These Are The Top 10 Highest Earning Female Artists In The World

Taylor Swift topped them all and beat Adele, Rihanna and Beyonce by some distance

Taylor Swift Crowned The World's Highest-Earning Female Solo Artist

By Annabelle Fernandez - published 4 Nov 2016

Taylor Swift is officially the highest-earning female solo artist in music, according to Forbes.

The singer made an estimated $170 million (about £135 million) between 1 June 2015 and 1 June 2016, more than double the second-placed artist, Adele, who earned $80 million (about £65 million) during the same period.

Forbes reports that most of Swift's pay packet came from her 1989 world tour, which sold more than $250 million (about £200 million) of tickets. Adele's yearly fortune is credited to her album sales, released in November 2015; 25 broke records, becoming the fastest-selling album in UK history and the first album in the US to sell more than three million copies in a week.

Touring is known to provide the biggest revenues for contemporary artists, so the fact that Adele made most of her money last year through record sales is unusual and impressive.

Madonna and Rihanna followed next on the list with respective earnings of $76.5 million (about £60 million) and $75 million (about £60 million). Beyoncé came fifth with $54 million (about £45 million), although that figure is thought to rise considerably next year as sales from her Formation tour ticket sales roll in.

See the full top 10 highest-earning female solo artists in the gallery above.

From: Harper's BAZAAR UK