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She's conquered Facebook and Twitter, and now Lady Gaga is claiming another distinction: the most powerful person in the entertainment business this year.
Forbes has released its annual "Celebrity 100" list, which honors the 25-year-old meat-dress-wearing singer with its top spot, knocking Oprah Winfrey from the No.1 position. Winfrey, 57, whose long-running TV talk show is going out with a star-studded bang next week, has been ranked No. 1 four times over the past seven years.
Gaga, made it to first place this year due to the $90 million she earned with her tours, plus the fact that she has 32 million Facebook fans and 10 million Twitter followers who digitally downloaded 1 million copies of her recent single Born This Way in just five days.
Forbes calculates its list by looking at the earnings of film and television actors, TV personalities, models, athletes, authors, musicians and comedians between May 1, 2010, and May 1, 2011, combined with media visibility by exposure in print, television, radio and online. The magazine also measures social media power by looking at each celeb's presence on Facebook and Twitter.
Though Winfrey lost the "Celebrity 100" crown, fans shouldn't shed tears for Oprah, who $290 million last year and still nabbed the No. 2 spot on the list.
Coming in third is teen phenom Justin Bieber, who, at just 17 years old, earned $53 million during the year from concerts, music sales and a 3-D documentary movie.
Rounding out the top 10 are the band U2 in fourth place, followed by Elton John, Tiger Woods, Taylor Swift, Bon Jovi, Simon Cowell and Lebron James.
Perhaps surprisingly, Woods remains on the list despite his high-profile problems. He earned $75 million last year, and still demands $3 million a pop for overseas appearances -- plus he rakes in the cash from sponsors such as Nike and Electronic Arts.
One notable celeb who had to wave bye-bye to the list this year is Britney Spears, who ranked sixth in 2010. But since she didn't tour last year, her 2010 earnings weren't enough to secure her a top 100 spot. Don't hold it against her.
