Ciara Becomes The First African American Woman To Cover Rolling Stone Africa – And It's Bigger Than Fashion
Source: Dave Benett / Getty
Ciara is in her icon bag again – and the whole world is watching.
On June 26, the singer, dancer, entrepreneur, and fashion slayer made history as the first African-American woman to grace the cover of Rolling Stone Africa . But while the images alone are striking, this moment is bigger than just beauty.
As Rolling Stone Africa wrote on social media, 'This is more than just a cover, it's a cultural communion. A tribute. A bridge. A celebration of Afro-descendant brilliance.'
And Ciara knows what this moment means. She said to the magazine: 'I feel so honored and proud to be having this moment. Africa is one of my favorite places on Earth! I'm obsessed with the people, culture, and dance in Africa, and I'm hoping to make the people of Africa proud.'
This Rolling Stone Africa cover arrives at the perfect time for Ciara—a moment where style and substance are aligned. Her upcoming album, CiCi is a reflection of that energy.
'You can expect to have the best time of your life while jammin' out to the 'CiCi' album,' she teased. 'Be prepared to go on a music rollercoaster of good vibes!'
And while fans have long referred to her as 'CiCi,' she's clear that it's more than just a stage persona—it's a symbol of connection.
'CiCi is my nickname. I don't call it an alter ego,' she said. 'There's been something so special about when my fans call me CiCi. It's very personal and endearing. That's why I want to celebrate the journey and the relationship I've had with fans over the course of my career.'
The 'How We Roll' singer did not play when it came to her historic editorial shoot. Each of her looks ate, showing off her style versatility, gorgeous curves, and striking beauty.
One cover look we loved featured Ciara in a body-hugging black gown with statement cutouts, tan fringe trimming across the chest and sleeves, and regal gold hardware embellishments.
Her hair is pulled back in boho curls, letting her glowing skin shine. And the picture gave supermodel vibes.
Another look we loved seemed both ancestral and Afro-futuristic. Ciara posed in a metallic crochet mini, voluminous natural-textured hair, and bronze makeup.
There had to be a fan in the photo shoot while this picture was being taken. Because Ci Ci looks fierce and her flowing hair stole the show.
As Rolling Stone Africa eloquently put it, 'This is more than history in the making, it's history reclaiming its narrative.'
Ciara's cover moment isn't just hers—it's ours. It's for every Black girl who's ever loved to dance, dreamed of world stages, or felt the magic of their roots across oceans.
'This is for the culture. For the women.' Read Ciara's full feature article.
SEE ALSO
Ciara Becomes The First African American Woman To Cover Rolling Stone Africa – And It's Bigger Than Fashion was originally published on hellobeautiful.com
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Newsweek
42 minutes ago
- Newsweek
Tom Cruise Posts Emotional Throwback to Iconic NASCAR Film Amid Sequel Rumors
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Hollywood star Tom Cruise has posted an emotional throwback to the iconic NASCAR-based movie Days of Thunder on X,celebrating 35 years on June 27, the day he partnered with the late director Tony Scott. Coincidentally, the anniversary also marked the release of another action-packed racing movie - F1, produced by Cruise's friend, Jerry Bruckheimer. Cruise started a thread on X with throwback pictures from his Days of Thunder days, and ended by congratulating Bruckheimer, Brad Pitt, and F1 director Joseph Kosinski. His role in Days of Thunder was that of a young driver, Cole Trickle, who was new to racing. However, a rivalry sparked between him and a veteran driver, which grew into a friendship after the two were involved in a major crash. American actor Tom Cruise on the set of Days of Thunder, directed by Tony Scott. American actor Tom Cruise on the set of Days of Thunder, directed by Tony Scott. Paramount Pictures/Sunset Boulevard/Corbis/Getty Images Revealing his love for racing movies, Cruise wrote on X: "I always love the fun and adrenaline of a racing film. Today marks two racing milestones for my friend Jerry Bruckheimer, the release of F1 and the 35 year anniversary to the day of our collaboration with the great Tony Scott on Days of Thunder." I always love the fun and adrenaline of a racing film. Today marks two racing milestones for my friend Jerry Bruckheimer, the release of F1 and the 35 year anniversary to the day of our collaboration with the great Tony Scott on Days of Thunder. 1/7 — Tom Cruise (@TomCruise) June 27, 2025 While Cruise congratulated the crew of F1, former NASCAR driver and chairman of Hendrick Motorsports, Jeff Gordon, suggested there will be a sequel to Days of Thunder starring Cruise. Gordon believes NASCAR needs a Hollywood boost to expand its reach to the masses. Considering the rise of streaming platforms, Gordon emphasized that this is the right time to produce Days of Thunder 2. Newsweek Sports reported his comments: "Let's do Days of Thunder 2, I am all for that. Tom Cruise has told me it's gonna happen, so let's make it happen. I can't go back to driving, I am too old for that, so gonna have to be one of our four or all four of our Hendrick drivers, Alex Bowman, Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson, William Byron. When I came into NASCAR, Days of Thunder had just come out. It played a huge role in the growth of NASCAR. So let's bring it back." He added: "I've absolutely talked to Tom about it because I want him to do the project, and we want to be a part of it if it were to happen." Explaining why this is the perfect time to work on a NASCAR-based movie, he said: "There's this kind of resurgence, which is awesome, and there's also a whole new landscape of opportunities with streaming services and docuseries and also the big screen, which I think it would be amazing to do. "I am seeing just a lot more momentum in projects like this coming through NASCAR and coming to Hendrick Motorsports and just more interest. So that's good, right? It talks a lot about where the sport is at, where it's heading, the amazing crowd that was [at Daytona], not just today, new TV partners."
