Rihanna takes Lady Gaga’s Facebook crown

POP star Rihanna has became the queen of Facebook, dethroning Lady Gaga in the process.

Barbados-born Rihanna now reigns supreme, having just passed Gaga in number of Facebook fans — 40,523,918 to 40,514,982.

The only other celebrities to have more than 40 million fans on the social networking site are Lady Gaga with 40,287,493 and rapper Eminem, who with 42,944,000 Facebook fans is the most “liked” person living or dead on Facebook.

Even the King of Pop Michael Jackson falls just below the 40 million mark with 37,793,000 fans.

And Gaga has taken another knock to her ego — Rihanna has replaced her as the most-liked female star on the site, racking up more than 40.5 million likes — a far cry from the 5,000 she had last summer.

And when it comes to the other social media monster, Twitter, Gaga wins with a record 11,632,837 to Rihanna’s meagre 6,099,406 followers.

One possible reason behind Rihanna’s surge in popularity might be the announcement this week that she will follow in the footsteps of Megan Fox and Victoria Beckham as the new face (and body) of Emporio Armani Underwear and Armani Jeans.

The new autumn/winter campaign was shot on location in New York and is due to launch across the globe in September.