Dolly Parton

The queen of country music has racked up 10 Grammys and 25 no. 1 hits on Billboard’s Hot Country chart (the most for a female artist, per Billboard) throughout her seven-decade career, and now she’s sharing some of that magic with the next generation; Parton, 77, has collaborated with younger artists including Kelsea Ballerini, given advice to Gabby Barrett, and voiced her pride in her goddaughter Miley Cyrus.

“I’m kind of addicted to the feeling of giving,” Parton told PEOPLE in December 2021 for the People of the Year issue. “Knowing that I’m doing something good for someone else.”

Beyond the music world, the legendary singer-songwriter is incredibly philanthropic. In 2020, Parton donated $1 million to Vanderbilt University in Nashville, which helped fund research that led to the Moderna COVID vaccine, and raised over $700,000 for flood victims in her native Tennessee last year. Her long-running Imagination Library project has also donated over 165 million books to children around the globe since 1995.