The richest musicians in the UK
| 13th May 2020
Rhianna is an eye-catching new entry in today’s Musician’s Rich List, the traditional warm up act to the definitive guide to UK wealth.
Barbados born Rhianna joins Sir Elton John (with his farewell tour helping his wealth to rocket by £40m in a year) and Ed Sheeran to top the money music chart.
And even though the lights go down (a bit) on Lloyd-Webber as his fortune took a £20m hit, the musical theatre maestro still tops the music rich list.
Now based in London, Rihanna makes her debut in this year’s ranking with a fortune of £468m – a figure powered by the success of her Fenty cosmetics brand and a coterie of other commercial interests.
The original “bad gal” has made most of her wealth by partnering with LVMH, the French luxury goods brand. Their cosmetics brand, launched in 2017, generated $570m in its first 15 months. It is valued at $3bn, making Rihanna’s reported 15% stake worth £351.6m. There is also Savage X Fenty, her lingerie line — not to mention eight hit albums – to account for her fortune.
The 32-year-old singer joins the rankings including members of Queen, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones and Sir Cameron Mackintosh.
Sir Paul McCartney and Lloyd-Webber share the top spot in today’s music Rich List, each having wealth estimated at £800m.
The former Beatle’s latest hit is Hey Grandude!, his first children’s book. The tale topped the New York Times bestsellers chart in 2019. With an enduring appeal that spans generations, 29 McCartney concerts last year took more than $100m at the box office. His latest album, Egypt Station, was his first to debut at No 1 on the Billboard 200 chart.
The Rich List’s compilers calculate that the Covid-19 shutdown of the West End will hit Lord Lloyd-Webber by at least £20m.
The Kensington-born composer has pushed back the West End opening of his musical Cinderella until October and stands to lose millions from the closure of his theatres in London’s West End and on Broadway.
Lloyd-Webber’s LW Theatres showed assets of £63m in 2018-19, with the separate Really Useful Group Investments making profits of £7m on turnover of £61.4m.
The composer is airing some of his famous musicals on YouTube during the lockdown, launching a channel called The Show Must Go On last month.
Ed Sheeran ranks first in the young musicians (aged 30 or under) list once again with another £40m added to his overall wealth. He has earned more than £600m and sold nine million tickets.
The 255-gig tour Sheeran completed last August is said to be the highest-grossing in history. It capped a decade in which Shape of You was the world’s most streamed track, with 2.4 billion plays on Spotify. The prolific songsmith has set himself the task of writing a tune before lunch every day of the lockdown. He also donated £1m to local charities.
Image credit: Meromex.
The Richest Musicians
| Musicians Rank | Name | 2020 wealth | Wealth increase/decrease |
| 1= | Lord Lloyd-Webber | £800m | Down
£20m |
| 1= | Sir Paul McCartney | £800m | Up £50m |
| 3 | Rihanna | £468m | New |
| 4 | Sir Elton John | £360m | Up £40m |
| 5 | Sir Mick Jagger | £285m | Up £10m |
| 6= | Olivia and Dhani Harrison | £270m | Up £20m |
| 6= | Keith Richards | £270m | Up £10m |
| 8 | Sir Ringo Starr | £260m | Up £20m |
| 9 | Michael Flatley | £206m | Up £2m |
| 10= | Ed Sheeran | £200m | Up £40m |
| 10= | Sir Rod Stewart | £200m | Up £10m |
| 10= | Sting | £200m | No change |
| 13= | Brian May | £190m | Up £30m |
| 13= | Roger Waters | £190m | No change |
| 15 | Robbie Williams | £185m | Up £10m |
| 16 | Calvin Harris | £180m | Up £15m |
| 17 | Eric Clapton | £175m | No change |
| 18= | Sir Tom Jones | £170m | Up £5m |
| 18= | Roger Taylor | £170m | Up £15m |
| 20 | Charlie Watts | £165m | Up £10m |
| 21 | Sir Tim Rice | £155m | Up £2m |
| 22= | Adele | £150m | No change |
| 22= | Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne | £150m | No change |
| 24= | Phil Collins | £140m | Up £10m |
| 24= | John Deacon | £140m | Up £10m |
| 26 | Jimmy Page | £127m | Up £2m |
| 27 | David Gilmour | £116m | No change |
| 28 | Nick Mason | £110m | Up £5 |
| 29 | Chris Martin | £105m | Up £3m |
| 30 | Robert Plant | £102m | Down £3m |
| 31= | Mary Austin | £95m | Up £6m |
| 31= | Ronnie Wood | £95m | Up £10m |
| 33= | Guy Berryman | £92m | Up £2m |
| 33= | Jonny Buckland | £92m | Up £2m |
| 33= | Will Champion | £92m | Up £2m |
| 36 | Pete Townshend and Rachel Fuller | £84m | Up £1m |
| 37 | Gary Barlow | £82m | Up £1m |
| 38 | Mark Knopfler | £76m | Up £1m |
| 39 | Sir Barry Gibb | £75m | No change |
| 40 | Engelbert Humperdinck | £73m | New |
Robert Watts, the compiler of The Sunday Times Rich List, said: “Rihanna typifies the seismic change we’ve seen in the Rich List in recent years. Once dominated by inherited wealth, the bulk of our 1,000 entries are now self-made people with modest and even troubled starts in life who are driven to work exceptionally hard.
“Still only 32, if Rihanna remains based in the UK she could well pip Sir Paul McCartney and Lord Lloyd-Webber to be The Sunday Times Rich List’s first billionaire musician.
“Touring remains the big earner for many of the stadium-filling acts on our musicians’ list. But the Covid outbreak has wrecked concert plans and so we expect the wealth of many of these musicians will flatline over the coming year.
“There’s no doubt that for this year at least the wealth of the musicians has held up better than many other ultra-high net worth individuals – especially those with wealth determined by the stock market.”
Wealthiest Young Musicians
| Musicians Rank | Name | 2020 wealth | Wealth increase/decrease |
| 1 | Ed Sheeran | £200m | Up £40m |
| 2 | Harry Styles | £63m | Up £5m |
| 3 | Niall Horan | £50m | Up £1m |
| 4 | Little Mix | £48m | Up £3m |
| 5 | Louis Tomlinson | £45m | Up £1m |
| 6 | Liam Payne | £44m | Up £2m |
| 7 | Zayn Malik | £36m | No change |
| 8 | Sam Smith | £33m | Up £1m |
| 9= | Rita Ora | £20m | Up £2m |
| 9= | Stormzy | £20m | Up £4m |
| 11= | George Ezra | £16m | New |
| 11= | Dua Lipa | £16m | New |