In an unexpected turn of events, Katy Perry has managed to beat arch rival Taylor Swift in this year’s list of World's highest paid musicians released by Forbes.

Perry has surpassed Swift by a wide margin in the list and is followed closely by One Direction and Garth Brooks. Perry managed to churn out $135 million (AU$187.79 million) to become the top-earning musician of the year, according to Forbes. While, the English-Irish pop boy band One Direction followed Perry closely with an earnings of $130 million (AU$180.83 million). Garth Brooks secured third position on the list with total earnings of $90 million (AU$ 125.19 million).

A major chunk of Perry’s earnings came from her 120 shows around the world for the “Prismatic” tour. In addition to this, Katy forayed into field of advertisement and is the face of several brands, including H&M, CoverGirl and Moschino. Perry has jumped up by 22 positions to reach the top of the list this year.

Country singer Taylor Swift stood fourth on the list with earnings of $80 million (AU$111.28 million). She shared the fourth position on the list along with The Eagles. However, getting defeated from her rival would have been a major blow for Swift. Another bigwigs who lost a lot in this year’s list includes Beyoncé. She stumbled to the 14th position from the second place and was just a rank behind her husband Jay Z.

Swift’s new beau Calvin Harris also followed her closely in terms of earnings and stood on sixth position on the Forbes' list. Harris raked in $66 million (AU$ 91.81) to become the sixth most highly paid musician of 2015.

Last year’s chart-topper, Dr Dre, did exceptionally bad this year and fell to the 28th position on the list. Other big names to feature amongst top 10 on the list are - Justin Timberlake, Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs, Fleetwood Mac and Lady Gaga.

Pop star Lady Gaga is on the 10th position on the list with and earning of $59 million (AU$82.07 million). Fleetwood Mac is a notch higher than Lady Gaga with $ 59.5 million (AU$82.77 million). Diddy secured eighth position with $60 million (AU$83.46 million) owing to his deal with Diageo’s Ciroc Vodka, while, Justin Timberlake was on seventh place with an earning of $63.5 million (AU$88.33 million).

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