2026. If you want one place to check who is playing for who in China, this is it.
Their core consists of mainly Spanish players, contributing to their identity as the “Spanish” team from Europe. However, certain regions – such as LPL and LCK, and most recently the LEC, has introduced Bo3 matches when playing in the regular season split. The victors of the playoff series will leave with the glory of a regional champion and the promise of pedigree to compete at an international event. The playoffs stage is the most entertaining part of every split, where teams will play in a Best-of-Five (Bo5) format for all the marbles. Competitive League of Legends employs a set event structure that looks to balance consistency and excitement in a professional league season.
They subsequently invested close to $5M for the following competitive season, transitioning what was once community-led tournaments, into a structured professional league. The playerbase began to grow as Riot started engaging the players with consistent new patches, community engagement measures, and esports events. The goal for the two founders was to create a game that would continue to change with players, and not through sequels but through updates and a growing competitive environment.
Riot Games is an American video game studio that is co-founded by Brandon Beck and Marc Merrill in 2006. League of Legends is part of the bedrock of the modern esports industry and will remain an entity that can adapt and grow for years to come. With its deep competitive ecosystem, growing culture, and millions of devoted fans, League of Legends will likely endure the life-cycle of entertainment even if other entities fail. Over the ten years since its release, League of Legends has remained one of the world’s most popular and recognizable titles in esports. He is a staple of the Gen.G legacy and has proven himself to be the most consistent player in the LCK over the last 5 years, with only a World Championship missing from his trophy case. Chovy, hailing from Gen.G, has maintained the capacity to continuously surpass himself and his opponents in lane control and teamfighting.
If you want to learn how pro teams “should” set up vision, push waves and play for soul, LCK games are almost textbook. Within a short time, this game became one of the most played titles in competitive gaming in the modern era, and the game helped shape a lot of today’s esports ecosystem. This is intended to stimulate competitive play and adapt the experience to be fresh, relevant and a facet of League of Legends, although it has not extended to other leagues yet. Most regional Leagues use a mixed format of Bo1 matches for the regular season, and Bo5 matches for the playoffs and finals.

• The championship began on October 14 and concluded on November 9, taking fans on a road trip across China.
• Beyond that, there’s a whole ecosystem of other leagues across Latin America, Japan, Turkey, Oceania and more.
• Wild Rift offers the same strategic depth and 5-on-5 gameplay as the original League of Legends on PC while creating matches that are shorter and faster, designed for touch screen controls.
• The goal for the two founders was to create a game that would continue to change with players, and not through sequels but through updates and a growing competitive environment.
• Cloud9 remains one of the region’s most loved team, always consistently shocking the viewers in their international appearances, while also maintaining a strong investment in homegrown talent.

That’s why you’ll often hear casters talk about “the meta” – it’s the evolving set of strategies and champions that teams are trying to master before the next big tournament. That means that we now know all the 12 teams who will be playing in the inaugural LEC Versus split. Seventeen teams from five regions battled for the Summoner’s Cup and a staggering one million dollar prize… Riot Games has set up systems such as Honor rewards, chat filters, and reporting systems, to encourage players to have positive interactions and reduce toxicity in the community.
These games can create intense competitive situations under high pressure, which create frustration and often those situations lead to negative behavior. During the offseason, typically Riot Games makes changes towards preseason to switch up the meta before the start of the new year, this is where a large number of gameplay and format changes will take place. The World Championships tournament brings together all the top teams from their respective regions, such as LCK (Korea), LPL (China), LEC (Europe) and LCS (North America), to compete against one another for the Summoner’s Cup.

Marcus Rashford and LOL Esports: How Football and Esports Are Bringing Generations Together

Beyond that, there’s a whole ecosystem of other leagues across Latin America, Japan, Turkey, Oceania and more. International memes aside, NA still produces memorable storylines – from miracle lower-bracket runs to veteran players reinventing themselves on new rosters. You’ll see off-meta picks, creative flexes and funky level-one plans, especially in best-of-five playoffs where coaches have room to adapt drafts from game to game. A lot of the most entertaining series every year – base races, wild comebacks, 30-kill ADC games – come from the LPL.

Iconic moments every LoL fan should know

Whether you’re climbing the ranked ladder or following pro play, LoLNow delivers expert insights and practical tips to help you improve and stay ahead. Stay updated with patch notes, meta shifts, champion guides, tier lists, and esports news. Together, these two videos give you a crash course in the plays everyone references whenever a new “insane” moment happens on stage. If you want a documentary-style tour of those plays, theScore Esports put together a longform video called “The Most ICONIC Moments in League of Legends History”. That’s where side selection, adaptation and mental stamina become just as important as mechanics. Playoffs and international events almost always switch to best-of-five series.

• This allows Riot Games to control updates, security, and player accounts directly through their services.
• In other words, ranked play feeds the talent pipeline, and professional leagues are the key to funneling and transforming that individual skill into a team-based structure and competition that is showcased to millions.
• League of Legends was developed by Riot Games, an American video game developer established in 2006 by Brandon Beck and Marc Merrill in Los Angeles, CA.
• Because everything is tied to patch changes, the game you see at Worlds might look very different from the one you saw at MSI, even though the teams are the same.
• The year usually starts with a spring split in every major region.
• Together, these two videos give you a crash course in the plays everyone references whenever a new “insane” moment happens on stage.
• La Gazzetta dello Sport covers thousands of live events through its multi-platform news system.

Bookmark this hub for reliable League of Legends esports coverage all year round La Gazzetta dello Sport covers thousands of live events through its multi-platform news system. The newspaper, published on pink paper, sells over 400,000 copies daily (more on Mondays when readers want to catch up on the weekend’s events), and can claim a readership in excess of three million.

La Gazzetta dello Sport

These regions are usually labeled “minor,” but every few years one of them produces a dark horse that knocks out a big favorite and rewrites expectations. Brazil’s CBLOL has one of the loudest fanbases in League, and its champions regularly turn up at MSI and Worlds looking to punch above their weight. The LCS is home to some of the longest-standing orgs and rivalries in LoL esports. Teams draft for skirmishing, fight early, and rarely shy away from coin-flip calls if it means they can blow the game open. These don’t replace Worlds, but they do give fans more cross-region matchups and more chances for underdog regions to take swings at the favorites.

