RIHANNA IS FIRST ARTIST TO CROSS 100 MILLION SONG CERTIFICATIONS, BECOMES RIAA’S TOP AWARDED SINGLES ARTIST
48 Million New Rihanna Song Awards Announced Today WASHINGTON–The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) today announced that Rihanna has surpassed more than 100 million Gold & Platinum song certifications, elevating her to number one on RIAA’s list of artists with the most Digital Single Awards and making her the first and only artist to surpass RIAA’s 100 million cumulative singles award threshold.
Encompassing a range of songs from an extraordinarily successful career, Rihanna today claimed 48 million new riaa Digital Single Certifications, which count download sales and on-demand streams in the United States.“Gold & Platinum is the industry’s premier way to celebrate achievement in the marketplace,” said Cary Sherman, Chairman & CEO, riaa.
“We’ve given awards to artists for nearly 60 years, but it’s rare that we have the opportunity to recognize a milestone like the one Rihanna has reached. Congratulations to Rihanna! She has not only surpassed RIAA’s one-hundred million mark, but also is the first artist to do so. It’s an historic feat and a testament to an extraordinary career.”
Rihanna’s Westbury Road Entertainment LLC/Roc Nation/Def Jam career song certifications span 37 separate titles released during her decade of music making, and include a 9X multi-Platinum award for “We Found Love,” 6X multi-Platinums for “Stay,” “What’s My Name” and “Only Girl (In The World),” plus a 2X multi-Platinum for new song “FourFiveSeconds,” a Platinum for “Bitch Better Have My Money” and many more.
In addition to her 100 million cumulative song honors, Rihanna’s career album awards total 7.5 million sold in the United States, including a 2x multi-Platinum for “Good Girl Gone Bad” (2007), five Platinum albums for “A Girl Like Me” (2006), “Rated R” (2009), “Loud” (2010), “Talk That Talk” (2011) and “Unapologetic” (2012) plus Gold for “Music Of The Sun” (2005).
The riaa created its Gold & Platinum Awards Program in 1958 to honor artists and create a standard for measuring the commercial success of a sound recording. The program trademarked the Gold record and formalized the industry practice of presenting awards to artists for music sales achievements.
In 2004, the riaa expanded its program to include a Digital Single Award in recognition of the significant sales of digital music formats. In 2013, the riaa added on-demand music streams to its Digital Single Award to better reflect artists’ commercial success in an evolving music marketplace.
The riaa has certified nearly 2,100 separate digital songs in the past decade of G&P’s digital awards and some 15,500 total titles during the program’s 57-year history. All certification calculations are conducted by the firm Gelfand, Rennert & Feldman, which has audited title sales for the riaa for more than 30 years. Complete lists of all album, single and video awards can also be accessed at riaa.com, and breaking program news at facebook.com/goldandplatinum and @riaa on Twitter.
