‘Forbes’ Names Taylor Swift The World’s Highest-Paid Celebrity
Taylor Swift is the highest-paid celebrity in the entertainment business, earning $185 million last year, according to Forbes.
In a ranking released Wednesday morning, the business magazine ranked various celebrities based on their pre-tax earnings from June 1, 2018, to June 1, 2019.
Directly behind Swift ranked Kylie Jenner, who is known for her Kylie Cosmetics line of makeup products. In May, Jenner launched a vegan skincare line called Kylie Skin.
In 2018, Forbes named Jenner the youngest self-made billionaire of all time, though many at the time disputed the “self-made” label.
Kanye West, Jenner’s brother-in-law by his marriage to Kim Kardashian ranks third, just behind Swift and Jenner. West has had an on-again, off-again feud with Swift since he stormed the stage after she won over Beyonce at the MTV Video Music Awards in 2009. Swift seemed to reignite the feud in a Tumblr post about her former record label in June.
The “You Need To Calm Down” singer is currently embattled in a war of words with her previous record label, Big Machine Records, and music industry executives Scott Borchetta and Scooter Braun over the ownership of the master recordings for the 29-year-old’s first six albums, per a previous report from The Inquisitr.
Beyonce also showed up on the Forbes list, ranking as the No. 20 highest-earning celeb worldwide.
.@Forbes has released this year’s list for "World’s Highest Paid Celebrities." @TaylorSwift13 ranks #1 on the list with $185 MILLION.
Full list: https://t.co/QtEpKjMfjM pic.twitter.com/rzihr0MvrK
— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) July 10, 2019
The singer, who will turn 30 later this year, had the highest-grossing tour of all time with the “Reputation Stadium Tour” in 2018, grossing $266.1 million. This year, “ME!,” the lead single to Swift’s seventh studio album featuring Panic! At The Disco frontman Brendon Urie, debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, Forbes said. The music video for the song broke records when it reached 100 million views on music video streaming platform Vevo in just 79 hours.
Forbes noted there’s a gender disparity among the world’s highest paid celebrities. While Swift and Jenner take spots one and two respectively on the list, just 16 women made the ranking of the top 100 highest-paid celebrities worldwide.
The magazine also noted newcomers to the list, most coming from pro football, including Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rogers and Chicago Bears linebacker Khalil Mack. Fellow pop singers Shawn Mendes and Ariana Grande also saw their first appearance on the Forbes list this year, earning a combined $86 million, according to Forbes.
Despite her current controversy, Swift shows no sign of calming down, as her latest single would suggest. Her seventh studio effort, Lover, is set to be out on August 23. According to Music Business Worldwide, the singer got 178,600 pre-adds on her album on the day it became available to add to users’ libraries on Apple Music. This broke a previous record held by Ariana Grande for her 2019 album Thank U, Next.
