Nick Cannon attends McDonald’s At Made In America Festival on September 1, 2018 in Philadelphia.
Kris Connor/Getty Images for McDonald’s
Having just one child is hard enough, but being a parent to a half dozen or more? On top of a globally successful music career? Very few people in the world know what that’s really like, but among some of the world’s music stars walk a handful of parents who are mom or dad to more children than can fit in a minivan.
And just like any other person, musicians have all different types of parenting journeys and styles. There are artists who end up raising a full troupe of youngsters who end up following in their musical footsteps — looking at you, Cyrus family — and there are some big names whose kids go on to lead completely private lives. Some musicians show off their families from the jump, while others keep the identities of their kids and their kids’ parents private.
What unites everyone on this list, though, from Madonna and her six children to Nick Cannon‘s 12, is that they’re Mom or Dad first, world-famous music stars second in the eyes of their kids. Like Taylor Hanson once told People, “The job of being a dad is to sacrifice everything you want for that kid. I may be in the middle of meeting some famous musician, but, sorry, I’ve got to call my daughter and talk to her about her day.”
Excluding those whose families are more on the private side, keep reading to see which artists are parents to six, seven, eight or even more kids below: