Best celebrity records of 2025: Dolly Parton, Taylor Swift and a lot of famous signatures
Lots of famous faces have added their names to the record books this year. Whether that’s been through earning ICON status, making a very special podcast appearance or simply by adding their signature to one man’s collection of autograph tattoos, let’s take a look back at the celebrities who’ve earned records this year…
Working nine to five (and beyond): Dolly Parton’s record-breaking career
2025 saw a new ICON inducted into the Guinness World Records family, and it is definitely a familiar face.
It’s none other than Dolly Parton!
This beloved country sweetheart has been breaking records for seven decades and is known for her amazing music, with songs such as “Jolene” (1988) and the more recent album A Holly Dolly Christmas (2020).
Dolly was born on 19 January 1946 in Tennessee, USA and began her singing career at the young age of 10. Her popularity has continued to rise over the years, and on Spotify, she had over 19 million monthly listeners this year!
With an incredibly recognizable voice rich in its silky country twang, breaking records has come naturally to Dolly, who holds 11.
To name just one of her record-breaking feats, on 10 March, Dolly broke the record for most decades with a Top 20 hit on the US Hot Country songs chart after topping the charts consistently for seven decades.
There is no doubt that Dolly is one of the most influential figures in this lifetime, and we thought we would finish this year with some words of wisdom from Dolly herself: “The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.”
As fast as lightning: the record-breaking run for Usain Bolt
Here’s another star who earned GWR ICON status in 2025.
Usain Bolt (Jamaica) is an athlete, music producer, writer and philanthropist, so he can really do it all, and he is no stranger to Guinness World Records.
He has eight Olympic gold medals and has many Guinness World Records titles to his name including of course the fastest run 100 metres (male) which he completed in just 9.58 seconds.
As we handed him his special golden certificate, we also took the opportunity to test his knowledge of 100-m events.
So far, we’ve had a world-famous country singer, and a super-fast athlete, but who is next on our list?
Find more stories about record-breaking celebrities in our Arts and Entertainment section.
Meet this Funky man and his celebrity signatures
Do you have any tattoos? Well, Funky Matas (USA) has at least 273 of them!
He has collected signatures from celebrities from all different backgrounds with a drive to promote diversity and love.
Over the years, he got tattoos of signatures belonging to many different celebrities, including some recognized in Guinness World Records history, like Usain Bolt, and the shortest woman Jyoti Amge (India).
On 13 August, Funky achieved his Guinness World Records title of most signatures tattooed on the body (male) with a total number of 273.
Taylor Swift becomes a podcaster
In August, seasoned record breaker Taylor Swift claimed a title no one saw her coming for.
After teaming up with NFL star Travis Kelce (then her boyfriend but soon to become her fiancé) and his brother Jason, she appeared on an episode of their podcast New Heights to announce her new album The Life of a Showgirl.
The episode pulled in 1.3 million viewers at once to earn the record for most concurrent views for a podcast on YouTube.
Adventures that broke records: the game character who made history
The last celebrity who had a record-breaking impact this year is the face of the popular video game Tomb Raider, that has been on our screens and consoles since 1996.
2025 saw Lara Croft recognized for two Guinness World Records titles - best-selling videogame heroine and most magazine covers for a videogame character with 2,300 of them.
The iconic cargo-short-wearing character has not only received her certificates but also made it on to the cover of Guinness World Records Gamer’s Edition 2026, which explores the gaming world and all the consoles and characters that make it what we love today.
Overall, we can see that 2025 has been filled with celebrity records that interest and inspire us, and we can’t wait to see what exciting things they get up to in 2026. Happy New Year!