Turning triumph over heartbreak into art should be its own reward. But if you happen to be able to make more than $100 million in the process, that sounds like a pretty sweet deal too. That's what Beyoncé apparently did, becoming the highest-paid woman in music for the last year, according to the latest ranking from Forbes.
From June 2016 to June 2017, Beyoncé pulled in $105 million (£79 million). That's the amount she earned from Lemonade album sales, endorsements, and tours, before taking out taxes and fees to lawyers, managers, agents, and the like. Lest we forget, she did this while also growing two new humans in her body, because she's an underachiever like that.
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This number put her far ahead of Adele, who was No. 2 after earning £52 million. Taylor Swift, who was 2016's top earner, dropped to third place at £33 million (taking a break between tours and albums), while in fourth was Celine Dion with £32 million. None of these women released an album within that time period, which tells you something about where the money in music is and has been for more than a decade: touring. In fact, of the entire top 10, Britney Spears (No. 8) was the only artist to have a new album out in that June-to-June span, August 2016's Glory. Everyone else was either still touring on releases from earlier months, playing their greatest hits at Las Vegas residencies (Dion, Spears, Jennifer Lopez), or traipsing the globe like there's no tomorrow (Dolly Parton, Barbra Streisand).
Forbes points out one sad fact about this list: "Despite the success of the female stars on the list, there are regrettably still more than twice as many men than women among music's top-earning stars," Zack O'Malley Greenburg wrote.
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