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The Top-Earning Women In Music

Los Angeles -
"It takes a really big man to fill my shoes," Madonna once quipped. Apparently, it also takes a really rich man to fill those formidable size eights. The 49-year-old pop superstar tops Forbes' first-ever Cash Queens of Music list of the top-earning female musicians, banking $72 million between June 2006 and June 2007.

Madonna earned much of that from her landmark Confessions tour, the highest-grossing tour for a female artist, earning $260 million worldwide. During that time-frame, Madonna also enjoyed income from record sales, her deal with hipster retailer of choice H&M and payment from NBC for rights to broadcast her concert performance at London's Wembley Stadium.

The Material Mom isn't slowing down one bit as she swings toward her 50th birthday this August. In October, the famously shrewd musician ditched Warner Music Group, her record label of 20 years, for an unprecedented 10-year deal with concert promoter Live Nation worth an estimated $120 million.

The 20 women on Forbes' Cash Queens list earned a combined $420 million between June 2006 and June 2007. The vast majority collected hefty paychecks from sell-out tours. Barbra Streisand, who at 65 is the list's oldest member, earned the No. 2 spot with $60 million thanks to her comeback tour, her first in since she announced her retirement in 2000. Hard-to-get tickets to see Babs live fetched on average $300 apiece, the highest ticket price for any concert that year. Compare that with tickets to see the Rolling Stones live last year, which sold for $137 apiece on average.

To compile the list, Forbes examined concert grosses, merchandising revenue, album sales and additional revenue streams from ancillary businesses: clothing lines, fragrance deals and endorsements. Only "active" artists were considered--those who had released an album or film or toured during the specified period. These are gross income figures, with no deductions for taxes, management or agent fees.

Rounding out the top three is Celine Dion, 39, who banked $45 million, largely from her hugely successful A New Day concert series at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. The long-running show, opened in 2003 and housed in the Coliseum Theater built specifically for the spectacle, had been seen by an estimated 3 million fans before it wrapped in December. Dion's groundbreaking deal ushered in a cadre of big-name music acts (Elton John, Bette Midler) signing exclusive contracts in Las Vegas.

Landing the No. 4 spot is Shakira, 30, the Colombian-born crossover phenom who earned $38 million. The multiple-Grammy-winning star swiveled those famously nimble hips on an astonishing 98 tour stops during the period. (She made headlines when she audited history classes at UCLA on the West Coast leg of the tour.) In November, Shakira appeared on the soundtrack for the film adaptation of Love in the Time of Cholera.

Country stars fared well on the list. Faith Hill (No. 8) earned $19 million touring with her husband, country singer Tim McGraw. The Dixie Chicks (No. 9) trailed close behind with $18 million. Martina McBride (No. 13) earned $12 million, while American Idol winner Carrie Underwood (No. 15) rode her country sound to $7 million.

Even Britney Spears snagged a spot on our list, though she toured minimally, lip-synching her way through a handful on House of Blues clubs last spring. Despite near-daily public meltdowns culminating in September's humiliating "comeback" performance at the MTV Video Music Awards, the troubled 26-year-old mother of two still managed to eek out $8 million from old hits and surprisingly strong sales of her perfume, Curious, which grossed $55.4 million in 2006.

Licensing deals buttressed the earnings of several Cash Queens, including Gwen Stefani and Jennifer Lopez, who boast their own clothing lines and have stamped their names on popular fragrances. Beyoncé is the list's endorsement darling, having bagged contracts with A-list sponsors like L'Oreal, American Express and Samsung. Hilary Duff, who at 20 is the youngest member of the Cash Queens list, presides over a tween merchandising empire--spawned from her days as Disney's Lizzie McGuire--that pocketed her $12 million.


1. Madonna
$72 million
The ever-morphing singer still outsells artists half her age. She tops the Cash Queens list thanks largely to her record-breaking Confessions tour, plus income from album sales, an apparel line with retailer H&M and a deal with NBC to air concert footage

2. Barbra Streisand
$60 million
The 65-year-old legend, with 145 million albums sold worldwide to her credit, drew legions of die-hard fans to her short (and rare) concert series that wrapped in Europe last summer. Some tickets sold for upward of $1,000 apiece.

3. Celine Dion
$45 million
The Canadian diva's landmark Las Vegas concert drew some 3 million fans and grossed upward of $450 million during its five-year run, which ended in December.

4. Shakira
$38 million
The Colombian chanteuse shook her trademark hips from Mexico to India on a tireless tour that saw her perform 111 concerts before it was over.

5. Beyoncé
$27 million
The former Destiny's Child front woman is an endorsement darling, boasting deals with blue-chip brands like American Express, L'Oreal and Samsung.

6. Gwen Stefani
$26 million
Her last album, The Sweet Escape, peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard charts, her best performance as a solo artist. The 38-year-old platinum blonde also has an endorsement deal with HP, her own fashion label and a recently launched fragrance.

