She enters the room wearing tight blue jeans, a large chunky metal belt low on voluptuous hips and a crop top sweater over a batik tank top. She looks young but worldly and every bit as sultry as in her music videos.

If you have not already heard the name Rihanna, this summer is likely to change that as the Barbados born 18-year-old singer and dancer is set to release her second album, “A Girl Like Me.”

The CD, scheduled for release on April 25, is a follow up to her debut album, “Music of the Sun,” which sold more than one million copies last year and featured the wildly popular single “Pon de Replay.” Rihanna’s music mixes island rhythms with R&B and throws in funky beats that make her sound very danceable and popular in clubs.

In a recent publicity event at the Universal recording studios in San Francisco, Rihanna greeted fans and industry representatives, signed autographs and took time to answer questions about her new CD and her current path to success.

Her voice lilts with a Caribbean accent as she talks about growing up in Barbados and living a very simple life until a friend introduced her to a music producer from New York when she was only 16 years old.

“I went to New York and did a demo and sent it out,” she said. “I was lucky, I got a lot of response, but Def Jam was the first to call me back and so I went to audition for Jay-Z. I was really nervous about that but he was so nice and great and fortunately he liked me too.”

When asked about how difficult it is to sing and dance simultaneously she speaks openly about the long hours of choreography that it takes to get it to look just right. She also said that working in the music industry is tough and that she often misses her family and friends back in the islands.

“No one ever told me it would be easy though,” she said. “So I put on my toughest skin and I’ve learned so much already.”

The young singer said she found her musical inspiration mainly from artists like Beyonce and Mariah Carey, and that she would love to work with Kayne West, Chris Brown, and Pink in the future. She added that as her roots are especially important to her she tries to express that through her music whenever possible.

Her new single, “S.O.S.,” has been leaked on the airwaves and is generating a lot of buzz. It has already listed on the Now That’s What I Call Music chart, a list that rates the most popular of the top 40 songs. The song uses the hypnotic-electronic beat of Soft Cell’s 80s hit “Tainted Love” as its base rhythm but definitely funks it up in comparison to the original.

“I’ve heard ‘S.O.S.’ about a million times, I really love her sound,” said Kristine Pardini, 22, an SF State business marketing major interning for Island Def Jam Records, the label that represents Rihanna. “We were all dancing to it in the studio hall yesterday and I’m confident her release is going to do very well.”

“S.O.S.” and Rihanna are also featured in a new campaign for Nike called Rockstar Workout Hip Hop that can be seen in commercials and online at www.nikewomen.com .

The next single scheduled for released from her new CD is called “Unfaithful”, it is a soulful melodic ballad of heartbreak that tells the tale of what happens in a relationship when someone cheats, but in this song the woman is the one doing the cheating. It was penned by Ne-Yo, an established songwriter who has written for the likes of Mary J. Blige and Mario.

The CD also includes a duet recorded with Shawn Paul in Jamaica called “Break it Off,” a surprising island-music infused rock track “Kisses Don’t Lie” and a Caribbean soul inspired song called “Dem Haters” featuring Dwane Husbands.

“For an 18-year-old young lady she’s definitely doing her thing,” said Robin Bellon, 23, Urban College representative for Universal Recording studios, “She’s a double threat really because she can sing and dance and she rocks it.”

The sultry songstress can be seen live onstage on May 3 at the Cinco de Mayo Bomb Concert sponsored by the KYLD 94.9 FM radio station at the San Jose Pavillion. The concert will showcase many local and major label music artists.

For more information on Rihanna visit her Web site at www.thisisrihanna.com or go to www.defjam.com