Taylor Swift becomes the first musician to appear on Forbes' list solely based on her songs and performances. Where does she rank?
ADVERTISEMENTForbes has just released their billionaires list and, for the first time, Taylor Swift has officially made the cut.
What makes this inclusion stand out is that the publication has revealed that Swift, TIME Magazine's 2023 Person of the Year and Euronews Culture's Music Personality of 2023, landed on the list thanks to her music and performances alone.
“Miss Americana capped off one of the most culturally influential years a musician has ever had by becoming a billionaire in October,” stated Forbes about the singer with a $1.1 billion net worth. “Her estimated $190 million post-tax earnings from her historic Eras Tour helped boost the country-and-pop musician into the three-comma club - the first person to do it based solely on songwriting and performing.”
Bloomberg originally reported that Swift, 34, became a billionaire last October, thanks to her new albums, Eras Tour (the first tour to ever gross $1billion) and her record-breaking concert film.
In their summary of the superstar’s wealth, Forbes estimated Swift had made $500 million from her royalties and touring, and another $500 million from her catalogue. Forbes also claimed she made $125 million in real estate as well.
Swift reportedly also earned $100 million from Spotify streaming royalties alone last year, thanks to the combined power of 2022’s ‘ Midnights ‘ and 2023’s ‘ 1989 (Taylor’s Version) ’.
Swift joins the first-time billionaires list alongside NBA legend Earvin “Magic” Johnson, designer Christian Louboutin and over 260 more names.
Forbes said there were a record 2,781 billionaires for 2024.
The figure is 141 more than last year and 26 more than the previous record set in 2021. Forbes added the elite were richer than ever - with a collective wealth of $14.2 trillion. Forbes also said that the class of billionaires for 2024 were 255% richer than a decade ago, now worth $2 trillion in all.
Here are, according to Forbes, the 14 celebrities who have “turned their fame into enough fortune to make the 2024 World’s Billionaires list”:
- George Lucas - Net Worth: $5.5 Billion
- Steven Spielberg - Net Worth: $4.8 Billion
- Michael Jordan - Net Worth: $3.2 Billion
- Oprah Winfrey - Net Worth: $2.8 Billion
- Jay-Z - Net Worth: $2.5 Billion
- Kim Kardashian - Net Worth: $1.7 Billion
- Peter Jackson - Net Worth: $1.5 Billion
- Tyler Perry - Net Worth: $1.4 Billion
- Rihanna - Net Worth: $1.4 Billion
- Tiger Woods - Net Worth: $1.3 Billion
- LeBron James - Net Worth: $1.2 Billion
- Magic Johnson - Net Worth: $1.2 Billion
- Dick Wolf - Net Worth: $1.2 Billion
- Taylor Swift - Net Worth: $1.1 Billion
As for the richest people in the world list, some names will not come as a surprise:
- Bernard Arnault & Family – LVMH empire - Net Worth: $233 Billion
- Elon Musk – Tesla, SpaceX, X – Net Worth: $195 Billion
- Jeff Bezos – Amazon - Net Worth: $194 Billion
- Mark Zuckerbeg – Facebook - Net Worth: $177 Billion
- Larry Ellison – Oracle - Net Worth: 141 Billion
- Warren Buffett – Investor - Net Worth: 133 Billion
- Bill Gates – Microsoft - Net Worth: 128 Billion
- Steve Ballmer – Former CEO Microsoft - Net Worth: 121 Billion
- Mukesh Ambani – Reliance Industries - Net Worth: $116 Billion
- Larry Page – Former CEO Alphabet - Net Worth: $114 Billion
Briefly circling back to Taylor Swift - as the list and those numbers are exhausting - things aren’t slowing down for the singer, who is about to embark on the European leg of her Eras Tour next month.
Plus, she is also set to release her upcoming 11th album, ‘ The Tortured Poets Department ’, on 19 April.
