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 $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 $80 million last year.

She out-earned other famous musicians including Adele ($80.5 million), Madonna ($76.5 million), Rihanna ($75 million) and Bruce Springsteen ($60.5 million).

The “Shake It Off” singer also outpaced rival Katy Perry who was last year’s top-earning musician at $135 million, according to Forbes magazine’s annual list of 100 highest-paid celebrities.

Perry dropped to number 63 on this year’s list, earning a mere $41 million.

Swift’s huge earnings were largely thanks to her “1989 World Tour” during which she smashed the Rolling Stone’s North American record, grossing $200 million on the continent en route to a quarter of a billion worldwide, the magazine said.

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

Taylor’s former beau, musician Calvin Harris, also made the cut coming in at number 21 ($63 million).

“The world’s 100 highest-paid celebrities pulled in $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.

On the Hollywood front, Jennifer Lawrence was the industry’s highest-paid actress for the second consecutive year, earning $46 million, a slight drop from the $52 million “The Hunger Games” star banked the year before.

Actor Dwayne Johnson wrestled the highest-paid actor spot from “Iron Man’s” Robert Downey Jr., earning $64.5 million, largely thanks to the billion-dollar “Fast and Furious” franchise and the surprising success of 2015′s “San Andreas” movie.

Many athletes also made the list, including Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo ($88 million), tennis man Roger Federer ($68 million), and German race car driver Sebastian Vettel ($41 million)

source: interaksyon.com

Adele announces first tour in five years for new album '25'

LONDON — Adele has announced her first tour since 2011, with a string of European dates in support of her record-breaking new album, "25."

The British singer announced Thursday that she will play venues in Britain and Europe starting Feb. 29 in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Adele has previously said she finds touring lonely. But in a video on Facebook, the 27-year-old said she was "relieved to finally tell you I am of course coming on tour and I can't wait to see all of you there."

The album sold a record 2.4 million copies in its first four days in the U.S., according to Nielsen Music. In Britain, it sold 737,000 copies in its first week.

The first single, "Hello," is a hit on both sides of the Atlantic.

One reason for the astronomical sales may be that Adele declined to make her album available through music-streaming services including Apple Music and Spotify, forcing listeners to buy it either digitally and at stores.

It can be heard via U.S.-based online radio company Pandora Music Inc., which announced this week that it was playing all the songs on "25." Pandora is not an on-demand service, though, so listeners can't choose which tracks they hear.

source: philstar.com

Adele sings new Bond theme, out on Friday

LONDON – British Grammy-winning singer Adele said Monday she has recorded the theme song for the upcoming James Bond movie “Skyfall”, following in the footsteps of artists including Shirley Bassey and Madonna.

Adele’s official website announced that it would premiere the song at 12:07 am London time on Friday (2307 GMT Thursday) and gave fans the opportunity to pre-order it first.

Friday is the 50th anniversary of the first Bond film, “Dr. No”, and is being celebrated as Global Bond Day.

Adele had earlier posted a picture of herself on Twitter in a recording studio with the song credits, which are also attributed to Paul Epworth, who co-wrote and produced her hit single “Rolling in the Deep.”

A month ago, a leading bookmaker paid out on bets that the 24-year-old singer-songwriter would sing the theme song in the new 007 adventure.

Adele herself hinted at her latest gig in an interview with British chat show host Jonathan Ross on his ITV1 show in September 2011, when she told him she planned to be back in the studio in November.

“Well this is actually a theme, what I’ve got to do for, um… Wow. That’s really giving something away isn’t it?” she said at the time.

Adele revealed in June that she is pregnant with her first child, adding that she and boyfriend Simon Konecki were “over the moon”.

It capped an incredible year for Adele which saw her bounce back from throat surgery and sweep this year’s Grammys after the success of her second album “21″.

“Skyfall”, the 23rd James Bond film, will premiere in Britain on October 23, with Daniel Craig again starring as the secret agent.

The film, directed by British Oscar-winner Sam Mendes, opens in the United States in November.

Adele is the latest in a string of big names who have performed Bond themes, including Jack White and Alicia Keys, who provided the theme to 2008′s “A Quantum Of Solace”.

British rockers Duran Duran sound tracked “A View to Kill” in 1985 while Welsh diva Shirley Bassey famously belted out the theme tunes to “Goldfinger” (1964), “Diamonds Are Forever” (1971) and “Moonraker” (1979).

Other legends to have performed Bond themes include former Beatle Paul McCartney, who sang “Live and Let Die” in 1973, and Madonna, responsible for “Die Another Day” in 2002.

source: interaksyon.com