One week after Rihanna scored her 12th No. 1 single on the Billboard Hot 100 chart with “Diamonds,” the diva earns her very first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart.

Her “Unapologetic” album opens atop the Billboard 200, selling 238,000 copies in its first week according to Nielsen SoundScan. The SRP/Def Jam set is her seventh studio release in a little over seven years, and follows six earlier top 10 efforts. Rather infamously, until this week, the diva held the distinction of having the most No. 1 songs on the Hot 100 without having claimed a No. 1 album.

“Unapologetic,” released on Monday, Nov. 19, also gives Rihanna her best sales week yet for an album. (The SoundScan tracking week ends at the close of business every Sunday.) The new album’s arrival surpasses her previous best frame, racked when 2010′s “Loud” launched at No. 3 with 207,000.

Rihanna’s first release, “Music of the Sun,” debuted and peaked at No. 10 in 2005, followed by “A Girl Like Me” (No. 5, 2006), “Good Girl Gone Bad” (No. 2, 2007), “Rated R” (No. 4, 2009), “Loud” (No. 3, 2010) and “Talk That Talk” (No. 3, 2011). She has additionally charted with two remix albums “Good Girl Gone Bad: The Remixes” (No. 106, 2009) and “Rated R: Remixed” (No. 158, 2010).

It’s not unprecedented for an artist to score six top 10 albums without having had a No. 1. More than 25 acts have lodged six top 10s — without a No. 1. They range from Sting (10 top 10s, zero No. 1s) and Sheryl Crow (eight top 10s) to Brad Paisley (seven top 10s) and Rush (12 top 10s).

Rihanna’s lack of a No. 1 album only seemed to draw more attention, perhaps compared to her consistent performance as a singles artist. Since her arrival in 2005, she has tallied 12 No. 1 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 — tying her for the fourth-most of all time with Madonna and the Supremes. Only the Beatles (with 20), Mariah Carey (18) and Michael Jackson (13) have had more.

Rihanna makes it a staggering three Number 1 albums in three years as Unapologetic follows in the footsteps of last year’s Talk That Talk and 2010’s Loud by going all the way to the top of the Official Albums Chart with UK sales of almost 100,000 copies this week.

Congratulations to RiRi who has now equalled Queen of Pop Madonna’s chart record for female artist with the most consecutive Number 1 albums. They share this achievement with fellow solo artists Eva Cassidy, Susan Boyle andNorah Jones.

Unapologetic is Rihanna’s fourth Number 1 album overall (her third album, Good Girl Gone Bad, also peaked at Number 1 back in 2007), and completes an amazing 12 months for the Bajan superstar. In the UK alone, she’s sold over three million singles, and has become the second biggest selling female singles artist of all time (behindMadonna). And she’s still only 24!

Congratulations Rihanna!

Global superstar Rihanna is taking over the Akoo network for RihTV to celebrate the release of her seventh album in seven years, Unapologetic. Join us and other Rihanna fans on November 23rd at NOON at an Akoo near you to hear new songs, see new videos, and for your chance to win some autographed swag!
Find all the details and an Akoo near you here.

Yesterday Rihanna attended a fan meet and greet event at Best Buy in NYC to promote the release of her seventh studio album ‘Unapologetic’. Check out pictures in our gallery.

Rihanna debuted in the music scene 7 years ago at the age of 17. After hitting hard on the charts in 2005, Rihanna continued to release an album every year. She rose to global success with her album ‘Good Girl Gone bad’ which produced the super hit single ‘Umbrella’. She was named as the Digital Artist Of The Decade. During these 7 years, her career has seen a lot of fame apart from personal heart break, which clearly reflects in her 7th studio album ‘Unapologetic’.

Unlike the rest of her 6 albums, ‘Unapologetic’ truly shows the real side of the bajan singer. Her personal life is all public with nothing to hide. From strip clubs to the reggae beats and her real life.

‘Unapologetic’ offers fans a whole variety of sounds, including dub step, electro/techno, piano ballads and reggae. After the release of the album, it is now at #1 position of iTunes in 40 countries. Whether you like it or not, Rihanna will dominate the charts with the new album.

