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Forbes has named Katy Perry as 2018’s highest paid woman in music. The business magazine estimates that Perry, 34, earned $83m (£64.7m) in the period spanning June 2017 to June 2018.

Perry played 80 dates on the world tour for her fifth album, Witness, during that period, grossing more than $1m per night, as well as earning more than $20m for her work as a judge on American Idol. She rises from ninth place in 2017.

Beyoncé, 37, Forbes’ highest paid woman in music last year, falls to third place ($60m) – her recent On the Run II tour with husband Jay-Z fell mostly outside of their scoring period.

Taylor Swift, 28, rises from third place in 2017 to second this year ($80m). Many of the dates on the global tour for her sixth album, Reputation, will count towards the 2019 rankings. Swift recently left her long-term record label to sign with Republic Records and Universal Music Group, the financial terms of which have not been made public.


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This year’s list contains many of the same artists as last year – Celine Dion, Britney Spears and Jennifer Lopez among them – and one outlier: Russian-German star Helene Fischer, in eighth place. Fischer, 34, is a singer in the schlager style, a sentimental German pop tradition that shares themes with country music.

Her self-titled eighth album debuted at No 1 in the Austrian, German and Swiss albums charts in May 2017. It has been certified nine times platinum in Germany and Austria, where it has sold more than 1m copies. Forbes states that her appearance on the list, with earnings of $32m is largely due to a successful tour that brings in “seven figures per stop”.