Seen, Three: Rihanna on the Cover of Esquire’s Sexiest Woman Alive Issue

Words by Eddie STATS Houghton, via Esquire

OK, Rihanna is not the French Antillean femme fatale I imagined Friday, but her cover of Esquire magazine–and the title of Sexiest Woman Alive, 2011 that comes with it–round out an epic (dare I say, astronomical) week for Caribbean beauty. The badgal trifecta is complete! And with Naomi’s LURVE cover and Nicki’s Cosmo all hitting the newsstand at once like a crew of ouch girls rushing the velvet ropes it is safe to say that in 2011, when you say ‘sex symbol’ ‘Caribbean Queen’ is implied.

It is not implied in the Esquire cover story, though, which states it boldly, following Rihanna around her native Barbados, touching on her duties as tourism ambassador and even her Crop Over wining scandal (and introducing the term Crop Over to a whole new readership!) Which is the way we like our spotlights: bright enough to light up on the world stage–but not wash out the Caribbean color. Read the full feature here, watch Rye-rye get dutty-yeh in the viral vid below and see more photos after the jump.