Barbados has declared Rihanna a national hero after removing Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state and entering a new era as a republic.

Prime Minister Mia Mottley announced that the 33-year-old Barbadian musician and entrepreneur would be conferred with the honour of National Hero of Barbados to cheers during a ceremony held overnight on Monday in the capital, Bridgetown, to mark the political transition.

Rihanna, a billionaire according to Forbes, was called up before the crowds to be congratulated by Mottley, the leader of Barbados’s republican movement.

“May you continue to shine like a diamond and bring honour to your nation by your works, by your actions,” Mottley told Rihanna, a reference to her 2012 chart-topping single “Diamonds”.

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Mottley said the artist had commanded “the imagination of the world through the pursuit of excellence with her creativity, her discipline, and above all else, her extraordinary commitment to the land of her birth”.