One Direction top Forbes’ list of highest paid European celebrities

PanARMENIAN.Net - One Direction are the highest paid European celebrities in 2016, even though they have spent the year on hiatus.

As a band, rather than four individual artists, have topped Forbes’ list, making $110 million over the last year.

Their On The Road Again tour and deals with brands like Pepsi and Colgate are behind the huge amount of money made in a year when they haven’t released a group album.

As NME reports citing the BBC, Ronaldo came second on the list with $88 million. Adele followed, making $81m between June 2015 and June 2016.

Other musicians on the list include The Rolling Stones ($66m), Calvin Harris ($63m), Sir Paul McCartney ($46.1m) and U2 ($55 45m).

Forbes worked out the rankings based on stats from Nielsen, Pollstar, Box Office Mojo, Songkick and IMDB, alongside interviews with industry insiders and some of the acts on the list themselves.

Earlier this month, former One Direction member Liam Payne told a fan that the group will “100%” be getting back together.The boyband announced their hiatus last year but rumours about whether it was actually a break-up have circulated all year, with the band’s former mentor and X Factor judge Simon Cowell telling Billboard: “I don’t know if it’s a hiatus or a break-up, to be honest.”

He added: “In a weird way, I don’t want to know. I don’t think they’ve had enough time to experience what it’s like not being in the group to really answer that.”

Now Liam Payne has stated his feelings towards the hiatus after taking part in a Twitter Q&A today (December 17).

A fan asked “will one direction ever get back together again?” and Payne replied, “I’m 100% certain that we will”.