50 Things That Made The Modern Economy With Tim Harford

Who's the best-paid solo singer in the world?

In 2015, according to Forbes, it was probably...

...on. He reportedly made $100 million.

You too made twice as much as that apparently, but there are four of them.

There's only one, Elton John.

If we'd asked that question two hundred and fifteen years ago,

the answer would have been Mrs. Billington.

Elizabeth Billington was, some say, the greatest English soprano who ever lived.

So Joshua Reynolds, the first president of the Royal Academy of Arts,

once painted Mrs. Billington.

He depicted her standing with a book of music in her hands

and her curls partly pinned up and partly floating free,

listening to a choir of angels singing.

The composer, Joseph Heiden, thought the portrait was an injustice.

The angels, said Heiden, should have been listening to Mrs. Billington singing.

Elizabeth Billington was also something of a sensation off the stage.

A scarlet biography of her sold out in less than a day.

The book contained what were purportedly copies of intimate letters about her famous lovers,

including, they say, the Prince of Wales.

In a more dignified celebration of her fame,

when she recovered from a six week long illness on her Italian tour,

...