The year usually starts with a spring split in every major region. The LoL season follows a rhythm that repeats every year. At the center of everything is the game itself, League of Legends, and the developer, Riot Games.
In other words, ranked play feeds the talent pipeline, and professional leagues are the key to funneling and transforming that individual skill into a team-based structure and competition that is showcased to millions. Ranked matches place players into skill tiers—from Iron to Challenger—and mimic the structure of professional leagues. That’s when LoL esports stops feeling like a random collection of games and starts feeling like a long, interconnected season you genuinely care about following.

Players like Ruler and Chovy personify the vision and precision of modern competitive gaming. As of 2025, these are the names that occupy the forefront of the game’s legacy — shaping its past and driving its future. In each instance, every match is played on the most recent version of the patch, one week after its release.

Otherwise, you can directly use the Gmail website or app to sign into Gmail. Rain is a tech writer and editor for wikiHow with over 5 years of professional writing experience. Your Google Account automatically protects your personal information and keeps it private and safe. Your Google Account gives you a safe, central place to store your personal information — like credit cards, passwords, and contacts — so it’s always available for you across the internet when you need it. From your profile picture, you can also easily sign in, sign out, or turn on Incognito mode. Your Google Account also makes it easy for you to sign in to third-party apps safely and quickly so your preferences go with you even beyond Google.
These updates add new features, improve performance, and fix any security issues. It syncs all your data between different operating systems as long as you’re logged in with your Google account. Google Chrome is the world’s most popular browser, and it smoothly integrates with other Google services and offers modern solutions and features. Learn more about safety and security on Chrome. Chrome is compatible with devices that run Windows and Mac operating systems, provided they meet the minimum system requirements. To install Chrome, simply download the installation file, then look for it in your downloads folder.
Set how you sign in to Google apps and services.
No matter which device or Google service you’re using, your account gives you a consistent experience you can customize and manage at any time. Your account helps you do more by personalizing your Google experience and offering easy access to your most important information from anywhere. On some apps and devices, you can use an app password to sign in to your Google Account. With a minimalistic interface, improved performance, and all the modern features a browser needs, Microsoft Edge is a viable choice, though you have to keep in mind that it doesn’t offer a large library of extensions. If you’re searching for an option that has even more security features, Opera can be your go-to browser.

Check your safety level in real time with just one click.

In order to install Chrome and receive adequate support, you must meet the system requirements. Once Chrome is installed, you can delete the install file. Here’s how to log in to Gmail using your computer, iPhone, or Android device.
You can open multiple tabs and manage them as you like, which includes grouping tabs and even collapsing the whole group to the bookmarks bar so they don’t eat up your computer resources and can be quickly opened up again whenever you need to. The address bar functions like a search bar, suggesting content not only from the web but also from your browser history and your bookmarks, so you can quickly and intuitively find the content you’re looking for. When you’re using this browser with your Gmail account, you are automatically logged in to all Google services, such as Google Drive, Google Docs, Google Photos, and much more. You can download Google Chrome and install it on Windows 11 or 10 (64-bit), macOS, or Linux (Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian, OpenSUSE).

Microsoft Edge

Sign in to Chrome on any device to access your bookmarks, saved passwords, and more. From resuming YouTube videos across devices, to having your contacts, and favorite Play Store apps easily available, a single sign-in allows for a seamless experience across Google. It’s a free browser based on an open-source project, and Firefox offers more security and privacy features than its alternative from Google does. It can also be downloaded to mobile devices such as Android (4.1 or later) and iOS (9 or higher) tablets and smartphones. Chrome uses cutting-edge safety and security features to help you manage your safety. Your Google Account helps you save time by automatically filling in passwords, addresses, and payment details using the information you’ve saved to your account.

Chrome Family

• Chrome uses cutting-edge safety and security features to help you manage your safety.
• You can download Google Chrome and install it on Windows 11 or 10 (64-bit), macOS, or Linux (Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian, OpenSUSE).
• Set how you sign in to Google apps and services.
• You can open multiple tabs and manage them as you like, which includes grouping tabs and even collapsing the whole group to the bookmarks bar so they don’t eat up your computer resources and can be quickly opened up again whenever you need to.
• Your account helps you do more by personalizing your Google experience and offering easy access to your most important information from anywhere.
• The address bar functions like a search bar, suggesting content not only from the web but also from your browser history and your bookmarks, so you can quickly and intuitively find the content you’re looking for.

It also includes a free AI tool called “Aria” and has advanced spyware and malware detection systems to ensure your data is protected and private. Firefox also offers optimizations for gamers to enjoy lag reduction or improved response times. With Mozilla Firefox, you can enjoy multiple picture-in-picture views, a URL tracking blocker, better performance, and faster loading speeds, as well as all the features it shares with Google Chrome. With the browser comes its big community, which regularly updates and releases new extensions that can extend its functionalities even further. For computers, you can download Google Chrome on Windows 11 or 10 (64-bit), macOS (10.11 or higher), and Linux (Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian, and OpenSUSE). These extensions are regularly updated, and some are available exclusively on Google Chrome.
Your Google Account is protected by industry-leading security that automatically helps detect and block threats before they ever reach you. Learn how to sign in on a device that’s not yours. Learn more about using Chrome on your device. Unlike its predecessor, Internet Explorer, Edge is a fast and reliable browser that uses the  Bing search engine and offers Microsoft’s own AI solution. It also integrates different social media platforms and instant messengers so that you can access WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, and YouTube directly from the browser interface.

• Developed by the technological giant Google, Chrome is the most common choice when it comes to browsers, whether we’re talking about personal or professional use or having it on a PC or a mobile device.
• These updates add new features, improve performance, and fix any security issues.
• Download Chrome on your mobile device or tablet and sign into your account for the same browser experience, everywhere.
• Sign in to Chrome on any device to access your bookmarks, saved passwords, and more.
• Unlike its predecessor, Internet Explorer, Edge is a fast and reliable browser that uses the  Bing search engine and offers Microsoft’s own AI solution.
• When you sign in to your Google Account, all the Google services you use work together to help you get more done.

Supercharge your browser with

The browser regularly introduces new tools designed to make browsing simpler and more enjoyable. Focused on utilizing the most modern technologies available for the web, Google Chrome has all the functionalities you need to browse websites comfortably and offers many customization options. You can group tabs, control media players from any tab, and search directly from the URL bar. Developed by the technological giant Google, Chrome is the most common choice when it comes to browsers, whether we’re talking about personal or professional use or having it on a PC or a mobile device. Use Safety Check to instantly audit for compromised passwords, safe browsing status and any available Chrome updates.

