Taylor Swift has been named as Forbes highest paid female artist, after they released their annual list.
Earning more than twice the income of the second-placed artist, Adele, Swift has made over $170 million over the past year. Most of Swift’s earnings came from her 1989 world tour, which sold more than $250m worth of tickets.
Taylor Swift celebrated the 10th anniversary of her debut self-titled album on Oct. 24, and according to Billboard, in the decade since crashing onto the music scene, the singer has built her empire, with top-charting albums, a variety of endorsements and business partnerships, and top-grossing tours, like her most recent 1989 tour, which drew in over $200 million.
Adele is second, having earned $80.5 million over the past year from album sales. Her most recent album, 25, which was released in November 2015, became the fastest selling album of all time in the UK, selling over 800,000 copies in its first week. In the US, it became the first album to sell more than 3m copies in a week, with 3.38m sales within seven days of release, and was the best selling album of 2015.
Madonna comes in third, after her Rebel Heart tour. In fourth place is Rihanna, who earned $75 million due to her tour and endorsement deals with Dior and Puma, to name a few. Although Beyoncé seems low on the list, in fifth place with $54m, she is likely to be higher next year, when sales from her Formation world tour are taken into account.
Forbes bases its the estimates on industry information as well as interviews with managers and agents, along with data given by the artists themselves.
The full top 10 are:
1. Taylor Swift – $170m
2. Adele – $80.5m
3. Madonna – $76.5m
4. Rihanna – $75m
5. Beyoncé – $54m
6. Katy Perry – $41m
7. Jennifer Lopez – $39.5m
8. Britney Spears – $30.5m
9. Shania Twain – $27.5m
10. Celine Dion – $27m