Dolly Parton receives $100 million award from Jeff Bezos: 'I will do my best to do good things with this money'
Singer-songwriter Dolly Parton is the latest celebrity to receive a $100 million gift from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, to be used for charitable purposes. Parton is seen here at the recent Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony in Los Angeles.
Dolly Parton just received the Bezos Courage and Civility Award, which comes with $100 million from Jeff Bezos for her to give away. Jeff Bezos announced he is donating $100 million to singer and philanthropist Dolly Parton for her to give away to the charitable groups she chooses.
Beyond her support for the Black and LGBTQ+ communities, plus generous donations to the Barbara Davis Center for Childhood Diabetes, Save the Music Foundation, the Boot Campaign and more, see below for a timeline of the country star's biggest philanthropic efforts.
Dolly Parton has received a $100m (around £84.5m) award from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. The money was given as part of Bezos' annual Courage and Civility Award, which Parton is expected to give to charities of her choice.
Bezos chose Parton this year because “she gives with her heart,” he explained in a video posted to his Twitter account. “What she's done for kids, and literacy, and so many other things, is just incredible,” he added.
Dolly Parton was awarded a $100 million prize as part of the Bezos Courage and Civility award Saturday by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his longtime partner, Lauren Sanchez.
She's not a billionaire — there's just one of those who made her living in song or on stage — but she is country music's wealthiest woman, however, and it's not even close.
Dolly Rebecca Parton was born into a large family, the fourth of twelve children, on January 19, 1946, in Locust Ridge, Tennessee. She came from deep in Appalachia, where music was an integral part of life for those who, like the Partons, struggled to make a hard living.
Taylor Swift is ranked no. 34 on the list with her global fame and success in the music industry - her net worth is $750 million. Country music star Dolly Parton also made the list at no.59 with a net worth of $440 million.
In addition to her own foundation, Parton has contributed funds to a number of charitable organizations outside the Dollywood umbrella, including the Barbara Davis Center for Childhood Diabetes, Save the Music Foundation and the Boot Campaign, an organization that donates proceeds to military veterans who are dealing ...
Parton has released 52 studio albums and achieved 26 No. 1 hits on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart. She has also lent her songwriting talents to other artists, such as Whitney Houston's megahit "I Will Always Love You." In a 2021 profile of Parton, Forbes estimated the value of her song catalog to be $150 million.
Dolly Parton's tattoos have been a topic of conversation for decades. Though the country music legend hasn't offered a glimpse of her collection, she's shared little details about them over the years. Her body art includes butterflies, ribbons, bows, a beehive, and more, all tattooed in pastel ink.
Dolly Parton's gloves may be hiding some scars.
"I have a tendency to have keloid scar tissue, and I have a tendency where, if I have any kind of scars anywhere, then they kind of have a purple tinge that I can never get rid of," Dolly said.
As the songwriter, Dolly Parton is the copyright owner of the lyrics and musical composition. But her original sound recording of the song, sometimes referred to in the music industry as a “master,” is a separate work that receives its own copyright protection.
“I didn't have children because I believed that God didn't mean for me to have kids so everybody's kids could be mine, so I could do things like Imagination Library because if I hadn't had the freedom to work, I wouldn't have done all the things I've done,” Parton said on Today.
Her parents paid for her birth with a sack of oatmeal.
Aside from being two of the most successful singers in the music industry, they also share a familial connection: Parton is Cyrus' godmother.
“It just crushed me and it crushed my mum too, just losing a child.” Dolly was just nine years old when the baby died, and fought back tears as she gave the interview.
In 1966, Dolly married Carl Dean. He is a retired asphalt road-paving businessman, who prefers to stay out of the limelight. While Dolly does not use Dean's surname professionally, she has said that her passport says 'Dolly Parton Dean'.
How much does Dolly Parton make in royalties? Dolly Parton has a library of over 3,000 song credits to her name. As a result, it is estimated she makes between $6 million and $8 million in royalty payments each year. As you can see, it pays to be smart!
In the 1990s, Parton made a whopping $10 million in royalties when Houston recorded a version of 'I Will Always Love You' for The Bodyguard.
Parton's image as a dynamic pop-culture icon goes beyond that of a popular music star--she is known as a country music star with deep roots in the early Nashville country music scene, as an actress in Hollywood films, as a business woman with a theme park to her credit, and as a female giving voice to the experiences ...