Also of note, she doesn’t dance. In her videos, she always has someone else dancing to her singing, because she wants her part of the work to be all about her voice.
Rachel Price is another favorite of mine. She’s best known as the lead singer for Lake Street Dive. Here she is singing What I’m Doing Here: https://youtu.be/lcUeothSPyc?si=alhNPIJj2KF4XN4z
Yes, that Mike Patton…
versatile is right:
I guess I should have posted some of Amy’s music upthread, to make this easier. Never mind, I’ll do it now.
j
I’m a big fan of Regina Spektor. And she’s someone who has been ripped off a LOT.
A few people have mentioned Sia. Great! Gives me another chance to play this song.
Alice Smith is another terrific singer lots of people may not have heard:
I’ve always loved that song!
Me too carrps! I always sing along.
I once stumbled across a YouTube channel, where the host found and played vocal-only tracks from several pop stars; that is, just their voices, with no enhancement or instrumentals added. I remember that Taylor Swift didn’t have a particularly powerful voice (which is not to say that she makes bad music), but the one who blew me away was the avatar of pop princess: Ariana Grande. That young woman can sing.
As others have mentioned, Adele, David Draiman of Disturbed (like @tofor, I’m not a fan of metal; but he kills his cover of “The Sound of Silence”), Miley Cyrus, Lady Gaga. Rhiannon Giddens, definitely.
I had never been a fan of the Spice Girls, thinking of them as anodyne pop, with no great musical talent. But then I heard Melanie Chisholm - Mel C., “Sporty Spice” - singing Mary Magdalen in a 2010 production of Jesus Christ, Superstar. Yeah, I was wrong - they had at least one amazing singer:
https://www.youtu.be.com/watch?v=lw5HdK8_p6w&1
A couple that haven’t been mentioned: Amy Lee of Evanescence and Sarah Bareilles. Also, slightly more obscure, a Faroese singer named Eivør Pálsdóttir. Popular in Scandinavia, but not much known in the Anglosphere, even though she can and does sing in English as well as Faroese.
Yep. I mean unless it is a case of being related to someone, like Frank Sinatra jr, but even he was a decent singer.
I like Taylor Swift, but I am not a swifty. I think she has great talent.
I’ll add Maynard James Keenan of Tool, A Perfect Circle, and Puscifer. A great great voice and lyricist.
The article notes her “her unique sound – a mix of pop, R&B, blues, rock and soul.” Autotuning is to my knowledge a minority tool, with singers from all those genres and more using their voices just like singers always have. There are literally thousands like Ponder, some of whom are receiving recognition and many who are still waiting for a break.
Hear her at https://danielleponder.com/.
I see a metric ton of impressive singers on ye olde Youtube who are doing remarkable covers, often with minimal (okay, visible or detectable to -me-) augmentation. I would agree that a lot of top 40s radio pop feels overproduced to me, but as far as I can tell, that’s always been a thing since modern enhancement, blending, and mastering was a thing.
Sure they can do MORE now, but how many “Making of _________'s greatest album” specials talk about all the takes, all the sound mixing, enhancement or softening of the singer / background / etc took place? Same thing, different methods. So, a tiny hint of unfair judgement, which, credit to @FairyChatMom, they fully acknowledge. I do the same when I miss the… hmmm… flair? of the 80s/90s music I grew up with in modern pop music.
Then I realize that I’m definitely listening to some songs at least based on rose-colored earbuds as it were - I love some of the music based on what it makes me remember and how it made/makes me feel rather than some impartial evaluation of the skill of the vocalists involved.
I think there are great singers all over the place. Some are ones who haven’t quite made it yet. For instance, have you listened on YouTube to Allie Sherlock, who sings on the streets of Dublin? Perhaps she has almost made it, since she’s just 18 and has appeared once on Ellen Degeneres’s show. And to cite the example that I’ve undoubtedly mentioned so many times on the SDMB that you’re all bored with it, there’s Eva Cassidy, who is now reasonably well known, although she didn’t make it until after she died. I think she’s the greatest singer who ever lived.
I heard Chloe sing the National Anthem at the World Series last fall. Don’t know about how it manifests itself (or whether it does) in her recorded work, but I was very impressed at the quality of her voice and her obvious musicianship.
She’s an even better songwriter than singer, but Lana Del Rey is fantastic. Distinctive voice with a range from contralto to mezzo-sorprano.
She’s basically created a new genre of music (blues & alternative rock) so not everyone likes her stuff right away. I’m hooked.
Another one who hasn’t been mentioned is Mandy Patinkin. Beautiful, beautiful warm tenor voice. Could listen to it all day long.
@Ulf_the_Unwashed, Mandy Patinkin is great! I saw him live in 2004 and was very impressed.
No Josh Groban fans on this thread? I first heard him on “We Are the World for Haiti”. The recording starts off with Justin Bieber, Nicole Scherzinger, Jennifer Nettles, and my reaction was “meh”–and then Groban comes in, with a voice that made me sit up and take notice. Since then I’ve heard him live, and he blew me away.
“Anthem”, from Chess: https://youtu.be/61DiWi00d2w?list=PLFEE0785B716E0085
“Bring Him Home” from Les Mis https://youtu.be/fXnRf3TQcpk?list=PLFEE0785B716E0085
“River” https://youtu.be/-uoKsEqFppo
And seconding @Dorjan on Lea Salonga, another singer I’ve been lucky to hear live.
Puddles Pity Party
