You know, I was going to say that, or PJ Harvey.
It just depends on the genre. There are plenty of male singers that do so in their own particular way, just not in the typical R&B style. Male R&B singers I hear just as often also.
David Lee Roth
Ian Anderson
Bruce Dickinson
Robert Plant
Axl Rose
That was horrifying. I’ve heard how popular Rebecca St. James is, but that was the first time I’d actually heard her. Color me unimpressed. She just seemed extremely off-key, and I honestly couldn’t listen to it long enough to see if she does what I was talking about in my OP.
That said, lissener cited Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan as an example of a male singer doing the thing I was talking about in the OP, but I’m afraid that, being utterly unfamiliar with both that particular musical genre and whatever language it’s being sung in, I could not distinguish where or even if he was actually doing what I’m talking about.
I am a big fan of Japanese pop/rock, though, and while I don’t understand the language I’m familiar enough with the sound of the language that I can usually tell when the singer is singing words and when she is just singing sounds.
All that said, there still seems to be some confusion. I know what melisma is, and what it is is not what I was asking about. Unfortunately, I don’t know how to explain it any better than I already have.