Lady Gaga earned more than Taylor Swift and Katy Perry combined

[Miguel]

Forbes

The Top-Earning Women in Music

(Alicia) Keys did plenty of business last year—$10 million in earnings, by our estimates—placing her among the ten highest-earning women in music. Yet she finished far behind this year’s Cash Queen.

That title belongs to Lady Gaga, who led the pack with a staggering $90 million total boosted by strong album sales, endorsements and an extremely lucrative world tour. Gaga’s total was more than the combined earnings of No. 2 Taylor Swift ($45 million) and No. 3 Katy Perry ($44 million), both of whom also benefitted from heavy touring and popular albums.

...Among the top ten earners, there were both newcomers and veterans. Soul sensation Adele pulled in $18 million—a number that only captures a few months of sales for her breakout album 21, making her a likely candidate to return to the top ten next year. Celine Dion may not be quite as popular as her British counterpart, but she banked $19 million on the strength of a wildly popular run in Las Vegas, where her nightly gross ticket sales exceeded $2.3 million.

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Related:

The 10 Top-Earning American Idols

1. Carrie Underwood ($20 million)

Buoyed by 83 concert dates in 12 months, the Season Four winner made as much as the rest of the top five Idol earners combined.

2. Daughtry ($6 million, tie)
3. Adam Lambert ($6 million, tie)
4. Fantasia Barrino ($4 million)
5. Jordin Sparks ($3 million)
6. Kelly Clarkson ($2.5 million)
7. Jennifer Hudson ($2 million)
8. Kellie Pickler ($1.8 million)
9. Clay Aiken ($1.5 million)
10. Katharine McPhee ($1 million, tie)
10. David Archuleta ($1 million, tie)
10. David Cook ($1 million, tie)

These numbers are based on estimated pretax income earned from May 2010 to May 2011, before subtracting agent and manager fees.

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