The annual Forbes list of the top 100 most powerful actors, musicians, athletes, television personalities, models and comedians is here. Forbes calculates this list based on a scale made up of earnings, net worth and level of fame, which is determined by media visibility (i.e., number of Twitter followers, TV appearances, interviews, etc.)
Coming in at a surprising number one is Jennifer Lopez. Her career and level of fame waned over the past several years, but it has been on the upswing since 2010 when she became a judge on “American Idol.” The show led to a renewed growth in her popularity and she received endorsement deals from L’Oreal and Gillette.
The singer also started churning out pop tunes once again, and became social media savvy with 12 million Facebook fans and 6.6 million Twitter followers. All of this helped J. Lo rake in $52 million last year, unseating Lady Gaga from the top slot and putting Jenny from the Block on the Forbes list for the first time. Gaga took fifth place for 2012.
It’s been a solid comeback for J. Lo, who was also named People’s most beautiful person in 2011.
Oprah Winfrey came in at number two for the second year in a row. Although she is one of the wealthiest people in the country, Oprah has had a bad year since her daytime talk show ended 12 months ago. (Bad in Oprah terms, not in regular human terms.) Although she made more money than anyone on the Forbes list — $165 million — her OWN network is struggling and is barely breaking even.
By far the youngest on the list, 18-year-old Justin Bieber, came in at number three. The Biebs earned $55 million last year off of tours and record sales alone. But Bieber is savvy with his fortune, and has even invested in tech startups like Spotify and Tinychat.
Rihanna, Britney Spears, Kim Kardashian, Katy Perry, Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg round out the top 10. Perennial winners like Tiger Woods, Donald Trump and Simon Cowell also made the list.