This colorful one-way street on the outskirts of Bridgetown has two lines of houses lining the now-busy street. Of course, one would wonder why such a small street attracts so much traffic; but it is due to a green-and-yellow house three-quarters down the road that brings the pilgrims.
Before Rihanna became a global pop superstar and successful businesswoman, she was known simply as Robyn. The little girl from Charles F. Broome Memorial Primary School who lived in one of the colorful houses along Westbury New Road in St. Michael.
Robyn Rihanna Fenty used to ride her bicycle up and down Westbury New Road, she used to listen to Bob Marley music on this very street as she drew inspiration from another Caribbean star who became a global icon. Long before the Grammys and the platinum records and the fashion empire before Westbury New Road received its current name: Rihanna Drive, this for Rihanna was simply home.
On the country’s Independence Day in 2017, the government of Barbados renamed that stretch of street Rihanna Drive. Every year, visitors flock to the modest but brightly painted green and orange house on a blue surface to see where Barbados’ biggest star grew up.
There are two rum shops at the end of the road, and if you go to either, you are sure to find a neighbor who was there in the beginning.
“My whole life was shaped on this very road,” Rihanna said at the renaming ceremony. “I was just a little island girl riding bikes, running around barefoot, and flying kits in the cemetery, but I had big dreams. Dreams that were born and realized right here.”
If you are a fan of Rihanna then any visit to Barbados must include a stop at her childhood home.
