Paul McCartney: The UK's first billionaire musician

Paul McCartney was confirmed as the first billionaire musician in the UK, with his net worth significantly increasing over the past year. In fact, he appears in the rich list published by the Sunday Times. He's not in the top charts but he's the first UK musician to become a billionaire.

In the Scrooge McDuck “rankings,” the singer, songwriter and bassist is between Russian businessman/manager Vladimir Makhlai and Chris Sheppard and his family, and is ranked as the 165th richest person.

His net worth is estimated at 1 billion pounds (over 1.5 billion euros), a figure that has grown significantly in the last 12 months.

Last year, the Sunday Times reports, the 81-year-old music icon increased his wealth by £50 million. He will have been helped in this by the 2023 tour and the profitable value of his long discography. Further help will come from the release of “Now And Then” – the Beatles' “final” song with all four members, released in November 2023.

Among the other musicians “registered” in the 2024 Rich List are Sir Elton Johnwho broke records for her headline appearance at Glastonbury last summer, the former Spice Girl Victoria Beckhampaired with her husband David and West End legend the author Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber (“Jesus Christ Superstar”, “Evita”, “Cats” and other musicals/films).

In the list of 40 Rich Under 40 There are Harry Styles And Adele, the first in 17th place, with a reported wealth of £175 million and the second in position 19 with £170 million. However the best placed musician in this short list is Ed Sheeranwho is now 33 and ranked 10th with assets of £340 million.

Gopichand Parmanand Hinduja – co-chairman of the Hinduja Group – and his family have once again been crowned the richest people in the UK, with their wealth reaching £37.2 billion. The figure marks the largest fortune ever recorded by the newspaper.

The list contains 250 individuals and families, whose combined wealth amounted to £795.3 billion, a sum larger than the Polish economy, according to the list's editors.

Negative result for Sir Richard Branson (owner of the Virgin brand) which saw its wealth decline between 2023 and 2024 to £2.4 billion, the same level as in 2000.