Rihanna to Play Josephine Baker in Upcoming Biopic

The UK's Daily Mail reports that superstar Rihanna will portray legendary jazz singer Josephine Baker in an upcoming biopic.

The international musical and political icon was the first African-American female to star in a major motion picture, Zouzou (1934), to integrate an American concert hall, and to become a world-famous entertainer. She was also known for assisting the French Resistance during World War II, and for receiving the French military honor, the Croix de guerre.

Rihanna made her film debut in 2012's Battleship. She has earned six Grammy Awards, five American Music Awards, 22 Billboard Music Awards, and two BRIT Awards and has sold more than 100 million records worldwide, which makes her one of the best-selling artists of all time.

She has achieved twelve number one singles on the BillboardHot 100 chart, the youngest solo artist to achieve the feat. Billboard named her the Digital Songs Artist of the 2000s decade, ranking her seventeenth overall. In 2013, Billboard ranked Rihanna the top Hot 100 artist of the 2010s decade.[8] In 2012, Forbes named her as the fourth most powerful celebrity of 2012, with earnings of $53 million between May 2011 and May 2012. The same year, TIME named Rihanna one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World.