Those include sync between devices, a password manager, and tab administration. Because it’s the biggest browser in the world, Google Chrome also has a vast library of extensions for almost every service and utility you might need (to download from the Chrome Web Store). You can also have multiple user profiles set up, which is perfect if you have more people using the browser on your computer or want to keep your work and personal pages, history, bookmarks, and settings separate. Other highly useful features include the built-in password manager, which can store your passwords, evaluate their strength, and alert you if your credentials have been compromised or are considered weak or reused too often.

SAFETY CHECK

From shopping and entertainment to productivity, find extensions to improve your experience in the Chrome Web Store. Alternatively, sign into the Google website and click Gmail to access Gmail from login. If you have a Google account, you can access Gmail from login easily. Do you need to sign into your Gmail account? Your Google Account comes with a built-in password manager that securely saves your passwords in a central place only you can access. You can also control what data is saved in your account with easy on/off controls, and even delete your data by date, product, and topic.
This means bookmarks, passwords, history, and open tabs are always available, regardless of which device you use. Similar to other solutions, you can synchronize your open tabs and other data between devices in an instant thanks to Opera Touch. Only some of the extensions that you can download may require a subscription to utilize all features, but this depends on the service that offers this add-on, and most of them are also entirely free. The browser also supports many customization options, allowing you to change themes, organize bookmarks, and install extensions to enhance your experience. Download Chrome on your mobile device or tablet and sign into your account for the same browser experience, everywhere.
For example, flight confirmations in your Gmail inbox will automatically sync with your Google Calendar and Google Maps to help you get to the airport on time. When you sign in to your Google Account, all the Google services you use work together to help you get more betista done. Once you’re signed in, open your inbox to check your mail.
Find specific instructions for your device here. When you set Chrome as your default browser, any link you click will automatically open in Chrome. You can set Chrome as your default browser on Windows or Mac operating systems as well as your iPhone, iPad or Android device.

The dog, sitting behind, tilted her head, her floppy ears bouncing, and with a wag of her tail, she finally answers… In a cozy little car, a dog plopped her furry head on her owner’s lap, curiously watching as they scribbled numbers on a notepad. Instead of frustration, laughter erupts as the playful pup prances around with a pen in his mouth, proving to be the cutest distraction from productivity. Just as an important email is being typed, the dog grabs the charging cable for a game of tug-of-war, turning the workday into a comedic chaos. With the dog proudly perched like a king surveying his kingdom, the wife’s eye roll was practically audible.

How Privacy Laws and Cookie-Less Browsing Affect Metric Accuracy

• Ultimately, a massage can be a wonderful bonding experience, allowing dogs to feel nurtured and cherished while enhancing their overall well-being and reducing stress.
• Play Richard Heinz, Founder of Dog Force 1 Dog Training, has been training dogs in the South Florida Area for over 20 years.
• But don’t worry, bounce rate is still there—you just have to add it yourself.
• Let’s say you’re unhappy with how high the overall bounce rate is in Google Analytics.
• However, when it comes to measuring the efficacy of attracting high-quality visitors to your site, the overall website bounce rate is the data point you’ll start with.
• As the puppy playfully tugs at the strings, the balloons sway above, capturing the essence of innocence and pure love.

If you find that it’s not a problem with one specific channel, the issue could be with the kinds of posts you share on social or how they’re described to your followers. If you’ve determined that the bounce rate problem is due to a discrepancy between perception and reality, you can’t blame it on the visitors for not knowing any better. Having generated a list of pages crucial to the success of your site, it’s time to look at the actual user journey and figure out if it’s a matter of audience that’s the problem. According to this data, 5 of those visitors kept going while 7 bounced. Under what conditions do users most commonly bounce? So, as you consider questions like the ones posed above, and you dig into the metrics with higher bounce rates, go back and review the ones with lower bounce rates at the same time.

Conversion Bounce Rates

In some cases, a high bounce rate is actually a good sign. But don’t worry, bounce rate is still there—you just have to add it yourself. You might have noticed that bounce rate isn’t front-and-center in most standard Google Analytics 4 reports.
When the first “fart” noise blasted from the machine, my dog’s ears perked up, and he looked around, clearly confused. I carefully hid the machine in a spot where my dog often hangs out, then I waited patiently for him to settle down. These moments of connection can transform an ordinary day into a special one, highlighting the unique relationship you share with your dog.

• It might just be one number in a sea of numbers, but your bounce rate is an incredibly powerful force in Google Analytics.
• A poorly optimized mobile experience can lead to high bounce rates, as users struggle to navigate or read content on smaller screens.
• As a Google Analytics Specialist, let me simplify this for you and show you how understanding bounce rate can impact your online success.
• At the end of the day, bounce rate is just one piece of a much larger puzzle.
• For example, a high bounce rate isn’t automatically a red flag.

This kind of dashboard puts engagement front and center, which is the big shift in GA4. A session was a bounce if a visitor landed on a page and left without clicking to another page or triggering an event. Manipulating metrics without improving user experience creates short-term gains but long-term damage. Month-over-Month (MoM) growth trends in engagement metrics reveal whether optimization efforts produce results.

Visualize my data

Instead of bringing me comfort, he bounced around excitedly, oblivious to my ruse. However, in a surprising twist, the dog chooses to ignore the ball entirely and heads straight for its food bowl instead. It recounts a classic fetch game, where the expectation is for the dog to chase after a thrown ball.

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The joy in their reaction is infectious; it’s a reminder of their loyalty and affection. When your dog responds positively, it reinforces their connection to their name and their willingness to respond to you. Some may even tilt their heads, as if trying to understand what you want, while others might come bounding over with playful energy, eager for attention or a treat. Calling your dog’s name when they are right next to you can lead to delightful and often comical reactions. Is she smiling because it’s something delicious, or is there concern about its ingredients?
In other words, engagement rate helps you measure the percentage of visits to your website or app that involved some form of meaningful engagement. The engagement rate is the percentage of engaged sessions on your website or mobile app. To play online with Realms, you will need to configure your device privacy settings to allow Minecraft to communicate over the Internet and make sure that the CLUBS and MULTIPLAYER settings are both set to ALLOWED. A free Microsoft account will help you access your purchases, Realms, and other Minecraft content across all of your Minecraft devices. When playing Minecraft on Xbox, Windows, or Android and iOS mobile devices, you can sign in with your Microsoft account and use your Xbox gamertag to save your progress, purchases, and play online with your friends using Realms. This enables you to scale personalized outreach with the most accurate data available.

