Spotlight on Cardi B

Artists with unique personas are no strangers to the music business, but one has made herself particularly relevant over only a short time span. If you were to ask someone who “Cardi B” was this time last year, odds are they wouldn’t have been able to tell you. But today, it’d be weird if they didn’t know. Perhaps it was her coined catchphrase, “okuuurt,” that gained her so much attention, or maybe it was her unusual background before becoming a recording artist. Most likely, however, it was all thanks to her no. 1 hit single that peaked at the top of the charts for three consecutive weeks and stayed on the hot 100 for 32 more.

Cardi B has had an eventful 2018 so far, to say the least. Ever since her record-breaking single “Bodak Yellow” hit the top of the charts at the end of 2017, it seems she has been going nowhere except up. From setting new records, to making extravagant announcements, to dropping her debut studio album, it’s been hard not to keep seeing Cardi in the public eye.

After the release of “Invasion of Privacy,” Cardi’s debut album, on April 6th, 2018, the rapper continued to break countless records on multiple platforms. The album shattered Apple Music’s most streamed album record, previously held by Taylor Swift’s “Reputation,” within the first week of its release. The album also peaked at no. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, making Cardi the fifth female rapper to ever hold this spot. Singles “I Like It”  and “Bodak Yellow” off of the album reached the Billboard Top 10, making Cardi the first ever female to have five songs in the top 10 in one single week (tied with Drake and Kendrick Lamar for most concurrent top 10s).

Back in October 2017, Cardi B was proposed to by Migos Rapper Offset and where better to do it than on stage? Of course, this proposal was no less than extravagant, but what made it even better was Cardi’s adorable reaction. Cardi later posted to instagram a photo of the gigantic diamond ring, and captioned it, “God really sent you to me.”

Two days after her debut album was released, Cardi B appeared on Saturday Night Live to perform two songs from the album. She first performed “Bartier Cardi,” a platinum single released in December 2017. It wasn’t until the camera panned out during her performance of her new song “Be Careful” that the audience saw the stunning white gown showing her baby bump – and whoever said Cardi B can’t be elegant did not see this pregnancy reveal!