Elle
an hour ago
- Elle
Inside Rihanna and Son Riot's Big Night at A$AP Rocky's AWGE Fashion Show
THE RUNDOWN On Friday, Rihanna supported her partner, A$AP Rocky, at his AWGE fashion show during Paris Men's Fashion Week. By her side all night was their youngest son, Riot Rose, looking as fashionable as his mom and dad. The two parents have a second son, RZA, and are expecting a third child. As always, Rihanna leaned into her unique maternity style, wearing a loose button-down shirt in a blue and red stripe pattern that opened over her belly. She paired it with a pleated black miniskirt, accessorizing with white pointed-toe heels with criss-crossed laces over tall gray socks. She left her long hair down in gentle waves and wore a number of different chains and pendants of different lengths. Riot was wearing purple joggers and a denim jacket featuring a Harley Davidson and American flag patch over a white T-shirt. On his feet were a pair of black, red, and white Vans sneakers. The proud mom kept her son on her knee in the front row throughout the show. Before the family night, Rihanna and Rocky were seen at Dior's Homme men's spring 2026 show, again seated in the front row. Rihanna wore a black cape-style coat covered in gorgeous embroidery, over a pale green vest and white button-down. She paired it with gray pants and accessorized with yellow sunglasses and jewelry pieces by Briony Raymond and Marlo Laz. Rocky wore a bright red, green, and blue tie over a gray button-down and a pair of jeans, carrying a tan bag covered in fringe tassels. The couple confirmed their third pregnancy at the Met Gala in May. Rihanna told Entertainment Tonight at the time, 'I'm good. I'm shockingly feeling OK and not too overwhelmed at the moment. I mean, at first it was kinda like, 'Ah!' And I'm tired, but then I'm excited.'
Los Angeles Times
an hour ago
- Los Angeles Times
Yup, it's gay food. But what does that mean? Two new books tell all
Only seven pages in, John Birdsall offers a conclusion to the question that titles his book, 'What Is Queer Food?' It's a subject that has consumed him for decades, as a restaurant cook in the Bay Area and then as a journalist and author. In the last dozen or so years — when food media began more honestly grappling with identity and diversity in its subjects, and also with who is given opportunities to tell those stories — Birdsall won national awards for feats like his groundbreaking piece, 'America, Your Food Is So Gay.' 'Still, saying what queer food was on a granular level kept eluding me,' he writes in his new work, published this month. 'Lots of us could say that queer food, like desire, exists, but nobody could definitely point through what is was.' Drag-brunch eggs benedict? Rainbow cookies? Intentional diet choices? Suggestively shaped edible schtick? 'It shouldn't have taken me as long as it did,' he accedes, 'but at last I accepted the obvious truth that queer food is not a commodity. There is no essentialized cuisine of queerness, any more than there's one simple answer for what it means to be queer.' Acceptance is a doorway. He is freed to spend the rest of the book coupling meticulous research and gorgeous prose to illuminate lives that, in ways indirect and overt, shaped who we are as a culinary nation. There's Harry Baker, a man who flees from a sullied life in Ohio to Los Angeles and who, true to his name, develops a style of cake that becomes the de-facto dessert of young Hollywood; later it well be reworked and homogenized as a signature recipe for General Mills. There's Esther Eng, an early 20th-century film auteur, her movies now mostly lost, whose fluency with the group dynamics of creating cinema translates to a second act as a New York restaurateur. In her masculine clothes and bluntly cropped hair, she is at once successful and invisible. Birdsall notes that Craig Claiborne, then food editor of the New York Times and the father of modern American restaurant criticism, reviewed Eng's self-named restaurant in the 1960s. Claiborne used his platform to push dining and cooking toward their current cultural status in the United States. Privately he was far more tragic — 'haunted,' to use Birdsall's word, by his difficult Southern childhood and misguided in a mess of a memoir published in 1983, 17 years before his death at 79. Birdsall does not abide counterfeit joy. He narrates lives shaped by society's denials, prejudices and punishments, and he lays their suffering bare. Some (among them