US singer and songwriter, Taylor Swift has surpassed the likes of famous celebrities like Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Kylie Jenner, Jay Z, Kanya West, and Kim Kardashian to emerge the World’s Highest Paid Celebrity.
Taylor Swift returned to the top of Forbes‘ highest paid celebrity list and this year, with her biggest earnings yet. The outlet reports that Swift’s estimated pay was $185 million last year. That’s an over $100 million increase from the $80 million pay she brought in back in 2018.
Kylie Jenner, the youngest billionaire, was the second on the list with $170 million – just $10 million behind Swift.
Swift has topped Forbes’ list before but with slightly less income. Back in 2017, Swift brought in $170 million. Both of Swift’s #1 spot victories were largely fueled by her tour income.
Her Reputation world tour, which started last year, became the highest grossing U.S tour ever since Billboard began tracking tours in 1990. It brought in $266.1 million domestically, so that’s not including its legs abroad.
In 2017, Swift got a boost thanks to her 1989 World Tour. Forbes notes that Netflix acquiring her live concert special and her deals with Apple, AT&T, and Diet Coke also added “millions” to Swift’s income.
Swift spoke about the doubts people had about her tour during her iHeartRadio Music Awards appearance, where she got the award for Tour of the Year.
“I think one of the most wonderful things about the way that this whole tour turned out is that for like the entire six months leading up to the first show of this tour, every headline that I read about the tour was, ‘This is going to be a massive failure. This is going to be a flop tour,'” she started.
“And you know, it really did wonders for my self-esteem. It was really great to hear people saying that I was going to be playing to nearly empty stadiums. I’ve learned a lot. I’ve learned a lot. And one of the things that I’ve learned is life is really unpredictable and people can make forecasts, and they can make predictions, but those predictions and forecasts may not come true if there’s an unforeseeable factor involved. And that unforeseeable factor in this case was my fans. So honestly, I honestly owe everything, everything in my life to you.”
In terms of the rest of Forbes’ top 30, Kanye West was third with $150 million, Football superstars Lionel Messi was fourth with $127million, Cristiano Ronaldo was sixth with $109 million. Swift’s good friend Ed Sheeran was #5 with $110 million
Beyoncé was number 20 with $81 million earned. Kim Kardashian was number 26 with $72 million. You can see the full list here.
