Taylor Swift world's highest paid celebrity: Forbes

[NEW YORK] At the tender age of 26, Taylor Swift is the world's highest-paid celebrity, pulling in a whopping US$170 million over the past year, Forbes magazine said Monday.

The pop diva's take from June 2015 to June 2016 is the highest total of her young career, the magazine said, more than doubling her previous record of US$80 million last year.

She out-earned other famous musicians including Adele, Bruce Springsteen, Rihanna and Madonna.

The Shake It Off singer also outpaced rival Katy Perry who last year took in more than US$135 million as opposed to Swift's US$80 million, according to Forbes magazine's annual list of 100 highest-paid celebrities.

It said Swift's top earnings were largely thanks to her "1989 World Tour" during which she smashed the Rolling Stone's North American record, grossing US$200 million on the continent en route to a quarter of a billion worldwide.

Coming in at number two on the list this year was the boy band One Direction, (US$110 million), followed by author James Patterson (US$95 million).

British singer Adele came in at number 9 (US$80.5 million) while Taylor's former beau, musician Calvin Harris, also made the cut coming in at number 21 (US$63 million).

"The world's 100 highest-paid celebrities pulled in US$5.1 billion pretax over the past 12 months, more than the GDP of Belize, Gambia and Bhutan combined," Forbes said.

Magazine editor Zack O'Malley Greenberg said live entertainment continues to be a major cash draw.

"From soccer games in Spain to concerts in China, fans are willing to shell out to see big names - and this is driving the celebrity economy to ever greater heights," he said in a statement.

AFP