'Money can't buy a record deal': Nigerian billionaire's daughter on her plans to become the next Rihanna

A Nigerian heiress, whose father is said to be one of the world’s wealthiest men, has set her sights on becoming the next Rihanna.
Ambimbola ‘Bim’ Fernandez, the daughter of gemstone entrepreneur and former UN ambassador Antonio Deinde Fernandez, has celebrated the release of her first single by sitting down for an interview with the New York Post.
The 24-year-old, who is based in New York, told the paper that she has embarked on her career without the help of her dad, who is reportedly worth a staggering $8.7 billion.

Miss Fernandez’s first single ‘Let’s Take It Naked’ was released today on SMH Records’ site, with an iTunes roll-out expected soon.
She cites Rihanna as one of her biggest musical inspirations.
‘Money can’t buy a record deal,’ she said of her situation. ‘It can’t buy good music. You can either sing or you can’t.’

'Unfortunately, everyone’s perception of socialites has been pretty accurate so far, which is what I want to change'

A song about nakedness is perhaps a little more explicit than what one would expect from a well-heeled socialite, but Miss Fernandez says that ‘it’s not even that racy of a song!
'It’s very poppy, like, “I think you’re cute! Do you like me? So let’s get naked!” I want it to be that song where it’s like, “Turn that song on! Let’s get ready! Let’s do shots!”’
In November, she signed her record deal with SMH and is now topping off negotiations for her reality TV pilot called Gold Blooded to be picked up by a major network.
Her only prior professional music experience was a vocal cameo in Cobra Starship’s 2009 album Hot Mess – a feature she booked after meeting the band’s lead singer Gabe Saporta backstage at a show.

Her record label says that Miss Fernandez has not put any of her own money into the music project.
In fact, Miss Fernandez appears to be more down to earth than one would expect.
She told the New York Post that she grew up not knowing how rich she was.
She attended college at Oxford Brookes University in England for just a few weeks before dropping out because 'everyone was way too snobby - I couldn't do it,' she said.