Rihanna Hits the Beach in New Barbados Advert

Her risqué outfits often cause a media frenzy, but singer Rihanna features in a relatively demure one-piece bathing costume in the latest phase of a campaign to highlight the charms of her home country of Barbados.

Fiercely proud of her Bajan roots, the 24-year-old singer of global megahits including Umbrella, is serving as tourism ambassador for the Carribbean Island, and in the new pictures leads a horse along the beach and poses with the waves lapping at her feet.

In a recent promotional video she can be seen swimming, enjoying the beach and even playing cards with fishermen at some of the island's lesser known attractions.

Rihanna, who was recently named one of the most influential people in the world by Time magazine, has used her own Twitter and Instagram accounts to publish images from the campaign.

The pop siren, whose full name is Robyn Rihanna Fenty, was born in the St Michael Parish of the island before being scouted and leaving for the USA. She has sold an estimated 100 million albums worldwide.

However, she regularly attracts as much controversy as adulation, and some in Barbados have questioned her suitability as tourism ambassador after pictures were published which appear to show her smoking drugs.