Lady Gaga had a great 2010 selling-out tours, dominating search engines and duetting with Beyonce...
But she also spread the wealth - to consumer magazine publishers.
A study carried out by Women’s Wear Daily found what the spectacular-dressing pop star was last year’s most popular cover girl in the US.
American beauties: When Lady Gaga appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone it sold more than three times the monthly average. Blake Lively's Vogue issue was the second worst-selling of 2011
Lady Gaga's July 8 Rolling Stone cover - showing the singer preserving her dignity with a bondage bikini and a couple of huge guns - was the best-selling issue of the year. It sold 250,000 copies, more than three times the magazine's monthly average.
Cosmopolitan’s April cover, where the pop star was wearing only a little more, was also their best-selling issue of the 2010.
In September, a picture of Gaga fronted Vanity Fair's second biggest-seller of the year (behind famously-private Angelina Jolie), and her January Elle cover also ranked in the magazine's top three.
While the Poker Face singer’s popularity will surprise no one. The names of those who sold the least copies might raise some eyebrows.
Cover girl dynamite and poison: Lady Gaga's eccentric style has attracted an army of devoted fans, while Blake Lively's supporters may be too young to splash out on glossy fashion magazines
Gossip Girl’s beautiful Blake Lively was on the cover of the second worst–selling issue of US Vogue in June. Her Esquire cover was the year’s worst-seller.
Despite Anna Wintour’s obvious love for Lively - this was the TV personality's second cover in 16 months – perhaps her audience is too young to splash out on glossy fashion magazines.
Or maybe the star is just magazine Marmite. She graced the cover of Allure’s highest-selling 2010 issue.
Other stars with varying popularity include Anne Hathaway, whose November Vogue cover was the lowest-selling and March In Style issue was the second most popular.
Not such swift shifters: Country singer Taylor Swift and Hollywood actress Anne Hathaway fronted Elle and Vogue's poorest-selling editions of the year
Taylor Swift's popularity was less variable, she proved to be publishing poison.
The country singer's Elle cover in April was the worst-selling issue of the year. Her November Glamour cover was the second-worst.
Not that Swift will mind though. Last year saw the country singer’s third album debut at number one on the US Billboard 200. She also started dating one of Hollywood’s hottest starts, Jake Gyllenhaal.
Varying figures could just be down to a star’s popularity with a certain magazine’s target audience, or a range of other factors including whether a star is usually secretive or whether they have recently had a scandal.
Sex sells: Provocative headlines could have helped shift Lady Gaga's best-selling Cosmopolitan. While famously demure Swift always appears much more covered-up
An issue’s popularity also, clearly, depends on the other stories in the magazine.
When Lady Gaga fronted Cosmopolitan she shared credit for the issue's popularity with a front page headline promising: ‘The sex article we can’t describe here!’
Bauer and Conde Nast would not disclose their UK sales figures. But they must have heard about the Golden Gaga effect and are not putting it down to coincidence.
The eccentric singer is rumoured to be booked for the March issue of US Vogue.
