Celebrity net worth: Charli D’Amelio is TikTok’s top-earning influencer with $17.5m

In our regular round-up of celebrities and their money, Adele hits a high note with a $58m property deal and John Legend cashes in on his music catalogue

The bulk of Charli D'Amelio's income derives from advertising sponsorships from Invisalign, Morphe cosmetics and Dunkin’ Donuts, among others. Instagram

Charli D’Amelio

At 133 million followers, Charli D’Amelio has the most popular account on TikTok. She was also the top-earning celebrity on the platform in 2021. The American dancer made $17.5 million last year, according to estimates by Forbes.

The bulk of that income is thought to have come from advertising sponsorships from Invisalign, Morphe cosmetics and Dunkin’, among others. D’Amelio’s endorsement of Invisalign’s Clear Aligners saw purchases from teenagers increase 26 per cent in a single quarter in 2020, CNN reported.

D’Amelio, 17, and her sister Dixie, 20, have also launched “social commerce” apparel brand Social Tourist with Hollister, a label owned by Abercrombie & Fitch. The new brand is sold at approximately 500 of the retailer’s stores and was a major contributor to Hollister’s nearly 10 per cent sales increase through to September 2021, Forbes reported.

Abercrombie & Fitch's net sales for fiscal 2021 are expected to be between 19 per cent and 20 per cent higher than the $3.13 billion it earned in 2020, and between 2 per cent and 3 per cent above 2019 net sales of $3.6bn, the company said in its fourth quarter outlook this week.

Hollister sales over the last quarter were hit by low inventory due to supply chain issues, chief executive Fran Horowitz said.

The D’Amelios are often compared with the Kardashians. Not only are they social media influencers, but they also have their own streaming series on Hulu, The D’Amelio Show. The programme made its debut in September and has been renewed for another season.

They also launched a show on Snap Originals in November. The 10-episode programme, Charli vs Dixie, sees the pair capitalise on the idea of sibling rivalry in bake-offs, make-up challenges and athletic contests.

Older sister Dixie, with 57 million followers, is second on Forbes’ list with earnings estimated at $10m, while Addison Rae ($8.5m, 86 million followers), Bella Poarch ($5m, 87 million followers) and Josh Richards ($5m, 26 million followers) round out the top five.

The magazine put Charli’s net worth at $12m before the list was published this week.

Adele

British singer-songwriter Adele famously lives across the street from ex-husband Simon Konecki in Beverly Hills, but those arrangements could soon change following her latest real estate investment.

The Easy on Me singer, 33, is in escrow for a new $58m mansion in Beverly Hills that is owned by Sylvester Stallone. The 21,000-square-feet mountain retreat has its own swimming pool on a 1.4-hectare estate in the exclusive Beverly Park Terrace gated community.

Stallone listed the property for $110m last January but lowered it to $85m in May after moving to a $35m estate in Palm Beach, Florida.

Adele, whose full name is Adele Laurie Blue Adkins, has a net worth estimated at $220m, primarily through record sales and concert performances. She is thought to have earned $430m between 2009 and 2019, according to Celebrity Net Worth.

In November, Adele released her first album in six years, 30. It spent seven consecutive weeks at No 1 on the Billboard Top Album Sales chart as of January 10. It has sold 1.4 million copies in the US since it was released, the largest sales for any album since 2018. The figure accounts for physical sales and streaming album units but does not include the performance of individual tracks.

On January 21, Adele will begin a residency at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, playing two shows each weekend until April 16. Each performance is expected to generate $2m in gross revenue.

Adele owns four homes in Beverly Hills, a holiday villa in Malibu and two homes in the UK. Her first home was an apartment in Tottenham, north London, which she shared with her mother.

John Legend

Perhaps inspired by the living legends selling their song catalogues to corporations, John Legend is one of the first mid-career musicians to strike a deal for his body of work so far.