Average Bounce Rate Benchmarks by Industry (2026 Data Projections)

These optimizations address common technical bounce drivers. Technical issues cause preventable bounces. A single embedded video can transform page engagement metrics. Users engaging with media meet GA4’s engagement criteria. Video and interactive elements naturally extend session duration while reducing bounces. Mismatches indicate content revision opportunities.

I use heatmaps to identify “rage clicks”—repeated clicks on non-functional elements indicating user frustration. A 30-second threshold on a 100-word page inflates engagement; on a 3,000-word guide, it accurately captures invested readers. Timer-based engagement triggers mark sessions as engaged after specified duration thresholds. These weren’t bounces—they were satisfied readers. Adding explicit width and height attributes to images alone can dramatically improve CLS scores and reduce frustrated bounces. Every 100ms delay affects engagement metrics.
Your bounce rate is the percentage of all of your website’s sessions that resulted in a ‘bounce’, as defined by your Google Analytics settings. Or, jump straight to the section on how to fix a high bounce rate. So, while it’s not a direct cause, focusing on user engagement is always a good move for your SEO. They don’t look at your GA bounce rate and decide to move you up or down. Google has been clear that bounce rate is not a direct ranking factor. A high bounce rate only becomes a red flag when the page’s goal is to encourage further exploration.
Embedding videos is one of the most effective ways to increase user engagement. A poor mobile experience will drive users away faster than any other factor. Improving your page speed is one of the quickest ways to reduce your bounce rate. As we mentioned earlier, slow-loading pages drive users away. If your bounce rate is higher than you’d like, don’t panic.
The bounce rate in Google Analytics isn’t a module you’ll find under Audience, Acquisition, and Behavior. It appears within nearly every filter in Google Analytics and, yet, many don’t completely understand the ramifications of a bad bounce rate. And, of course, the bounce rate is another one of those key behavioral metrics that tell a story about visitor reception of your website. It might just be one number in a sea of numbers, but your bounce rate is an incredibly powerful force in Google Analytics. But what is a bounce rate in Google Analytics? Understanding bounce rate is essential for anyone serious about improving their website’s performance.
Spend your time looking at pages that play critical roles in the on-site journey. To understand where the friction in the user experience lies, you need to visit that bounced page yourself. All of this time spent with data is going to clue you into issues with your website, but they probably won’t provide you with a definitive answer of what the issue is and how to fix it. If organic visits lead to lower bounce rates and actual customers, as opposed to paid visits which drop almost immediately, stick with what works. If your site produces a lot of content that is later promoted on social media, you can use the Social channel to identify which social media platforms just aren’t working for you. As a result, I’ll have to reexamine the promotional banners and betista casino promo code images I placed there since it’s clear visitors didn’t understand what to do or just weren’t interested.
A high bounce rate under the Behavior tab is going to help you drill down into the pages of your website because it’s not always about the people being a bad fit. This data will start you thinking about why individual bounce rates are so high. Now, if your business actively targets the UK, for instance, but your bounce rate is close to 100% for those visitors, what has gone wrong? While many of the data points you’ll encounter in Google Analytics are pretty straightforward, the term bounce rate has a tendency to confuse some people.

The New Zealand Parliament cannot pass legislation for these countries, but with their consent can act on behalf of them in foreign affairs and defence. The Cook Islands and Niue are self-governing states in free association with New Zealand. The Realm of New Zealand, one of 15 Commonwealth realms, is the entire area over which the king or queen of New Zealand is sovereign and comprises New Zealand, Tokelau, the Ross Dependency, the Cook Islands, and Niue.

New Zealand Economy

New Zealand has been described as a middle power in the Asia-Pacific region, and an emerging power. A seasonal workers scheme for temporary migration was introduced in 2007, and in 2009 about 8,000 Pacific Islanders were employed under it. New Zealand has a strong presence among the Pacific Island countries, and enjoys strong diplomatic relations with Samoa, Fiji, and Tonga, and among smaller nations. Despite the United States’s suspension of ANZUS obligations, the treaty remained in effect between New Zealand and Australia, whose foreign policy has followed a similar historical trend. In 1951, the United Kingdom became increasingly focused on its European interests, while New Zealand joined Australia and the United States in the ANZUS security treaty. On 3 September 1939, New Zealand allied itself with Britain and declared war on Germany with Prime Minister Michael Joseph Savage proclaiming, “Where she goes, we go; where she stands, we stand”.

Read me before you post if you’re new!!!

Almost all general elections between 1853 and 1993 were held under the first-past-the-post voting system. Cabinet, formed by ministers and led by the prime minister, is the highest policy-making body in government and responsible for deciding significant government actions. If no majority is formed, a minority government can be formed if support from other parties during confidence and supply votes is assured. The House of Representatives is democratically elected, and a government is formed from the party or coalition with the majority of seats. The New Zealand Parliament holds legislative power and consists of the king and the House of Representatives.

