The only American female soul singer who can still top the charts is Mary J Blige. The British, however, pumps 'em out with regularity starting in the 80’s with Lisa Stansfield and haven’t let up since.
Meanwhile here in the States we have auto-tuned hip hop sex-peddlers instead. Erykah Badu, Faith Evans, Anita Baker, Sade? They can’t bribe their way into a top 40 hit these days.
If you got 'em, please link to them. For now I’ll mourn Amy Winehouse, groove to Adele, finger pop to Leona Lewis and take off my shoes with Joss Stone.
Perhaps it’s the second coming of the British Invasion. In the early 60’s, the Beatles et al. gave a close-to-the-bone interpretation of American blues/rhythm & blues at a time when most American pop artists were doing slicker, sometimes overproduced stuff that had gone far afield from its roots. I see an analogous situation with the British and American acts you’ve mentioned vis-a-vis soul music.
Yeah the auld Brit soul seems to be quite in vogue the last few years especially. Sharon Jones has a fantastic voice, I love her version of I just dropped in to see what condition my condition is in. Alicia Keys still does very well on the American front.