Beyoncé is the World’s Highest-Paid Woman In Music in 2017

Beyonce at the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards. Photo by David X Prutting/BFA/REX/Shutterstock (5848771av)

Forbes has announced its annual list of world’s highest-paid woman in music, and there have been some changes on the top, compared to the last year. Beyoncé replaced Taylor Swift as the world’s highest-paid female music artist earning $105 million pretax thanks to her new album Lemonade and Formation World Tour.

Released on April 23, 2016, Lemonade was a huge success with both the critics and the audience. Some critics argued that it is her best work till date, while others called the album “deeply personal, yet … a bold social and political statement as well”. It debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200, becoming Beyoncé’s sixth straight number one album in the United States. Formation World Tour, which followed the album’s release, earned $256 million. All 49 shows of the tour were sold out.

Adele found herself in the second place, earning close to $70 million. This was thanks to the Adele Live 2016 tour, which was her first since 2011. The demand for the tickets was huge, with 10 million people trying to buy 750,000 tickets available for the tour. Each show was sold out in minutes. On the North America leg of the tour, Adele broke five shows record posted by Taylor Swift for most consecutive sold-out shows at Staples Center.

Taylor Swift is the world’s third highest-paid woman in music with $44 million but considering that she is just about to start the tour for new album Reputation, this number will be much higher. Reputation is also already the best selling music album in 2017. Celine Dion with $42 million and Jennifer Lopez with $38 million close the top five of world’s highest-paid women in music.

In order to form its list, Forbes gathered data from Nielsen SoundScan, Pollstar, the RIAA and industry sources. The magazine looked at pretax income from June 2016 through June 2017, without taking into account fees charged by agents, managers, and lawyers.