Contents

Cook mapped the main islands and the east coast of Australia, and named the country New Zealand. The Moriori people of the Chatham Islands, located to the east of the main islands, multiplied from a group of New Zealand Polynesians who traveled there by canoe in the fourteenth or fifteenth century. Conservationists recognized that threatened bird populations could be saved on offshore islands, where, once predators were exterminated, bird life flourished again. Geographically, the country consists of two large islands and a number of smaller islands.
The currency is the New Zealand dollar, informally known as the “Kiwi dollar”; it also circulates in the Cook Islands (see Cook Islands dollar), Niue, Tokelau, and the Pitcairn Islands. New Zealand has an advanced market economy, ranked 16th in the 2022update Human Development Index, and fourth in the 2022update Index of Economic Freedom. It has contributed forces to several regional and global peacekeeping missions, such as those in Cyprus, Somalia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Sinai, Angola, Cambodia, the Iran–Iraq border, Bougainville, East Timor, and the Solomon Islands. In addition to Vietnam and the two world wars, New Zealand fought in the Second Boer War, the Korean War, the Malayan Emergency, the Gulf War, and the Afghanistan War.
The Māori loanword Pākehā has been used to refer to New Zealanders of European descent, although some reject this name. In the 2023 census, 62.1% of residents responded as being ethnically New Zealand European, and 17.8% responded as being ethnically Māori. By 2050, the median age is projected to rise to 43 years and the percentage of people 60 years of age and older to rise from 18% to 29%. While New Zealand is experiencing sub-replacement fertility, with a total fertility rate of 1.6 in 2020, the fertility rate is above the OECD average.
The Māori were the first people to reach New Zealand, followed by the early European settlers. While the demonym for a New Zealand citizen is New Zealander, the informal “Kiwi” is commonly used both internationally and by locals. For legacy systems which can only accept one ethnicity, people are usually allocated to a single ethnicity based on a pre-determined priority order, with Māori given highest priority and New Zealand European given lowest priority. Statistics New Zealand allows people to choose multiple ethnicities and reports ethnic data based on total responses, therefore ethnicities add up to more than 100%. The median age of the New Zealand population at the 2018 census was 37.4 years, with life expectancy in 2017–2019 being 80.0 years for males and 83.5 years for females.
The northern and northeastern parts of the South Island are the sunniest areas of the country and receive about 2,400–2,500 hours. Elsewhere, the plate boundary involves the subduction of one plate under the other, producing the Puysegur Trench to the south, the Hikurangi Trough east of the North Island, and the Kermadec and Tonga Trenches further north. The two main islands (the North Island, or Te Ika-a-Māui, and the South Island, or Te Waipounamu) are separated by Cook Strait, 22 kilometres (14 mi) wide at its narrowest point. New Zealand is near the centre of the water hemisphere and is made up of two main islands and more than 700 smaller islands. After the 1982 UNCLOS, the islands contributed significantly to New Zealand’s exclusive economic zone. According to most Māori oral traditions, the islands were first discovered by the semi-legendary explorer Kupe while in pursuit of a giant octopus.

• If no majority is formed, a minority government can be formed if support from other parties during confidence and supply votes is assured.
• From the early 19th century, Christian missionaries began to settle New Zealand, eventually converting most of the Māori population.
• The number of fee-paying international students and international exchange students increased sharply in the late 1990s, with more than 20,000 studying in public tertiary institutions in 2002.
• The New Zealand Government established it to replace the country’s 20 district health boards (DHBs) on 1 July 2022.
• The New Zealand recording industry began to develop from 1940 onwards, and many New Zealand musicians have obtained success in Britain and the United States.

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At the 2023 census, 51.6% of population said they had no religion, up from 48.2% in 2018 census. As recorded in the 2018 census, Samoan is the most widely spoken non-official language (2.2%), followed by “Northern Chinese” (including Mandarin, 2.0%), Hindi (1.5%), and French (1.2%). The number of fee-paying international students and international exchange students increased sharply in the late 1990s, with more than 20,000 studying in public tertiary institutions in 2002. The most popular countries of origin for overseas-born residents were England (14.6%), mainland China (10.2%), India (10.0%), the Philippines (7.0%), South Africa (6.7%), Australia (6.1%), Fiji (4.8%) and Samoa (4.3%). In 2009–10, an annual target of 45,000–50,000 permanent residence approvals was set by the New Zealand Immigration Service—more than one new migrant for every 100 New Zealand residents. Following colonisation, immigrants were predominantly from Britain, Ireland and Australia because of restrictive policies similar to the White Australia policy.
New Zealand is heavily dependent on international trade, particularly in agricultural products. Since 1984, successive governments engaged in major macroeconomic restructuring (known first as Rogernomics and then Ruthanasia), rapidly transforming New Zealand from a protectionist and highly regulated economy to a liberalised free-trade economy. According to the 2024 Global Peace Index, New Zealand is the 4th most peaceful country in the world. New Zealand is involved in the Pacific Islands Forum, the Pacific Community, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Regional Forum (including the East Asia Summit). A large proportion of New Zealand’s aid goes to these countries, and many Pacific people migrate to New Zealand for employment. In 2013update there were about 650,000 New Zealand citizens living in Australia, which is equivalent to 15% of the population of New Zealand.
New Zealand administers the South Pacific island group of Tokelau and claims a section of the Antarctic continent. The capital city is Wellington and the largest urban area Auckland; both are located on the North Island. New Zealand is a remote land—one of the last sizable territories suitable for habitation to be populated and settled—and lies more than 1,000 miles (1,600 km) southeast of Australia, its nearest neighbour.

Its exclusive economic zone is one of the world’s largest, covering more than 15 times its land area. The nearest continent is Australia to the west north west, with the shortest distance between the Australian and New Zealand mainlands being roughly 1,487 kilometers (924 miles) across the Tasman Sea, specifically between Tasmania and Fiordland. In 1947, New Zealand adopted the Statute of Westminster, confirming that the British Parliament could no longer legislate for the country without its consent. In 1886, New Zealand annexed the volcanic Kermadec Islands, about 1,000 km (620 mi) northeast of Auckland. Following these armed conflicts, large areas of Māori land were confiscated by the government to meet settler demands. Armed conflict began between the colonial government and Māori in 1843 with the Wairau Affray over land and disagreements over sovereignty.
Non-Māori Polynesian cultures are also apparent, with Pasifika, the world’s largest Polynesian festival, now an annual event in Auckland. Immigrants from India, China and the Philippines are the largest contributors to New Zealand’s population growth. New Zealand is a predominantly urban country, with 84.5% of the population living in urban areas and 51.4% in the seven cities with populations exceeding 100,000. In 1921, the country’s median centre of population was in the Tasman Sea west of Levin in Manawatū-Whanganui; by 2017, it had moved 280 km (170 mi) north to near Kawhia in Waikato.

• The country fought in both world wars, with notable campaigns in Gallipoli, Crete, El Alamein, and Cassino.
• Reflecting this, New Zealand’s culture mainly derives from Māori and early British settlers but has recently broadened from increased immigration.
• It is the sixth-largest island country by area and lies east of Australia across the Tasman Sea and south of the islands of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga.
• In the mid-1980s New Zealand deregulated its agricultural sector by phasing out subsidies over a three-year period.
• In contrast, dairy farming increased, with the number of dairy cows doubling between 1990 and 2007, to become New Zealand’s largest export earner.
• The closest neighbors to the north are New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga.

