Wow! So many good singers listed that I like. After careful consideration... 1. Carol King, by a landslide 2. Carley Simon 3. (Tie) Nora Jones, Diana Krall, Nancy Griffith, Diana Washington, Gladys Knight, Patsy Cline, Karen Carpenter, Whitney Houston, Astrud Gilberto, Stevie Nicks, Aretha Franklin, Linda Ronstadt, Chely Wright, Gloria Estefan, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holliday. Wait! There's more!
I like 1) Demi Lovato 2) Can't think... ugh. I guess Rihanna is good 3) Ellie Goulding But yeah. Demi is the top spot! Oh... I see this is in UK Music. Are they supposed to be UK artists? Oh well. I think Ellie Goulding is English.
Off the top of my head: Stevie Nicks Gwen Stefani (in No Doubt) Beth Gibbons This performance is probably my favorite female vocalist performance ever...
This is Leigh Nash who is from Texas. As a singer myself, there's no doubt in my mind she really sings, just because she loves to sing. Other singers can do amazing things with their voices, but Leah sings because she can't imagine not singing and only got into the business, because at 13 a good friend of hers, who is the lead guitarist, started writing songs just for her to sing. Norah Jones is quite famous and, like Leigh Nash, is another Texas girl who doesn't take being a celebrity very seriously. She's the daughter of Ravi Shankar, but never met him until she was an adult. She spent a few years playing piano in bars in NYC for tips, just singing the same songs over and over and over again trying to get them just right. The idea her album of old standards from a century ago would top the charts was just absurd. Her voice is a unique southern mush-mouth that lends new touches to old standards. Dido is famous as well, and it is her accent again that makes her voice so unique. That's her accent, the way she normally talks, and I've never heard another singer with anything remotely like her voice.
She's got too much talent, and is more of a performer than a singer. Michael Jackson is similar, in that he could sing, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. That man choreographed all his dances and headlined in places like Vegas, where playing piano for tips is not happening on the main drag.
Dolly was really an entertainer too. Charo is another example just like her. She was ranked 3rd in the world for classical guitar, studying under Segovia himself, but made a living cracking jokes as much as anything else, because a bubble headed bleach blond she was not! Dolly was so good at business and entertaining people, she opened her own adult theme park. Many still say to this day that Billy Holiday was the greatest female singer of the last century. Despite having a severely limited range for a female singer, her intonation was impossible to imitate and she could give any song her own unique twist.