Most popular Country music artists

Since the release of his debut album Who Needs Pictures in 1999, Brad Paisley has released nine studio albums and a Christmas compilation. Paisley is 44 and from Glen Dale, in West Virginia. His music has been met with great success, his songs popular for being frequently laced with humour and pop culture references. He has sold over 12 million albums and been awarded three Grammy Awards as well as 14 Academy of Country Music Awards, 14 Country Music Association Awards and two American Music Awards. He has even been attributed country music’s highest achievement of becoming a member of the Grand Ole Opry. He still tours and records music with the backing of his band, The Drama Kings.

9. Blake Shelton – million

38 year-old Blake Shelton from Oklahoma is the only country connoisseur of the judges on the panel of The Voice. Working on the show has largely contributed to his making this list as a country top-earner, along with his live concerts, record sales, and endorsements from companies such as Pizza Hut. He has been under the public eye since 2001, when he made his debut with the single ‘Austin’. The track spent five weeks at Number One on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. He has also been nominated for a Grammy award five times.

8. Tim McGraw – $23.5 million

47 year-old country singer Tim McGraw‘s total album sales exceeds 40 million. Since he started out as a country singer in 1990, McGraw has known great success, with 11 consecutive albums hitting Number One on the albums charts. An impressive twenty-five of his singles have also reached number one on the Billboard Hot Country Songs or Country Airplay charts. Winner of three Grammys, 14 Academy of Country Music awards and 11 Country Music Association (CMA) awards, his talents have been greatly appreciated, and his Soul2Soul II Tour with wife Faith Hill is the highest ever grossing tour in country music history, and one of the top 5 cross-genre. Over the past decade, he has also become involved in acting, his most recent appearance was alongside Gwyneth Paltrow in Country Song which was released in 2010.

7. George Strait – $26 million

Labelled a neotraditionalist country singer, George Strait looks to the roots of country music for his inspiration and away from the country rock that many of his contemporary country musicians promote. At the age of 62, Strait has decided to retire from his career but he went out with a bang: his last show was held in June at Arlington’s AT&T Stadium and attracted a record 104, 793 fans and grossed over million, topping records for a single-show country concert. Overall, his Cowboy Rides Away Tour grossed $100 million, with approimately 1 million tickets sold.

6. Keith Urban – $28 million

The only non-American on our list is Keith Urban, the crooner born in New Zealand and brought up in Australia. The huge success of his album Fuse released last year has rocketed him onto this list, alongside his numerous live shows, and a multimillion-dollar deal to act as one of the hosts for American Idol. The 46 year-old not only masters the guitar and singing, but also the banjo, piano, bass guitar, mandolin, bouzouki and sitar.

5. Luke Bryan – $34 million

Luke Bryan‘s success has soared this year following the release of Crash My Party last August. The double-platinum album is still selling well: half a million copies were sold in the first half of 2014 alone which is the seventh-best figure for an album in any genre. Currently aged 38, he has been writing his country pop since 2004. Bryan has known great popularity and was the recipient of the Academy of Country Music Awards’ Entertainer of the Year award in 2013.