Forbes Top 10 Musician List Has Few Surprises; Top 100 Celebrities Has Plenty

The annual Forbes list of 100 Most Powerful Celebrities has been announced overnight; with talk show queen Oprah Winfrey taking out the top spot this year. Along with this list always comes a supplementary list that outlines the ten most powerful musicians in the business and considering that the Top 10 of the full list of 100 features six musicians,

The list puts together a celebrity's money and fame to come up with an overall ranking as to where they sit on the pecking order, so it will come as no surprise the kind of artists who make the cut.

According to the list, Lady Gaga is the most powerful musician in the industry at the moment and second most powerful celebrity, quite an achievement for an artist who was forced to cancel a stack of tour dates thanks to a nasty hip injury. Beyonce slots into second position as she gets back on the road following the birth of her first child; she mightn't have made any scratch from touring during her time off, but she still gets plenty of cash from royalties, her clothing line and some pretty high profile endorsements. She ranked as the fourth most powerful celebrity overall this year.

Madonna sure as hell doesn't need Australia to get her to the top; her MDNA tour saw her rake in USD$305 million and a number three spot on this list and fifth in the celebrity ranks. Taylor Swift, who is soon to embark on one of the biggest Australian tours of the year, took out fourth on the musicians list and sixth overall.

There was a little bit of what you might classify as “rock music” in there as well; Bon Jovi taking fifth and seventh spots in the music and overall lists respectively, while Coldplay snuck into the musicians list in ninth position, while earning 14th position in the celebrity list.

It's kinda hard to believe, given recent hype, that Kanye West is only at 59 on the list, though we're sure his position is skyrocket as we speak. It's also kinda surprising that Dr Dre still manages to make the list at the very respectable number 63 in the list of powerful celebrities.

It was a tight race between Calvin Harris and David Guetta, but the Scottish Harris managed to take that mini-battle of the pop-EDM world with his ranking of 68 beating out the 45-year-old Frenchman who landed at 74.

Indie darling Zooey Deschanel might be one of the lowest paid on the list (her 6 million bucks sees her at number 100 cash wise) but her social status and the media's love of her pushed her up to 96^th spot; one spot above the critically adored comedian Louis CK who astonishingly makes the list in 97th position.

Aussie Hugh Jackman ranked 11th in the list, but you have to go all the way down to number 100 before our country is represented again, with Miranda Kerr rounding out the full list.

If you're after a rundown of industry figures that really matter, get your order in for the AMID Power 50 to find out the real movers and shakers in the Australian music industry.