World's Most Powerful Black Celebrities 2007

Forbes magazine has released its annual list of the world's most powerful and best-paid celebrities. For the first time ever a special category was created for rappers on the Celebrity 100 list and Tiger Woods earned more money in a single year than other any athlete in history.

---

Hip-Hop Impresarios is a separate category from Musicians because Jay-Z, 50 Cent and Sean "Diddy" Combs earn most of their income from their business ventures.

To generate the list, Forbes analyzes celebrity earnings, plus media metrics like Google hits, press mentions as compiled by Lexis/Nexis, TV/radio mentions from Factiva and the number of times an A-lister appears on the cover of 32 major consumer magazines.

Earnings estimates are for June 2006 to June 2007 and consist of dollars earned solely from entertainment-related income. Management, agent and attorney fees were not been deducted.

There are 14 blacks on the list this year Celebrity 100 list.

• Oprah Winfrey is #1 with earnings of $260 million.
• Tiger Woods claims the #2 spot with earnings of $100 million, the most any athlete has ever made in a single year.
• Jay-Z is #9 with earnings of $83 million.
• Isaiah Washington with his Grey's Anatomy cast #12 with combine earnings of $33 million.
• Kobe Bryant is #23 earning $33 million.
• Shaquille O'Neal is #25 earning $32 million.
• Ronaldinho is #31 with earnings of $31 million.
• 50 Cent is #32 with earnings of $33 million.
• Michael Jordan is #35 with earnings of $31 million.
• Sean (Diddy) Combs #43 with earnings of $23 million.
• LeBron James #48 with earnings of $27 million.
• Will Smith #57 with earnings of $31 million.
• Tyra Banks #61 with earnings of $18 million.
• Serena Williams #69 with earnings of $14 million.

---