Lady Gaga Is The Most Powerful Person In Entertainment, According To ‘Forbes’

Becky Bain | May 18, 2011 11:59 am

Move over Oprah! Lady Gaga has lobster clawed her way past the daytime talk show titan to be crowned the Most Powerful Person In Entertainment, topping the annual Forbes Celebrity 100 list. And she can thank Twitter and Facebook for that.

The “Heavy Metal Lover” earned roughly $90 million the past year, which, although impressive in its own right, is nowhere near the amount runner-up Oprah Winfrey made. (That would be $290 million.) But the factor that pushed the pop star to the forefront was her ability to master various social networking sites.

“Gaga is there not just because of the $90 million she earned with a monster tour,” explains Forbes, “But also because of her 32 million Facebook fans and 10 million Twitter followers — aka Little Monsters — who helped move 1 million digital downloads of her recent single ‘Born This Way’ in only five days. They’re also happy to buy the MAC makeup, Monster headphones and Virgin Mobile phones she features in her videos.”

Trailing Mama Monster and the Big O is none other than pop tart Justin Bieber, earning $53 million last year thanks to album sales, concert sales and a hit documentary movie, Justin Bieber: Never Say Never. Says Forbes, “If this were 10 years ago Bieber would still be paying his dues in small clubs and schools, but thanks to the Internet, he’s a sensation.”

Gaga and Bieber should be kissing their computer monitors right about now.

Other notable pop acts in the Top 10 of the Forbes Celebrity 100 include U2 (#4), Elton John (#5), Taylor Swift (#7), Bon Jovi (#8) and Simon Cowell (#9).

[Via Forbes]