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    h-town top earners

    4 Houston celebrities land on rich list of world's highest-paid entertainers

    Steven Devadanam
    Jul 16, 2019 | 3:05 pm
    Beyonce and JayZ Texas tour
    Beyoncé actually tied with her husband Jay-Z on the list.
    Photo courtesy of Live Nation

    Houston has been landing on so many best-of lists of late that it’s starting to become commonplace. One recent report of Houston bragging rights comes courtesy of Forbes, which has released its annual ranking of top-grossing worldwide entertainers for 2019 and finds four celebs who either live in or are from Houston on the list.

    Here are the lucky and loaded four who are the sole Texans on the Forbes Celebrity 100.

    Beyoncé
    Queen Bey actually ties with her hubby, Jay-Z, at No. 20 — Forbes estimates she earned a cool $81 million. Beyoncé’s and Jay-Z’s On the Run tour was a cash cow, earning $5 million a night for a total of more than $250 million. In April, Beyoncé launched a partnership with Adidas to relaunch her activewear line, Ivy Park—meaning even more green for the Ivy queen.

    Travis Scott
    The H-Town rapper and unabashed Astrodome fanboy comes in at No. 39, with $58 million in earnings. Scott’s Astroworld debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 100 chart, and his Astroworld: Wish You Were Here supporting tour (which boasted a Ferris wheel and working roller coaster) grossed more than $65 million. Scott is known for spreading the love; he donated merchandise profits from his Hangout Music Festival to Planned Parenthood.

    Russell Westbrook
    Soon-to-be Newstonian Westbrook, who was just traded to the Houston Rockets, scores at No. 52, with total earnings of $53.7 million. In 2017, Westbrook signed a five-year extension with the Oklahoma Thunder worth $205 million, the league's biggest-ever contract in terms of total value. Westbrook, who is gritty on the court and flashy off of it, is well known for his interest in fashion; his Honor the Gift clothing line benefits Los Angeles' Inner-City Arts charity.

    James Harden
    Houston’s reigning NBA superstar and fearless beard comes in at No. 64, with a total of $47.7 million in earnings. In 2017, Harden signed a four-year extension worth $171 million; it runs through 2022-23 and will pay $47 million in its final year.

    Adidas made Harden one of the faces of its NBA campaign after signing him to a 13-year deal in 2015 that can be worth as much as $200 million. He partnered with Amazon to share his workout products, which include endorsement partners like Adidas and BodyArmor.

    Honorable mention: Chris Paul
    Interestingly, Paul, who was just traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder for Westbrook, comes in at No. 72, with a total of $43.8 million in earnings. Let the records show that it pays to play for the Houston Rockets.

    To calculate the big winners, the Forbes global Celebrity 100 ranks "front-of-the-camera" stars around the globe using their pretax earnings from June 1, 2018 through June 1, 2019. (That’s, of course, before deducting fees for managers, lawyers, and agents. It all goes so fast — just ask CultureMap food editor Eric Sandler.)

    Forbes figures are based on numbers from Nielsen Music, Pollstar, IMDB, NPD BookScan, and ComScore, and also interviews with industry experts and many of the stars themselves.

    So who’s the No. 1 grossing entertainer of 2019? That honor goes to Taylor Swift; Tay-Tay raked in a whopping $185 million in earnings.

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    hottest headlines of 2025

    Houston's richest residents, best suburbs, and more top city news in 2025

    Amber Heckler
    Dec 22, 2025 | 3:45 pm
    Museum of Fine Arts, Houston gala 2025
    Photo by Wilson Parish
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    Editor’s note: As 2025 comes to a close, we're looking back at the stories that defined Houston this year. In our City Life section, readers will notice several of our local universities earned high praise from prestigious global and national publications. Houston's sprawling suburbs continued to skyrocket in popularity for their livability and safety, and no top-10 list is complete without mentioning the city's wealthiest residents. Read on for the top 10 Houston City Life stories of 2025.

    1. 2 Houston universities named among world’s best in 2026 rankings. These two high-performing local institutions – Rice University and University of Houston – are in a class of their own, according to the QS World University Rankings 2026. QS (Quacquarelli Symonds) compiles the prestigious list each year; the 2026 edition includes more than 1,500 universities from around the world.

    2. Richard Kinder is Houston's richest billionaire in 2025, Forbes says. The Kinder Morgan chairman is the 11th richest Texas resident right now, and ranks as the 108th richest American. Kinder also dethroned Tilman Fertitta to claim the title as the wealthiest Houstonian.

    3. 2 Houston neighbors shine as top-10 best places to live in the U.S. Pearland and League City, respectively, claimed No. 3 and No. 6 in U.S. News & World Report's annual "Best Places to Live in the U.S." rankings. The 2025-2026 rankings examined 250 U.S. cities based on five livability indexes: Quality of life, value, desirability, job market, and net migration.

    4. 5 Houston suburbs deemed best places to retire in 2026 by U.S. News. The Woodlands and Spring should be on the lookout for an influx of retirees next year, U.S. News predicts. Three more Houston-area neighbors also ranked among the top 25 best places to retire in America.

    5. Activist group calls out Houston highway as a 'freeway without a future'. A May 2025 report from Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) included Houston's Interstate 45 expansion on its list of highways with infrastructure that is "nearing the end of its functional life." CNU claims further expansion of Houston's highway system could eventually lead to the loss of the city's bayous, while also diminishing the remaining flood-absorbing land.

    6. 10 things to know about America's first Ismaili Center opening in Houston. After nearly 20 years in the making, the long-awaited Ismaili Center, Houston finally opened its doors to the public. The 11-acre site was painstakingly designed and constructed to offer indoor and outdoor public spaces for all Houstonians to enjoy, connect, and engage.

    7. Houston billionaire Tilman Fertitta asking $192 million for superyacht. Fertitta, who owns the Houston Rockets and restaurant and hospitality conglomerate Landry's, decided to sell his 252-foot yacht, named Boardwalk, to make room for an even larger superyacht he is expected to receive in April 2026. Among numerous luxurious amenities, Boardwalk also features a helipad.

    8. 2 Houston neighbors rank among America's safest suburbs in 2025. Spring came in at No. 19 and West University Place followed at No. 21 in SmartAsset's August 2025 study, which is the first time the two Houston suburbs have made it into the top 25.

    9. Houston is one of America's most overpriced cities, study finds. This likely isn't a surprise to some Houstonians. The study, conducted by Highland Cabinetry, said Houston "struggles with heavy pollution and underwhelming income levels."

    10. 9 Houston universities make U.S. News' 2025 list of top grad schools. Among the newcomers this year are Houston Christian University and Texas Southern University. HCU's graduate education school ranks No. 21 in Texas, and TSU has the 10th best law school in the state.

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