Rihanna overtakes Lady Gaga on Facebook

Image source, Getty Images

Rihanna has overtaken Lady Gaga as the most popular female star on Facebook, according to Famecount.com.

Both singers have more than 40.5 million fans, and are currently beaten by only one person which is Eminem with 43m fans.

After reaching the 40m landmark a few days ago she wrote on Facebook: "40 mil! 1 LOVE RihannaNavy".

Last week Rihanna notched up 6m Twitter followers, becoming only the 13th person to do so.

According to Famecount's analysis, Rihanna is now the third biggest social media star in the world, after Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber.

Her controversial video Man Down, which shows a man being shot in the head, has also garnered more than 40m views on YouTube.

She recently defended the video as "art with a message".

"We just wanted to hone in on a very serious matter that people are afraid to address, especially if you've been victimised in this scenario," she added.