In honor of America’s 250th birthday, Forbes magazine is celebrating the 250 greatest living self-made Americans, and a lot of them are hugely successful singers.
The list was created from various sources, including Forbes’ Self-Made Score, a one-to-10 ranking that measures the obstacles overcome, impact and financial success.
Mariah Carey is #123 on the list because she “grew up in poverty,” and Katy Perry is in at #226, having come from “a religious family [who] relied on food banks to survive.”
Selena Gomez, #220, was “raised by a teenage mother who scrounged for quarters to pay for gas,” and has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
“Fast Car” singer Tracy Chapman is #151, having been “raised by a working-class single mother.”
Cher is #130 because she was “raised by a struggling, itinerant single mother” and dropped out of high school.
Jennifer Hudson is #106; she too was raised by a single mother. Jewel is #103 because, as most fans know, she grew up in a one-room cabin in Alaska and once lived in her van.
Others on the list include Pharrell Williams at #86, Eminem at #79, Stevie Wonder at #69, Barbra Streisand at #65, Bruce Springsteen at #60 and Oprah Winfrey at #1.
See the full list at Forbes.com.
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