Oops! She did it again.
Britney Spears is the top-earning female artist of 2012 thanks to skyrocketing sales of her latest album, "Femme Fatale," a spot on Fox's "The X Factor" and best-selling Elizabeth Arden fragrances.
Spears is ranked as the highest-paid performer on Forbes' "Top-Earning Women in Music" list this year, even though she hasn't released an album or toured live in the past 12 months. Spears earned $58 million from May 2011 to May 2012. That was shy of the $64 million she made in 2010, but it was still enough to beat out the No. 2 contender, Taylor Swift.
“Britney has an electricity that connects with audiences on screen and off," music attorney Lori Landew, who helped sign Spears to her first record deal, told Forbes, "and it is that intangible quality that always seems to leave her fans, old and new, breathless.”
Where does all the money come from?
In May, Spears inked a $15 million deal to judge "The X Factor." She is also in talks to sign on for Season 3. As of May 2011, Spears' "Curious" was one of the top-selling celebrity perfumes of all-time with more than 10 million bottles sold.
Spears, who suffered a very public breakdown in 2008, has certainly solidified her comeback. These days, she focuses on work and avoids the prying eye of the media. "I guess I’ve been under the microscope so long that I don’t even pay attention to the nonsense anymore," she told Elle magazine for the October issue. "I gave up getting upset about things people make up about me a long time ago."
In June, Swift topped a list the 31-year-old "Till the World Ends" singer was absent from -- Forbes' "Highest Paid Under 30" list.
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