Forbes Named Taylor Swift 2019’s Highest-Paid Celebrity, Here’s How Much She Earned This Year

Taylor Swift may have earned the ire of some of the music industry’s who’s-who — ahem, Justin Bieber and Scooter Braun — but they just can’t erase the fact that a lot of people adore her.

Seriously, anything the country singer-turned-pop star touches turns into gold and her sweet-sounding voice can easily fill up an entire stadium. That’s why nobody was shocked when Forbes named her the highest-paid celebrity of the year. All those hits are finally paying off, aren’t they?

Taylor Swift is the highest-paid celebrity for the second time

Raking up Money

The Me! singer earned a whopping $185 million, which was more than enough to put her on the coveted throne. We can assume that Taylor herself wasn’t shocked by the amazing feat because this wasn’t the first time she landed the top spot.

In 2016, she was touted as the highest-paid after having estimated earnings of $170 million, majority of which came from her 1989 World Tour. At 29, she impressively is the first artist to achieve the milestone twice.

In case you were wondering how she managed to rake in $185 million, it was again thanks largely to her Reputation Stadium Tour, currently dubbed as the highest-grossing tour in the United States with $266.1 million, which dethroned the previous record-holder, her very own 1989 tour.

The Grammy Award winner’s 53-stadium trek that wowed fans in 36 cities in seven countries across four continents amassed $345 million. So basically, Taylor is just outdoing herself here.

Apart from her lucrative tour, Tay-Tay also got millions from endorsement deals as a result of Netflix holding the exclusive rights to air her Reputation Stadium Tour on New Year’s Eve.

Then there’s her highly publicized switch from the Big Machine Label group to Universal Music Group – a deal which allegedly cost $200 million.

Taylor Swift was furious after Scott Borchetta sold his record label to Scooter Braun

Deal Drama

Speaking of which, it had caused a rift that Taylor recently aired via a lengthy Tumblr post. The singer criticized Big Machine founder Scott Borchetta for selling the label to Scooter Braun.

But why was she mad about the acquisition? Apparently, the hitmaker had been trying to buy her master recordings, the first and original recording of a song which is used for copies, from the executive but he gave her a condition which she didn’t want to be a part of.

Her beef with Scooter, meanwhile, stems from his connection to Kanye West, his former client, who is famously known to have dissed the pop star in front of a crowd.

In the wake of the continuous back-and-forth between the parties involved, other celebrities took sides. Rapper Iggy Azalea and Halsey both rallied behind Taylor, while Justin Bieber took to Instagram to explain his side of the story and was clearly #TeamScooter.

Top 10 Highest-Paid

Trailing behind Taylor on the list is Kylie Jenner, who has $15 million less than the singer’s earnings, and followed by the You Need to Calm Down singer’s enemy, Kanye West, with $150 million.

Makeup maven Kylie Jenner is just second highest-paid celebrity

Argentine soccer player Lionel Messi is fourth with $127 million, I Don’t Care singer Ed Sheeran ($110 million), Portuguese athlete Cristiano Ronaldo ($109 million), soccer star Neymar ($105 million), The Eagles ($100 million), Dr. Phil McGraw ($95 million), and rounding up the Top 10 is boxer Canelo Alvarez with $94 million.