According to news from a number of internet sources, Lady Gaga is the highest earning woman in music in the year 2011. Gaga is said to have earned herself a cool 90 million USD between May 2010 and May 2011. The controversial Alejandro singer has beaten industry veterans to secure the top spot, with her closest competitor Taylor Swift earning 45 million USD. 2011 has been a good year for Lady Gaga, her album Born This Way sold over one million copies in its first week in the United States; it debuted at the top of the Billboard 200 and topped the charts in more than 20 other countries. Critics praised the range of different styles that Gaga utilised in the album as well as her vocals, giving her overall positive reviews.

Her earnings were thoroughly boosted by her Monster Ball tour which ran from December 2009 and ended in May 2011. The worldwide tour raked in more than 227 million USD selling out venues from Auckland, New Zealand to Atlanta. She is also being paid handsomely to endorse products from Polaroid and Virgin Mobile. Gaga even has earphones named after her that are doing quite well on the international market.

According to Forbes.com, the tally calculated does not include proceeds from her double-platinum album Born This Way, which total up to 8 million copies and counting. She just might top the 2012 list again, amid stiff competition from Taylor Swift who is currently on a worldwide tour that ends in March. It is not only earnings that Lady Gaga walked away with, she won four awards out of six nominations in the main categories at the MTV Europe Music Awards 2011.