The R&B singer-songwriter, 43, agreed to a deal with music company BMG and global investment firm KKR & Co to sell copyright and royalty rights for songs he has written since 2004.

Filings indicate the deal was closed in September, Bloomberg reported. Its value has not been disclosed.

Legend has had a business relationship with BMG since its 2010 purchase of his music publisher, Cherry Lane Music Publishing.

In December, KKR and BMG acquired the music rights to rock group ZZ Top for a reported $50m.

News of Legend’s sale comes on the heels of music rights acquisitions totalling $5.05bn in 2021, according to calculations by industry publication Music Business Worldwide. The figure includes $2.33bn worth of rights acquired directly from artists, songwriters and estates. The rest comprises portfolios owned by labels, publishers and other companies.

Last week, David Bowie’s estate sold the British artist’s back catalogue to Warner Music Group for more than $250m, according to Variety estimates. The deal covers 26 solo studio albums, the posthumous release of Toy and two records with the group Tin Machine.

In mid-December, rocker Bruce Springsteen sold his music rights to Sony Music for an estimated $550m. The sales follow Tina Turner’s $50m deal with BMG, Bob Dylan’s $300m sale to Universal Music Group and Neil Young’s agreement with investment and management company Hipgnosis.

Other mid-career artists to sell their catalogues include Shakira and David Guetta. The latter signed an estimated $100m agreement with Warner.

Legend and his wife – model and TV personality Chrissy Teigen – each have a net worth estimated at $75m. The couple own several homes together, including three properties between Beverly Hills and West Hollywood in California and two penthouses in New York City.

In addition to his music career, Legend reportedly earns $13m from his judging duties on the reality singing competition The Voice.

The former management consultant has invested in at least nine companies, including interactive video platform Advntr, mushroom leather company MycoWorks and smart water system Rocean. The shopping service he co-founded in 2013, Bungalow Clothing, appears to have been closed, according to investor website Crunchbase.

He also produces TV shows for Netflix and ABC, and owns a Napa Valley beverage brand.

Sarah Jessica Parker

And just like that, Sarah Jessica Parker has a net worth estimated at $200m, according to wealth tracking website Celebrity Net Worth. The figure represents Parker’s assets combined with those of her husband, actor Matthew Broderick.

Parker’s own wealth comes principally from her work on Sex and the City. She commanded a reported $3.2m per episode in the show’s last three seasons, which first aired from 2001 to 2004. With 46 episodes filmed for more than three years, she would have earned $147m before tax on those three seasons alone.

Those per-episode figures put Parker ahead of Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon, who are thought to make $2m each for the drama series The Morning Show.

She reportedly earned another $35m for the two feature films based on the series. Parker and her co-stars Cynthia Nixon and Kristin Davis earn $1m per episode for the series’ TV reboot, And Just Like That, according to industry publication Variety.

Outside of showbiz, Parker, 56, has a number of lifestyle businesses as well as a significant property portfolio with Broderick. In 2005, she began a perfume collaboration with Coty that now includes 19 scents. Sales of her Lovely fragrance soared 91 per cent last year after the TV reboot was announced.

An eponymous shoe collection followed in 2014, in partnership with former Manolo Blahnik footwear executive George Malkemus. Other lifestyle items on her website include apparel, iPhone cases, wrapping paper and a luggage collection with Samsonite.

She will also be releasing an upcoming collection of non-fungible tokens, which will include digital artwork for the Sarah Jessica Parker X label.

Parker has had her share of business failures. A jewellery collaboration with UK-based Kat Florence Design launched in 2016 was hit by a lawsuit two years later alleging that Parker did not fulfil promotional and other contractual obligations worth $7.5m. The suit was settled out of court in 2019.

Broderick and and Parker own two adjacent New York City townhouses in the West Village area that are being converted into a one double-wide mansion. Last year, the couple sold a nearby townhouse for $15m after buying it in 2000 for $3m.