USA Highest Earning Acts of 2011

Sade pips Adele in 2012 US money list

Reclusive singer rakes in £10.5m to be highest-earning British musical act in America last year

Caspar Llewellyn Smith

guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 13 March 2012 12.52 GMT

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/mar/1...2-us-money-list

Viewers of the 2012 Grammys watched a 23-year old girl from Tottenham walk away with six awards, but the top-earning act from the UK in America last year was an artist who fans back home have to some extent forgotten.

 

Sade raked in $16.4m (£10.5m) in 2011 on the back of her first tour in North America for a decade and the release of The Ultimate Collection, eclipsing Adele, the only other Brit in the top 10, who earned $13.1m.

 

The 53-year-old came sixth on a list of the biggest-earning acts of last year, compiled by trade publication Billboard. Taylor Swift topped the chart with $35.7m, followed by U2 ($32.1m) and Kenny Chesney ($29.8m).

 

Touring remained the biggest source of income for the top earners, although album sales saw Adele and Justin Bieber perform strongly, as well as another British act: 42 years after they split, the Beatles hit No 24 on the Billboard chart.

 

Sade is the most successful solo female artist Britain has ever produced, selling more than 50m records in a career that stretches back to her 1984 hit Your Love Is King. Famously reclusive – nicknamed Howie by her friends, after Howard Hughes – she toured the world for eight months last year, visting Russia, Australia, South America and Europe, including three dates in the UK. But the bulk of the tour was devoted to North America, where she played 59 shows. The tour started 18 months after the release of her US No 1 album Soldier of Love, a record that reached No 4 in the UK.

 

The singer – born Helen Folasade Adu in Nigeria – said in 2010: "It can be very hostile, England. Not just to me but to everybody. England's like a sour old auntie." Nonetheless, she still lives in a village near Stroud, Gloucestershire, where she has been based since 2005 with her teenage daughter, Ila. In 2002 she was awarded an OBE.

 

Maura Johnston, the music critic of the Village Voice in New York, said: "Sade has a long-standing appeal to an older demographic in the States and certain strands of radio – people who still have an appetite for sexy love songs." Johnston saw Sade play at the Nassau Coliseum in June, and added: "The band were great, she had a wonderful command of the crowd and her voice still sounded perfect."

 

The US leg of Sade's tour, featuring John Legend as a support act, raised a total of $45.7m in revenue, with the group taking home $15.4m. Her label released a greatest hits set, The Ultimate Collection, to coincide with the tour, including two new tracks and a remix of Moon and the Sky featuring Jay-Z.

 

Sade told Billboard in August: "We wanted the show to be spectacular, transporting the audience on a surprising, emotional adventure at the polar extremes of dynamics. So for one moment they believe they are in a huge stadium and the next an intimate club where each note hangs in the air.

 

"This show is the best thing we have ever done as a band," she added.

 

Adele's earnings in 2011 would have been higher had she not been forced to cancel 10 sold-out US shows following throat surgery. Yet she still broke records in the States, with her album 21 spending 23 weeks at No 1, with album sales hitting 6.7m.

Big in America: The 2012 top 40

1. Taylor Swift: $35.7m

2. U2: $32.1m

3. Kenny Chesney: $29.8m

4. Lady Gaga: $25.4m

5. Lil Wayne: $23.2m

6. Sade $16.4m

7. Bon Jovi: $15.8m

8. Celine Dion: $14.3m

9. Jason Aldean: $13.4m

10. Adele: $13.1m

11. Glee cast: $12.6m

12. Journey: $12.3m

13. Elton John: $11.97m

14. Katy Perry: $11.96m

15. Toby Keith: $10.4m

16. Britney Spears: $10.1m

17. Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band: $10m

18. Rascal Flatts: $9.6m

19. Tim McGraw: $9.3m

20. Michael Bublé: $9m

21. Brad Paisley: $8.6m

22. Rihanna: $7.7m

23. Enrique Iglesias: $7.5m

24. The Beatles: $6.74m

25. Sir Paul McCartney: $6.72m

26. Lady Antebellum: $6.67m

27. Keith Urban: $6.57m

28. Zac Brown Band: $6.5m

29. Rod Stewart: $6.4m

30. Usher: $6.3m

31. Foo Fighters: $6m

32. Rush: $5.8m

33. Backstreet Boys: $5.7m

34. Sugarland: $5.6m

35. Justin Bieber: $5.5m

36. New Kids on the Block: $5.5m

37. Steely Dan: $5.38m

38. Mötley Crüe: $5.37m

39. Kanye West: $5.36m

40. Linkin Park: $5.2m