Economy

The number of overseas students receiving education in New Zealand expanded dramatically and the importance of “export education” to the national economy rivaled that of other more established industries. During the 1990s, tourism became the country’s leading earner of foreign exchange. Primary export industries are agriculture (sheep, cattle, dairy), horticulture (apples, kiwifruit), fishing, and forestry. betista casino login New Zealand is dependent on trade—particularly in agricultural products—and has been affected by global economic slowdowns and slumps in commodity prices.
New Zealand is a member of the Five Eyes intelligence sharing agreement, known formally as the UKUSA Agreement. Today, New Zealand enjoys particularly close relations with the United States and is one of its major non-NATO allies, as well as with Australia, with a “Trans-Tasman” identity between citizens of the latter being common. The country is a member of the United Nations, the Commonwealth of Nations and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and participates in the Five Power Defence Arrangements.
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It is also called Aotearoa or the “Land of the Long White Cloud” in the language of the Maori (rhymes with “dowry”), the Polynesian people who settled the islands four centuries before the first Europeans arrived. New Zealand is an island country located in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. The country comprises two main islands—the North and the South Island—and a number of small islands, some of them hundreds of miles from the main group. New Zealand, island country in the South Pacific Ocean, the southwesternmost part of Polynesia. New Zealand’s population today is concentrated to the north of the country, with around 76.4% of the population living in the North Island and 23.6% in the South Island as of June 2025. New Zealand conservationists have pioneered several methods to help threatened wildlife recover, including island sanctuaries, pest control, wildlife translocation, fostering, and ecological restoration of islands and other protected areas.
For instance, in 2016, Auckland was ranked the world’s third most liveable city and Wellington the twelfth by the Mercer Quality of Living Survey. Most private and commercial research organisations in New Zealand focus on the agricultural and fisheries sectors. Their role is to research and develop new science, knowledge, products and services across the economic, environmental, social and cultural spectrum for the benefit of New Zealand.
It also forms the southwestern extremity of the geographic and ethnographic region called Polynesia. New Zealand is part of Zealandia, a microcontinent nearly half the size of Australia that gradually submerged after breaking away from the Gondwanan supercontinent. The country owes its varied topography, and perhaps even its emergence above the waves, to the dynamic boundary it straddles between the Pacific and Indo-Australian Plates. The highly active Taupō Volcanic Zone has formed a large volcanic plateau, punctuated by the North Island’s highest mountain, Mount Ruapehu (2,797 metres (9,177 ft)). The closest point between any territory of both countries is between Macquarie Island (Australia) and Auckland Island (New Zealand), which are about 618 kilometers (384 miles) apart.

An interpolation of Toots and the Maytals’ 1966 song of the same name, Sister Nancy’s in-studio freestyle was laid over sparse rub-a-dub production, allowing her declaration of ambition and skill to ring loud and clear. In addition to her status as a rare female voice in a sea of male performers at the dawn of dancehall, Sister Nancy is recognized for her influential, highly sampled single “Bam Bam.” While Sister Nancy needn’t be reminded of her influence — “I’m the woman who created dancehall … on the mic system, around the sound system. I’m the one who did all of that, first” — the past 15 years have seen the artist receive her flowers on a global stage. “I will never be your ordinary thing. When you come to see me, it doesn’t matter the time or the space, it’s always going to be good.” “People love what I stand for. I always give the audience something they can think about,” Sister Nancy tells GRAMMY.com, Zooming in from a car in Midtown Manhattan.

• Known for her sexually provocative imagery and wild style, Rihanna made headlines for the sheer dress she wore to the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) awards ceremony in June 2014.
• Released four years after Unapologetic — her longest gap between albums at the time — ANTI illustrated Rihanna’s greater desire for quality over quantity.
• Rihanna has credited her mother as the earliest inspiration for her love of fashion, recalling how she admired her getting dressed as a child.
• Having sold nine million copies as of 2023, Good Girl Gone Bad is her best-selling album worldwide.
• The song’s success buoyed sales for her debut full-length recording, Music of the Sun (2005), on which conventional R&B ballads shared space with Caribbean-flavored dance-pop that showcased her melodious Barbadian lilt.
• “Same Ol’ Mistakes” is a cover of psychedelic rock band Tame Impala’s “New Person, Same Old Mistakes” — her first time remaking another artist’s song for her own album since “You Don’t Love Me (No, No, No)” on Music of the Sun.
• Even so, its poetic lyricism and mystical storytelling cleverly foreshadowed what was to come with subsequent albums, particularly The Tortured Poets Department.

Met Gala pays tribute to Black fashion and designers and includes Rihanna pregnancy surprise

“And, baby, that’s show business for you,” Taylor Swift declared after announcing her 12th full-length album, The Life of a Showgirl. But with The Life of a Showgirl, it’s clear she’s closing the chapter — or should we say era — of her life that was the catalyst to the new one she’s stepping into. Yes, she is still the same artist who wrote the fairytale-tinged record Fearless, crafted the indie pandemic escape that was folklore, and dove into the depths of her sadness on The Tortured Poets Department. After the muted sonic tones of The Tortured Poets Department, The Life of a Showgirl is possibly Swift’s most jubilant album yet.

2017: Standalone releases and Anti

Lead single “We Found Love” is undeniably the biggest hit to stem from the Talk That Talk era, spending 10 consecutive weeks atop the Hot 100. Her longing continues in “Where Have You Been,” which flaunts Rihanna’s versatility, flipping Geoff Mack’s 1959 country song “I’ve Been Everywhere” into an infectious EDM banger. It was especially refreshing to see Rihanna emerge from one of the darkest periods of her life as exuberant as ever.
She especially enjoyed singing and won a high-school talent show with a rendition of a Mariah Carey song. As a child, she listened to Caribbean music, such as reggae, as well as American hip-hop and R&B. Rihanna (born February 20, 1988, St. Michael parish, Barbados) is a Barbadian pop and rhythm-and-blues (R&B) singer who became a worldwide star in the early 21st century. In 2022, Rihanna advocated for reforming the global financial system to better address climate change and poverty, including providing aid to nations most affected by climate-related crises. In October 2019, she stated that she declined to perform at the 2020 Super Bowl halftime show in support of Colin Kaepernick following the controversy surrounding his role in the national anthem protests. Proceeds from the single supported the fundraiser, which ultimately helped raise $100 million for cancer research.

