Forbes has released their annual list of the highest paid stars in entertainment and to be honest there’s no major surprises at who’s made the top ten.
The new name to reach the top of the list is P Diddy, who was ranked 22nd last year. Despite not releasing any new music, his business investments, headline tour and profit from other artists releasing music under his Bad Boy Records have all helped him stack his way to the top.
Beyonce made a giant jump from last year’s 34th place to be the second highest earner, helped by her album Lemonade, which seemed to take over the world for a while last year. Notable is the fact that Jay-Z only made it to number 55 confirming her as the breadwinner in that relationship, for the time being at least.
JK Rowling is at third place this year after the highly successful release of the theatre adaptation of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Despite the fact two of the top three spots have been taken by women, a lot has been said about the noticeable lack of women elsewhere on the list, and by lack of women we’re talking only 16 out of 100 of the spots being taken by a female. This has highlighted to many the real need to assess gender inequality within the entertainment industry.
Here’s the full top 10:
Sean “Diddy” Combes $130 million (£102 million)
Beyonce Knowles $105 million (£82.7 million)
JK Rowling $95 million (£74.8 million)
Drake $94 million (£74.06 million)
Cristiano Ronaldo $93 million (£73.2 million)
The Weeknd $92 million (£72.4 million)
Howard Stern $90 million (£70.6 million)
Coldplay $88 million (£69.3 million)
James Patterson $87 million (£68.53 million)
LeBron James $86 million (£67.8 million)
Whatever you think of the list and the staggering amount of wealth listed, it’s certainly motivation to keep on grinding. The full list is available here.