Madonna has become the Guinness World Record holder for being the highest paid female singer. She knocked the previous incumbent, Britney Spears, off the top spot after she earned around $50 million US dollars in 2004. Britney had held the record since 2001 after having taken home earnings of $38.5 million in 2000.
Other music stars making it into the Guinness World Records 2007 book include the likes of James Blunt, Arctic Monkeys and Simon Cowell - Blunt because he sold 2,368,000 copies of 'Back To Bedlam' (I make it sound as though he did it himself, on a market stall, in Dagenham), Arctic Monkeys because of their fastest selling UK debut album, Cowell because he's paid a disgraceful amount of money to sit around judging people.
Ricky Gervais is also in there, because his is the most downloaded podcast.