There was a time when this street was called Westbury New Road.
There, in a three-bedroom bungalow in Saint Michael, Barbados, a girl named Robyn grew up. Her parents argued loudly. There was never enough money. At eight years old, her headaches were so severe that doctors feared a tumor. They only disappeared when her parents divorced.
That girl sang Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey songs in the shower. No one paid for her lessons. She only had her voice and the desire.
In 2004, an audition changed everything. “Pon de Replay” arrived. “Umbrella” arrived. Fenty Beauty arrived. The whole world arrived singing her name.
In 2017, Barbados renamed that street. It is no longer called Westbury New Road. It is called Rihanna Drive.
On August 11, Rihanna returned. Not alone: with RZA, Riot, and Rocki, her three children with A$AP Rocky. She took them to stand in front of the house where it all began, on the street that now bears her name.
The same girl who dreamed of leaving Westbury now shows her children where she came from, standing right in the place that life gave back to her with her own name written above it.