GaGa is crowned the biggest-earning female artist of the year, while Swift and Perry follow behind the Mother Monster at the second and the third places respectively.
- Dec 15, 2011
AceShowbiz - Lady GaGa, Taylor Swift and Katy Perry might fall short of scoring top album and top single of the year in the year-end charts due to Adele's strong domination, but they redeem themselves when being declared the female biggest earners this year by Forbes. Those three ladies fill in the top 3 in a respective order, while the British popstar comes in at No. 9.
The Mother Monster leads the 2011 pack by cashing in a staggering total of $90 million. The outlandish singer collected the huge amount of money from the strong sales of her latest studio installment "Born This Way", a lucrative world tour for the album, and endorsements with major companies including Polaroid, Virgin Mobile and Viva Glam.
GaGa has sold around 2 million copies of the album in the United States alone, and pulled in more than 8 million copies worldwide. According to Billboard, the extended leg of her lengthy "Monster Ball" traveling show earned her almost $72 million from 45 shows with a total of 745,000 attendance. She landed at No. 8 on Billboard's 25 Top Tours of the Year.
Swift trails behind the New Yorker by netting an estimated profit of $45 million throughout the year. The Pennsylvania native got the money from her critically-acclaimed studio effort "Speak Now" which sold around 500,000 copies in the first half of 2011. On the Billboard touring list, she sits three steps higher than GaGa by having a total gross of $97 million from her latest tour.
Perry rounds up the top 3 with $44 million. She undoubtedly bagged such amount of cash from her 2010 summer album "Teenage Dream" which gave her record-breaking five chart-topping singles and six top 5 tracks on Billboard Hot 100. When it comes to touring, the wife of Russell Brand is ranked at the 13th place on the Billboard list by garnering $48 million from 98 shows.
Adele secures No. 9 with a total of $18 million which she got from her steadily-strong sales of her breakout album "21". The "Someone Like You" hitmaker is blocked by Celine Dion from occupying the eighth place. The Brit loses the spot to the Canadian singer by a mili as the "My Heart Will Go On" hitmaker collected $19 million in earnings, thanks to her Las Vegas stage show.
Beyonce Knowles sits at No. 4 with $35 million, Rihanna follows behind with $29 million, Pink claims the next spot with $22 million, and Carrie Underwood is at No. 7 with $20 million. Rounding up the top 10 are Alicia Keys and Britney Spears who are tied by cashing in a total of $10 million each.
The Forbes list itself is based on "the data from Pollstar, RIAA and others, as well as extensive interviews with industry insiders including lawyers, managers, concert promoters, agents and, in some cases, the musicians themselves. The totals encompass all pretax income earned from May 2010 to May 2011, before subtracting agent and manager fees."
In the list for the world's top-earner musicians, GaGa is ranked the fourth behind the champ U2, the runner-up Bon Jovi, and the third-placer Elton John. Swift sits several spots lower by securing No. 13, and is followed closely by Perry. Knowles, meanwhile, shares No. 18 along with Tim McGraw, and Riri closes the list by taking over No. 25.
- Lady GaGa ($90 million)
- Taylor Swift ($45 million)
- Katy Perry ($44 million)
- Beyonce Knowles ($35 million)
- Rihanna ($29 million)
- Pink ($22 million)
- Carrie Underwood ($20 million)
- Celine Dion ($19 million)
- Adele ($18 million)
- Alicia Keys and Britney Spears ($10 million each)