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Elizabeth Taylor has appeared as a character in Swift’s songs before, particularly in rep’s “Ready For It…?” where she compares herself to the famous actress and entertainer. Comparatively, “Eldest Daughter” — track five, a spot Swift notoriously reserves for the most emotional song — is a love song about the masks we wear and the selves we choose to reveal. Throughout the record, dynamic and layered pop soundscapes mimic the same energy Swift was feeling both on and off stage. “I thought who better to ask to be a part of this song than the ultimate showgirl Sabrina Carpenter.” Instead of writing songs akin to “I Can Do It With A Broken Heart,” a song about performing in the midst of heartbreak and grief, Swift opted to focus on what people don’t necessarily see when they buy a ticket to a show. Now that the curtain is up and The Life of a Showgirl is out, read on for five key essential insights from Taylor Swift’s new album.
Nancy was largely unaware of its popularity as a hip-hop sample, and didn’t receive royalties for the tune (itself owned by producer Winston Riley, who died in 2012). She never stopped performing, and while Sister Nancy traveled as far as Israel to sing, she was often relegated to multi-artist bills — and not in the largest text. It’s been used in film and television, including prominently in 1998’s Nas- and DMX-featuring Belly. Multiple sources consider it the most sampled reggae song ever (WhoSampled.com counts 155 samples), with Beyoncé, Madlib, Run D.M.C., Lauryn Hill, Chris Brown, Alicia Keys, Ariana Grande, and Buju Banton and many others pulling from Nancy’s crisses lyrics. Sister Nancy wouldn’t perform the song on a Jamaican stage for eight years, until she featured at 1990’s Sting competition. “I went with Yellowman to Harry J’s Studio. Yellowman did a ‘Bam Bam,’, and I had to finish my One, Two album, and I just said I am going to do a tune like Yellowman did. And I did ‘Bam Bam,’ my way,” Nancy recalls.
Seven years into an already extraordinary career, 2012’s Unapologetic became Rihanna’s first album to debut at No. 1 on the all-genre Billboard 200 chart. With this feat, she became the youngest artist to attain the most chart-toppers in a five-year span. That same carefree spirit can be heard in the feminist track “Raining Men,” which features Nicki Minaj — their first of two collabs, as they joined forces again for “Fly,” the final single off the rapper’s iconic Pink Friday album. While “What’s My Name?” may not outshine Rih and Drizzy’s other collabs — including 2011’s “Take Care” or 2016’s “Work” — the second she sings, “Hey, boy, I really wanna see if you can go downtown with a girl like me,” it’s impossible not to whine your waist to the riddim. Through lead single “Russian Roulette” and bitingly catchy anthems “Stupid in Love,” “Fire Bomb,” “Photographs,” “Cold Case Love,” and “The Last Song,” Rihanna explored her angst and confusion. Rihanna was a familiar face by 2007, but with the arrival of her third studio album, Good Girl Gone Bad, she graduated from cookie-cutter pop star to bonafide icon.
Many of her music videos were shot as short films exploring issues such as love triangles, abuse and substance abuse romance, including “We Found Love” and “Man Down”. The album’s lead single, “Diamonds”, topped the US Billboard Hot 100, becoming Rihanna’s twelfth number-one song on the chart. A synth-pop record with EDM and hip-hop elements, Unapologetic debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 238,000 copies, becoming Rihanna’s first chart-topping album in the US. Rihanna is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, with estimated sales of over 250 million records. “She continued to make incredible art and so this is a love song kind of through the lens of the motif of what she had to go through in her life and sort of the parallels that I feel in my own life.”
“If you listen to the lyrics to that song, you know the depth and how far she’s come.” “The minute Rihanna walked into the room, it was like the other two girls didn’t exist,” he told Entertainment Weekly in 2007. The post featured a photo of Rihanna holding her new daughter, Rocki Irish Mayers, who was born on September 13. Rihanna is a Grammy-winning singer known for such No. 1 pop hits as “Umbrella,” “SOS,” “Diamonds,” and “Work.” In 2023 Rihanna revealed she was again pregnant by performing at the Super Bowl halftime show with a visible baby bump; her representatives subsequently confirmed that the singer was expecting her second child. Rihanna’s personal life attracted intense media attention.

Sister Nancy Talks “Bam Bam,” Why She Loves Jay-Z & Longevity In Reggae

Gleefully playing the witch doctor, prolific singer/bassist Esperanza Spalding individually released every song (and an accompanying video) from her seventh album across 11 days before serving up its cauldron of genre-hopping sounds in full. (Rih recorded an equally moving sequel for her Loud album.) Three years later, the two confronted their inner demons in “The Monster,” and their musical chemistry scored a GRAMMY in 2015 for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration. Final single “Te Amo” didn’t chart, but garnered a great deal of attention as the Latin-infused Stargate production depicts Rihanna being enticed by a female love interest. It also marked Rihanna’s first time veering away from her “girl next door” image, as the song’s subject matter deals with infidelity. Follow-up single “If It’s Lovin’ That You Want” stalled at No. 36 on the Hot 100, but still whetted fans’ appetite — as did her debut album, Music of the Sun, which is mostly comprised of dance-pop and dancehall tracks with hints of R&B (like “Willing to Wait”). Shortly after her 16th birthday, Rihanna left her home country for the U.S. to record a demo, which included her breakthrough hit “Pon de Replay.” The demo found its way into Jay-Z’s hands, and Hov signed the teen artist to Def Jam and the label expedited her 2005 debut album, aptly titled Music of the Sun.

Rihanna cuts off questioner outside courthouse

Her debut album, “Music of the Sun,” further solidified her presence, selling over two million copies worldwide and setting the stage for her meteoric rise in the years to come. Jay-Z was immediately captivated, signing her on the spot and launching her career in the music industry. Her journey from a small island to the bustling music scene of America marked the beginning of her transformational career. Relocating from her home in Barbados to Connecticut, she stayed with music producer Evan Rogers and his wife.

