Since the turn of the century, every American summer has seemed to produce one or two Caribbean-styled dance-pop hit sensations, and the summer of 2005 was no different, as the relentless dancehall-lite booming rhythms of Rihanna's "Pon de Replay" seemed as omnipresent as sunshine. Like Daddy Yankee ("Gasolina") and Sean Paul ("Get Busy") in summers prior, Rihanna emerged initially as an unknown superstar, known far more for her song than for herself. Unlike Daddy Yankee and Sean Paul, however, she is a woman -- a young and beautiful green-eyed one, to be more specific. Born Robyn Rihanna Fenty in the St. Michael parish of Barbados a brief 17 years before she reached the Top Two of Billboard's Hot 100 chart (held back from the number one spot by the undisputed song of the summer, Mariah Carey's "We Belong Together"), Rihanna always exhibited a special quality, winning beauty and talent contests as a schoolchild. But because she lived on the fairly remote island of Barbados in the West Indies, she never foresaw the sort of stardom that would later befall her.