7. Christina Aguilera
$20 million
Critics adored the retro stylings of Back to Basics, her third studio album, which also proved popular with fans. Aguilera also inked deals with Pepsi and Orange, a European cellphone operator. In January, the 27-year-old welcomed her first child, Max.

8. Faith Hill
$19 million
Country's beauty-queen crooner joined husband Tim McGraw on the road for the Soul2Soul II tour, one of the year's fastest-selling, top-grossing American concert series, beating out even the U.S. leg of Madonna's Confessions tour. Hill also belts out NBC's Sunday Night Football theme song.

9. Dixie Chicks
$18 million
Despite vehement criticism from country fans of their anti-war, anti-Bush politics, the Dixie Chicks proved their resilience with their seventh studio album, the Grammy-winning Taking the Long Way Home. Though it immediately topped country and pop charts, the tour to promote the album was hit-or-miss. The Chicks canceled dates in Texas and Oklahoma following refusals from several radio stations to advertise the event.

10. Mariah Carey
$13 million
The 37-year-old pop and R&B diva makes good money off of her extensive catalog. (Her 10 studio albums have sold over 100 million copies worldwide.) The musical director for her last tour, dubbed The Adventures of Mimi, was longtime collaborator Randy Jackson, judge of American Idol.

11. Hilary Duff
$12 million
The 20-year-old former child star of Disney's Lizzie McGuire has quickly established herself as a credible pop star thanks to Dignity, her modestly selling recent studio album. Though acting and music may be her passions, retail is her biggest moneymaking asset. Stuff by Hilary Duff, merchandise targeting her tween fans, is available at Kohl's and JCPenney.

12. Avril Lavigne
$12 million
Marriage hasn't slowed this 23-year-old rocker down. Her third studio album, The Best Damn Thing, topped the pop charts last year and spawned an international mega-hit from its first single "Girlfriend." The video for that song is the second most-watched clip on YouTube, with over 69 million views. Lavigne recorded the chorus to the song in seven other languages, including Mandarin and German.

13. Martina McBride
$12 million
The 41-year-old country crooner's ninth studio album, Waking Up Laughing, was an unlikely crossover hit last year, earning top 10 spots on the country, adult contemporary and Hot 100 charts. (She's still on the road promoting the album on tour.) She and her husband own and operate Nashville's Blackbird Studio, where A-list music acts like John Bon Jovi and Keith Urban have recorded.

14. Britney Spears
$8 million
The former pop-superstar-turned-tabloid-staple eeks out a sizable income from her catalog of hits--the 26-year-old has sold over 80 million records worldwide over the course of her career--and royalties from sales of her fragrance lines. Critics be damned, her latest album, Blackout, has been a modest hit.

15. Carrie Underwood
$7 million
American Idol's fourth-season champ saw her debut album, Some Hearts, sell 8 million copies worldwide and spawn a mega-hit of its third single, "Before He Cheats." (Over 2 million downloads and counting.) Her sophomore effort, Carnival Ride, has sold over 2 million copies. Word is she'll hit the road this year with Keith Urban to promote their respective albums.

16. Nelly Furtado
$7 million
The one-time folk-indie-songstress-turned-pop-star partnered with uber-producer Timbaland for her third album, Loose, said to have sold more than 7 million copies worldwide. The album launched eight hit singles, including "Promiscuous." Furtado, 29, also appeared in Timbaland's "Give It To Me" single with Justin Timberlake

17. Fergie
$6 million
The Black Eyed Peas singer scored big with her debut solo album The Duchess, which landed five hit singles, including "Glamorous" and "Big Girls Don't Cry." Born Stacy Ann Ferguson, the 32-year-old also bagged endorsements with Kipling bags and Candie's shoes.

18. Jennifer Lopez
$6 million
Despite weak album sales of her first Spanish-language album Como Ama una Mujer and limited touring, J.Lo still rakes it in, mostly from her catalog, clothing sales and incredibly successful fragrances. (There are six fragrances so far.) Lopez also collected a paycheck for her credit in El Cantante, the biopic of salsa star Hector Lavoe co-starring hubby Marc Anthony. Lopez, 38, who also runs her own production company, is reportedly expecting twins.

19. Sheryl Crow
$6 million
The nine-time Grammy-winning pop-rock singer enjoyed income from her catalog and a smallish 2006 tour to promote her last album, Wildflowers. During that period, Crow overcame a breast cancer diagnosis and endured a very public breakup with Lance Armstrong. Last year she adopted a son, Wyatt Steven. In February, Crow, 45, will release Detours, her sixth studio album

20. Norah Jones
$5.5 million
The 28-year-old mellow rocker released her third album, Not Too Late, earlier this year and has reportedly sold 3 million copies worldwide to date. She also enjoyed income from a worldwide tour to promote the album. This year she'll make her big screen acting debut opposite Jude Law in My Blueberry Nights.

This article has been posted by: xxjohnxx
Posted at 02/01/2008. Original article can be found here.

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