Taylor Swift joins world's richest on Forbes billionaire list

 Taylor Swift joins world’s richest on Forbes billionaire list – Copyright  AP Photo/Chris Pizzello
Copyright  AP Photo/Chris Pizzello

Taylor Swift becomes the first musician to appear on Forbes’ list solely based on her songs and performances. Where does she rank?

Forbes 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) ’.

 

Taylor Swift

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.