Streaming details for Titanic on Amazon Video

As Swift revealed on May 30, she bought back the master recordings of her first six albums, marking the first time she’s been in control of her entire discography. Throughout a total of 31 tracks, the prolific songwriter shelved the glittery pop radio-friendly tunes in favor of more subdued, synthy and heart-wrenching songs. Midnights helped further solidify Swift’s larger-than-life status at the finale of the 2024 GRAMMYs, too, as she became the only artist in history to win Album Of The Year four times. Along with breaking several streaming records — including becoming the first album to exceed 700 million global streams in a week — it was Swift’s 11th No. 1 debut on the Billboard 200, and was the highest-selling album of 2022 (and, remarkably, the second best-selling of 2023).
Rihanna has delivered pop hit after pop hit since bursting onto the music scene in the mid-2000s. The album’s lead single, “Work,” featuring rapper Drake, spent nine weeks at No. 1 and earned two Grammy nominations. In January 2016, Rihanna released her eighth album, Anti, allowing Jay-Z’s online streaming site Tidal to exclusively feature the collection of tracks for a week. The album included “We Found Love,” a track with DJ Calvin Harris betista casino that won the 2013 Grammy Award for best short-form music video. Less than a year later, when Rihanna was only 16 years old, she left Barbados to move in with Rogers and his wife in Connecticut and work on recording a demo album.

• In 2016, it was confirmed that Rihanna would release her music through her own label, Westbury Road Entertainment, founded in 2005 and named after her childhood home in Barbados.
• After the muted sonic tones of The Tortured Poets Department, The Life of a Showgirl is possibly Swift’s most jubilant album yet.
• Swift opted to lean more into radio-friendly hits, which resulted in songs like “Style,” “Wildest Dreams,” “Blank Space,” and “Shake It Off,” all of which became singles.
• In 2012, she set a Guinness World Record as the best-selling digital artist in the US.
• Accolades aside, ANTI is proof that magic happens when an artist of Rihanna’s caliber follows their own instincts in pursuit of creating a body of work — one that can outlast them and continue to inspire generations to come.
• One of Rihanna’s most precious offerings to date, “Diamonds” emerged as a self-love mantra due to its uplifting “Shine bright like a diamond” chant.
• It included an array of products including foundations, highlighters, bronzers, blush compacts, lip glosses, and blotting sheets, and was praised for offering shades that catered to all skin tones.

A daily briefing on what matters in the music industry Jan. 26, Rocky scored his first Billboard 200 No. 1 album in more than a decade with Don’t Be Dumb, which Rihanna celebrated via X, writing, “Just me here to let yall know my baby daddy got the NUMBER 1 ALBUM!!! While some fans are wallowing in their 10th year without a new Rihanna album, everyone’s favorite Bajan Bad Gal is celebrating the massive success her ANTI album has generated during that period. This is the second such soundtrack she has contributed to for an animated movie, recording several anthems for “Home,” a 2015 film she starred in alongside the “Big Bang Theory” star Jim Parsons.
Highly regarded as Swift’s magnum opus, Red sees the singer shed the fairytale dresses and the girl-next-door persona to craft a body of work that has now been deemed as her first “adult” record. Writing the entire album herself, Swift used Speak Now to prove her songwriting prowess to those who questioned her capabilities. For the first time since becoming an artist, she was forced to reckon with the concept of celebrity and how turning into one — whether she wanted it or not — informed her own writing and perception of herself. On the album’s liner notes, Swift says Fearless is about “living in spite” of the things that scare you, like falling in love again despite being hurt before or walking away and letting go.
Throughout The Life of a Showgirl, Swift, Martin and Shellback craft tracks that go beyond what they created with 1989 and reputation. Reuniting with her pop powerhouse collaborators Max Martin and Shellback, who worked on her biggest pop radio hits like “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together,” “Delicate,” “Blank Space,” and “Shake It Off,” was a return to form after the fog of TTPD. (“And all the headshots on the walls/ Of the dance hall are of the b—es/ Who wish I’d hurry up and die/ But I’m immortal now.”) On “The Life of a Showgirl,” she declares with her fellow showgirl that she isn’t handing over the baton just yet. The showgirl is actually the one in charge (“I was your father figure/ You pulled the wrong trigger/ This empire belongs to me”), alluding to her battle to retain her masters.
In contrast to the fairytale motifs and happy endings of Fearless, evermore saw Swift become fixated on “unhappy” endings — stories of failed marriages (“happiness”), lifeless relationships (“tolerate it”), and one-time flings (“’tis the damn season”). Like its (literally) folklorian sister, evermore was a surprise release at the end of 2020, marking the first time Swift didn’t have distinct “eras” between albums. It was exciting enough for Swifties to experience one surprise album drop from Swift, an artist who typically has an entire album campaign calculated. At the 2021 GRAMMYs, folklore took home Album Of The Year, making her the fourth artist in history to win three times in the Category. After its release, folklore became the best-selling album of 2020 after selling 1.2 million records. Lover became Swift’s sixth No. 1 album in America, making her the first female artist to achieve the feat.
Eventually, her bold move to the United States at 16 years old marked the beginning of her journey to stardom, as she pursued her passion for singing and songwriting with determination. Despite these difficulties, Rihanna showcased resilience and creativity from a young age, channeling her personal experiences and pain into music. She is the eldest of three siblings, navigating a childhood fraught with challenges, including her father’s struggles with substance abuse and her parents’ tumultuous marriage, which ultimately ended in divorce when she was just 14. Rihanna, born Robyn Rihanna Fenty on February 20, 1988, in St. Michael Parish, Barbados, is a globally renowned pop star, singer, and fashion icon.
Off stage, though, she was falling in love again — this time with someone who championed her just as much as the fans did in the areas. It’s apt that she would turn to Max Martin and Shellback, her 1989 and reputation collaborators, to bring that same captivating pop soundscape to The Life of a Showgirl and to capture some of the energy Swift was experiencing. And after two decades in the business, the 14-time GRAMMY winner is giving everyone a glimpse of what she describes as “the most infectiously joyful, wild, dramatic” chapter of her life thus far.
She formed a girl group with two classmates; when they were 15 years old, they scored an audition with music producer Evan Rodgers, who was visiting the island with his Barbadian wife. She is also a businesswoman who owns multiple ventures, including the popular cosmetics line Fenty Beauty and the lingerie brand Savage X Fenty. For her work on the single, Rihanna received her first Academy Award nomination, for best original song. Rihanna began working on a new record, but the project was delayed as she took a break from music.