You can get our exclusive track-by-track review of ‘Unapologetic’ below the cut.

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• Rihanna is nominated for Favorite R&B Artist at the 2013 People’s Choice Awards. You can vote as much as you want here.
• Today, Rihanna will switch on the the Christmas lights at the Westfield shopping centre in Stratford, London.
• Best Buy is selling ‘Unapologetic’ CD with an exclusive pass to the release event of the album on November 20th. Make sure you are the one of the 200th buy, available here.
• Rihanna’s third fragrance ‘Nude’ will be available at Macy’s next week. Additional stores will get it starting February 2013.
• Today Rihanna will bring the 777 Tour to London, which will air LIVE. You can watch it in broadcast-quality HD on LoveLive’s YouTube channel.
• Rihanna released the remix of ‘Diamonds’ which features rapper Kanye West. Make sure to buy it on iTunes.

It’s time. Rihanna’s long awaited seventh studio album is now available World Wide! Make sure to purchase your copy of the album on iTunes and your nearest store. And if you are planning to get more than 1 copy, please make sure you get them on separate receipts.

PURCHASE THE STANDARD VERSION HERE

PURCHASE THE DELUXE VERSION HERE

The lead single from the album ‘Diamonds’ is currently sitting at no.2 on the Billboard Hot 100. Rihanna already performed the song live on SNL, but since she is on the promotional tour for ‘Unapologetic’ the song will not be getting much promo for sometime. So make sure you purchase the song, to give her the long awaited 12th no.1 single.

 PURCHASE DIAMONDS ON ITUNES

I received the deluxe version of ‘Unapologetic’ in the morning mail today, and guess what came with it! The deluxe booklet with never seen before photos from the ‘Unapologetic’ promotional photoshoot. Everyone here at OnlyRihanna are in love with it.

Rihanna really does look flawless in these pictures shot by Mike Muller. Part of the shoot was used by River Island for a couple of men and women T-Shirts. But most of these are never seen before, so make sure to credit us if you repost any of these pictures.

At this point Rihanna is pretty much the biggest pop star on the planet, so when she drops an album it’s a really big deal. No surprise, then, that her seventh album is launching with maximum fanfare. She performed two new songs this weekend on Saturday Night Live. Today she will board a chartered Boeing 777 with representatives of her management company, Roc Nation, her record label, Island Def Jam, and her fan club, the Rihanna Navy, as well as a select group of media (including Complex‘s own Soo-Young Kim) to fly around the world and rip stages in 7 cities over 7 days. Welcome to Rihanna’s life.

Last Friday at the 40/40 Club in Manhattan we finally (after checking our cell phones and recording devices at the door, and donating to the Hurricane Sandy relief effort) got a chance to listen to the music itself. We did our best not to be swayed by the $18 glasses of wine (get that money, Jay!) or by all the fly ladies and industry poobahs in the building, or by the image of Rihanna smoking blunts filled with diamonds on a jumbo screen—not even by Rihanna herself when she strolled in the club near the end of the session—but our three word review of this album (if we wrote three-word reviews) would be: “Believe the hype.”

Unapologetic sounds like Rihanna’s best album yet. Also her most uninhibited, which is saying a whole lot.

Note that we said “best” and not merely “biggest.” As successful as her previous releases have been, this one will likely be even more mega. It’s stacked with A-list writers and producers—including features from Eminem, Future, and Chris Brown—and it taps into the pop music zeitgeist via every conceivable format and subgenre without feeling forced or contrived. Yep, Unapologetic is going to be a monster.

But it’s also better: more cohesive, more listenable from top to bottom than any of her previous efforts. Like many pop superstars, Rihanna has always been more of a singles artist than someone who created fully conceived albums. But Unapologetic is something else. The name of the game is making the audience believe you believe the words you’re singing. But the fact is that these songs sound rawer and more personal than anything she’s done in the past.

Via Complex

With the release of her album ‘Unapologetic’ just around the corner, these snippets from the album has been just revealed via iTunes. The album sounds so good, we cannot wait to hear the full songs. We can hear some dub step in the album too. The song which is produced by David Guetta, “Right Now” sounds fantastic too. Check out the samples below.