While she may not be a household name, Nana Mouskouri has one of the most impressive careers in the industry. During the entirety of her career, she has released 200 albums and singles in more than twelve different languages. Some of the languages include Greek, French, English, German, Dutch, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Hebrew, and many more.
She became famous throughout Europe for her song “The White Rose of Athens”, which she recorded in German as “Weiße Rosen aus Athen” as a rendition of her Greek song “Σαν σφυρίξεις τρείς φορές” (San sfyríxeis tris forés, “When you whistle three times”). This soon became her first album to sell more than a million copies.
$770 million
Dr. Dre has created albums for and started the careers of numerous rappers, including 2Pac, The D.O.C., Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Xzibit, Knoc-turn'al, 50 Cent, The Game, and Kendrick Lamar. He is credited as a key figure in the making and advancement of West Coast G-funk, a rap style described as synthesizer-based with moderate, substantial beats. Starting at 2018, he is the third wealthiest figure in hip hop, with total assets of $770 million.
Dre started his life as a member of the World Class Wreckin' Cru. He received acclaim with the persuasive gangsta rap band N.W.A, with Eazy-E, Ice Cube, MC Ren, and DJ Yella, which made rap lyrics more mainstream - and used rap to detail the viciousness of ‘thug’ life. His 1992 solo album, The Chronic, under Death Row Records, made him the best selling artist of 1993, and earned him a Grammy Award.
$1.2 billion
Ranked the "fifth most powerful person in British culture" by The Daily Telegraph in 2008, lyricist Don Black has stated that "Andrew more or less single-handedly reinvented the musical." Several of Lloyd Webber’s musicals have run for more than a decade, both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed over a dozen musicals, two film scores, and a Latin Requiem Mass, among others.
He is one of the few artists who has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and he is an inductee into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame. He is one of fifteen people to have won an Emmy, Oscar, Grammy and Tony. The company he started, named the Really Useful Group, is one of the largest theatre operators in London. He is involved in numerous charitable activities, including the Elton John AIDS Foundation, Nordoff Robbins, Prostate Cancer UK and War Child. He also set up the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation, which supports the arts, culture and heritage in the UK, in 1992.
$130 Million
Bob Marley was a Jamaican reggae singer and songwriter. He started his music career in 1963 with his band group the Wailers and with them forged his distinctive songwriting and vocals that would later resonate with his fans worldwide. After the Wailers broke up in 1974, Marley went on to pursue a solo career with much success.
Still today, with over 75 million albums and singles, Marley is one of the world's best-selling artists in the history of music. He helped to transform reggae to a social force that's every bit as powerful as rock & roll at its prime.
$300 Million
While his name doesn't may not ring a bell to most, nearly everyone knows his band. James Alan Hetfield is the co-founder, lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist, and main songwriter for the American heavy metal band Metallica, one the most popular metal bands of all time. In 2009, Hetfield was ranked at 8th place in Joel McIver's book The 100 Greatest Metal Guitarists, he ranked 24th place by Hit Parader's list of the 100 Greatest Metal Vocalists of All Time, and the Rolling Stone placed Hetfield as the 87th greatest guitarist of all time. Not too shabby we might add.
Metallica’s most successful album so far is their 1991 self-titled project “Metallica” which is also known as the Black Album. That album alone has sold 31 million copies worldwide. Metallica has released 24 singles, 10 studio albums, 3 live albums, 4 extended plays which have sold more than 125 million copies globally. Metallica has won 9 Grammys, and in April, 2009, Hetfield and his band members were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.