Alice B. Toklas, James Baldwin and Richard Olney, one of my all-time favorite cookbook authors) know to leave the country to love in greater peace. Where delight comes easy is in Birdsall's prose. He took the narrative lessons he learned from his 2020 biography of James Beard, 'The Man Who Ate Too Much,' to tighten the intricate threads of this opus. Characters that appear early in the book return for lightbulb impact. No strand dangles. Even when the reader feels his own rage — as when he veers into a personal story about making quiche for a Sunday open house in the storm-center of the AIDS crisis — his eloquence carries us through the bitterest aftertastes. Birdsall centers his elucidation of queer culinary culture on people, and by extension the worlds around them. In 'Dining Out: First Dates, Defiant Nights and Last Call Disco Fries at America's Gay Restaurants,' also published this month, Erik Piepenburg shifts the focus to place. His catalyst for his book: the accelerated disappearance of spaces by and for LGBTQ populations across America. He opens with a requiem for a 24-hour diner in Chicago's Lakeview neighborhood where he was a regular in the 1990s. 'The Melrose was a gay restaurant because gay people made it one,' he begins. He watched older men share their meals and drag queens scarf bacon-and-cheese potato skins post performance, and took solace in blueberry silver dollar pancakes when chemistry fizzled with the guy across the table. The Melrose closed in 2017 after 56 years in business. 'When gay restaurants close, gay reliquaries empty of memory and meaning,' he writes. 'Gone are favorite waitresses and go-to-meals, safe spaces and party places in the night's last hours. For me and other gay people who love to eat out, losing a gay restaurant is a kind of dispossession.' Piepenburg traveled across the country throughout 2023, interviewing owners and customers of establishments still present and long gone. Chapters graft careful reporting with his own running commentary, at turns cheeky and poignant and angered by the tenuous state of gay rights and acceptance. Some salute institutions like Annie's Paramount Steak House in Washington D.C.; lesbian-feminist restaurant Bloodroot in Bridgeport, Conn.; and trans safe havens like Napalese Lounge and Grille in Green Bay, Wis. Others seek to debunk myths, including the supposed queer riot in 1959 at a downtown Los Angeles location of Cooper Do-nuts whose occurrence Piepenburg could find little hard evidence to support. To consider the future of gay dining, he considers two recently opened restaurants in Southern California: the Ruby Fruit in Silver Lake and Alice B. in Palm Springs. Piepenburg has been writing for the New York Times for nearly 20 years, concentrating mostly on film (especially horror), television and theater. He is, in the most wonderful sense, not a food writer. He self-identifies as a 'diner gay.' This is a work about history and, above all, community, not exalted poetry on the art of gastronomy. What strikes me most about Piepenburg's frame of reference is how explicitly and organically he twins the subjects of dining and sex. We rarely acknowledge the existence of sex in Food Writing. First, it's the hardest subject to not be cringe about, and food and sex analogies usually land as ick. But also, most of us who cover restaurants are keenly aware of ugly power dynamics that went unspoken in male-dominated kitchens for decades, and the industry as a whole is in a slow but sustained corrective era. The approach in 'Dining Out' succeeds in its matter-of-factness. Lonely people congregate over holiday buffets in bathhouses. Men frequented — still frequent — certain gayborhood restaurants to cruise, to pose, to be themselves. A bit of melancholy also winds through the book, as Piepenburg laments the 'golden age' of gay restaurants that halted at the turn of the millennium, if not before, and also his own aging. Here is where I mention: I met the author 35 years ago, in my early college years before either of us was out, so I relate to his feelings on the passage of time. When in the book he references his '90s-era club kid days, sporting 'shaggy wigs and carrying lunchboxes' at the Limelight in New York … I remember. Of course, the release of Birdsall's and Piepenburg's books was planned for visibility during Pride month. Their merits, individual and collective, make for absorbing, enlightening reading far beyond 30 days of designated LBGTQ recognition.
