5. Rihanna Took the Whole World to Carnival at Crop Over

From her social media presence to her videos, it’s clear that Rihanna doesn’t need any excuse to shake it. So, of course this proud Bajan beauty was present and accounted for at this year’s Crop Over. She heads home to Barbados for the summer carnival almost every year, but on this visit she really seemed to capture the whole world’s attention with her bejeweled costume, and very spicy wuk-up, leaving male onlookers (at home, and abroad on social media) hot under the collar. In pictures that were seemingly posted on every online news and gossip site worldwide, she was also seen enjoying the good life and the company of family and friends such as BFF Melissa Forde. It was a great advertisement for Barbados, one that is sure to cause a surge in travel for next summer’s Crop Over.

Rihanna wasn’t the only pop star to bring a bit of Carnival to di world this summer. During her opening performance at the MTV Video Music Awards, Nicki Minaj gave a charged, albeit condensed, performance of The Pinkprint track ‘Trini Dem Girls.’ Donning a red and gold Carnival costume, it was a monumental nod to her native island, fittingly done just one day before Trinidad & Tobago’s 53rd Independence, Sweet, really, if unsurprising. Of course, Nicki has never been one to stray too far from her roots; she often reps the Caribbean in her music.—Nadine White

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l55bd54cNgk