Hey, Millionaire! Pop stars should be some of the wealthiest celebrities out there. After all,
"pop" is short for "popular music." But, if they are as popular as their title suggests,
then they should be selling out arenas often enough to retire before their 40th birthday.
But we all know popularity doesn't last forever. And neither does a pop star's huge bank account.
Even though everyone on earth knows their name, they can still lose it all. This is
our list of the dumbest pop stars who went broke! Be warned - some of the names on
this list will shock you - especially the person who took our number 1 spot!
7. Lady Gaga I told you some of the
names on this list would shock you. Lady Gaga has never filed for bankruptcy, but she was flat-broke
for a while. And it wasn't before she got famous, either. In 2009, when she was on the radio and MTV
pretty much 24/7, she only had a couple dollars in her bank account. That was the same time Bad
Romance had just been released, and she was busy touring her Monsters Ball show. In fact,
the tour was her biggest problem. She'd earned about $3 million in savings from her breakthrough
hit. But the world wasn't giving her anything she wanted just yet. She knew what she wanted
her tour show to look like, but nobody would give her the money to do it. She was sure that if she
could just do it the way she wanted, she'd get the attention of Arthur Fogel. In case you don't know,
he's the CEO of Live Nation Entertainment and one of the biggest music promoters in
the business. So, Gaga used every cent of her $3 million in savings to build her set for her tour,
so it looked just right. And it paid off - Fogel spotted Gaga on that tour, and he took her on as
one of his clients. He's part of the reason why she's still a superstar today. She might have been
penniless at the time, but she's worth about $150 million now. That gamble sure paid off for her.
6. Andy Gibb (from the Bee Gees) Andy Gibb was one of the biggest
sensations in the disco craze of the 1970s. The Bee Gees were all over the airwaves,
and it seemed they always had a song at the top of the charts. Andy Gibb was very young at the time.
He was just 19 when he debuted in America and became an international star. But he already had
a serious cocaine habit. Not only was it draining his bank account, but it was also weakening his
heart. The cocaine was guiding his career off the rails too. By the time disco started dying,
Andy's career was already over. He had been fired from a couple of jobs on TV and Broadway musicals
for showing up to work high on cocaine. It finally got the better of him - in 1987,
he had to file for bankruptcy. He'd drained his bank account to buy drugs and was now in debt. He
claimed he had a monthly income of just $8,000. But sadly, it wouldn't matter for much longer.
A few months later, he went to the hospital for severe chest pains. Just 3 days later, he
died - the cause of death was heart inflammation sparked by a virus. He probably would've survived
easily if he hadn't weakened his heart with all that cocaine. He was only 30 years old.
Can you hit subscribe faster than these pop stars could spend all the cash they
made on their last tour? That gives you about 5 seconds. 5... 4... 3... 2... 1! Now you're
guaranteed to know all about the future stars who will go broke too! But for now,
keep watching - you won't believe which pop star took our number 1 spot!
5. Dionne Warwick
The easiest way for a star to collect an unpayable amount of debt is to simply not pay their taxes.
That's exactly what happened to the legend, Dionne Warwick. Back in the day, her $5 million contract
with Warner Bros. was the biggest ever earned by a female singer to date. More recently, she's made a
bit of a comeback thanks to her hilarious Twitter account. But things weren't always going so well
for her. Back in 2013, it caught up to her, and she was forced to file for bankruptcy. She claimed
she owed a shocking $10 million in debt due to unpaid taxes! That's a lot of debt to climb back
from, especially when she claimed she only had $1,000 left in cash! But the bankruptcy filing
meant it was scrapped from the record. Lucky her. I guess even her "Walk on By" and "I Say a Little
Prayer" money couldn't cover that kind of debt. Amazingly, she had actually paid back the taxes
owed - the $10 million was all penalties and interest she'd gathered over the years.
4. Blue (all of them) How does every member of
the same band go broke? Easy - they can start a company that goes bankrupt and drags them all
down with it. That's what happened to the English boy band Blue. Their company, Blueworld Limited,
was started to manage their social media and other stuff like that. But the band would've
been much better off if they'd never started it in the first place. It went bankrupt in May 2013,
and just 4 months later, Duncan James became the first member of the band to officially
file for bankruptcy. His bandmates all joined him within the next 2 years. They were still
touring at the time! Duncan said it was a relief to file for bankruptcy because, before that,
he was so stressed about trying to stay on top of the debt. At least they all got to start again.
Which pop star is your favorite of all time? Did they go broke,
or did they hang onto their millions? Tell us in the comments! And keep watching to
find out which superstar is in our number 1 spot!
3. MC Hammer MC Hammer earned millions
thanks to his smash hit "U Can't Touch This." Obviously, that won't surprise anyone. Sing it in
a crowded room today, and everyone will still join in decades later. But it is surprising to learn he
went bankrupt soon after that song took the world by storm. How did he lose all that cash? Well,
he spent it. Shocking as it is to believe, MC Hammer still overspent while the millions were
rolling in. Rumor has it he was strutting through the city in his iconic pants, surrounded by a
90-person crew at the time. He also spent $90 million on a mansion and related tax payments,
and that was just the start of his luxury lifestyle. All that spending added up, and soon,
he was filing for bankruptcy. He owed $13 million at the time - and this was in the 90s. I guess
this story proves that it doesn't matter how much you earn - it's still possible to spend it all.
2. Shane Filan (from Westlife)
Westlife was about as big as a boy band gets, but Shane Filan was still forced to file for
bankruptcy in 2012. At the time, the band was still touring - they even played to a whopping
80,000 people for their farewell tour. But he was flat broke at the time. And, sadly,
it wasn't because he blew it all. He accidentally got mixed up in the bursting property bubble in
Ireland. He'd taken out loans with his brother to build a giant 90-house property development,
as well as a nursing home and supermarket. It was all looking good until the property market
totally collapsed. He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was $18 million
in debt as a result. Sadly, he even had to sell the $3.9 million house he'd designed himself to
try to stay afloat. He told the media at the time that he couldn't afford the $30 toy his
daughter wanted. That's pretty heartbreaking, but hopefully, he's gotten back on his feet by now.
1. Michael Jackson This will blow your mind,
but even the King of Pop was able to blow all his cash. Nobody knows exactly how much
he earned throughout his glittering career, but you can bet it was even more than you think. The
problem is - that lifestyle costs a shocking amount of cash. At the wrongful death trial,
after he passed away, it was revealed that he'd collected a mind-blowing amount of debt
over the years. According to experts, his interest payments were his biggest expense. That's pretty
shocking when you consider his Neverland ranch was costing $4.6 million per year to maintain.
People were also surprised to learn that his tours cost him so much that he sometimes wouldn't break
even on expenses - even though he was selling out arenas. He never officially filed for bankruptcy,
but maybe he should have. At the time of his death, he owed between 400 and $500 million! It
turns out even Michael Jackson doesn't earn enough to climb out of that kind of debt.