Forbes’s annual billionaire list came out today, and they have a sub-section with just celebrities on the billionaire list. The wealthiest celebrity is George Lucas, followed by Steven Spielberg, then Michael Jordan, then Oprah, and then Jay-Z. Rihanna and Kim Kardashian are in the top ten, and Taylor Swift has now joined the club after the unprecedented year she had in 2023 and the earnings from The Eras tour; she ranks #14 on the list, which surprises me because you know with how spooky she can be sometimes, it would have that much more of a headline if she was in the 13th position, but Dick Wolf had to go and spoil that with all his Law & Order franchises.
Taylor’s distinction, however, is that she’s the first celebrity billionaire to achieve this status “based solely on songwriting and performing” because music really is the only thing she does – and, obviously, she does it extremely well.
That said… while it is of course an interesting factoid, it’s not like, you know, it’s a competition. Unless it is? I’m not a billionaire so maybe they do gather round at the country club telling each other whose billions are more special than whose. For poor people like us though, a billion is a billion for f-ck’s sake. It’s not like a billion smells better or spends better whether or not it comes from selling makeup and alcohol or if it’s just from music. Taylor Swift is a billionaire, she is very, very, very wealthy. And she will soon become even wealthier because we are just over two weeks away from the release of her new album, The Tortured Poets Department.
Taylor appeared via video last night at the iHeartRadio Music Awards, maintaining a bit of elusiveness before the drop so her own promotional activities will be that much more special. Speaking of promotion though, the next wave of it should be kicking in soon, non? She hasn’t posted anything on social media in almost three weeks. I’m sure there’s a strategy in place for whatever she will be sharing next – a tease, an image, something for the Swifties to pop off over. So I’m curious to see how she times it, and what it will look like. Last time she did that lottery ball thing that fit aesthetically with the general mood of the Midnights Album.
With the black and white/sepia vibe of Tortured Poets that we’ve seen so far, it’ll be interesting to see how that informs the energy of the release of this album.
