How Dolly Parton became worth US$650 million – did you know Miley Cyrus’ godmother still earns royalties from evergreen hits like 9 to 5 and Whitney Houston’s I Will Always Love You?
- She’s had Netflix shows, starred with Julia Roberts in Steel Magnolias and has built a network of Dollywood tourist attractions in Tennessee employing thousands
- She set up the Imagination Library to give books to young kids and injected a million dollars into supporting the development of the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine
Legendary country singer Dolly Parton might earn hundreds of thousands of dollars per show when she’s on tour – but that’s just the beginning of her riches. Thanks to her real estate investments and songwriting skills, the entertainer is worth an estimated US$650 million overall.
Dolly’s music: no “dumb blonde”
Parton is nothing like the name of her playfully stereotype-referencing debut single Dumb Blonde, as today she has several income streams. Within music, not only does she earn royalties off her own hits but also the numerous times her songs have been sung by other artists – including a whopping US$10 million earned in the 90s alone from Whitney Houston’s 1992 version of her tune I Will Always Love You.
Today she continues to earn about US$0.08 every time a track she wrote is played on radio and gets around US$2 per album sold. In 2017, Forbes estimated she was the sixth-highest paid woman in music at the time, with earnings of US$37 million.
Dolly the movie star
