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79. PATTI LABELLE

There was perhaps no greater tribute to Patti LaBelle?s influence than the 2001 cover of ?Lady Marmalade?, wherein Christina Aguilera, Lil? Kim, Mya, and Pink each lent their own distinctive vocal styles to the iconic tune. It?s a symbol of LaBelle?s wide-ranging influence, which extended far beyond her particular brand of soul.

Control is perhaps LaBelle?s greatest skill. That she?s able to instantly snap into high-octave belts and, even more impressively, sustain them for shocking periods is just one of her many powers. Conversely, her mid-range vocals are equally robust; she?s labeled a ?dramatic soprano? for her ability to slice through a trumpeting orchestra at the mid-range. But it?s her vocal eruptions that remain most memorable; she was raised Baptist, after all. She brings music to life. She gives it pumping blood and flapping wings.

A Patti LaBelle performance is like opera in that way: the words don?t matter as much as the weight and power behind them. To her, a song isn?t a message or, really, an emotional release. It?s a performance, a vocal spectacle. ?Randall Colburn

76. ALICIA KEYS

It might be that Alicia Keys? old-school class is what?s kept the magnitude of her successes on the down-low. Her voice has taken her to shimmering heights, copious Grammy wins, and smashed records. She?s one of the biggest blockbuster stars around. Schooled by Clive Davis, there?s something in the lineage of diva dynasty that reaches Keys. Announcing herself via ?Fallin? in 2001, the Hells Kitchen-born songwriter and piano maestro immediately communicated a cool-headed passion to the world. In that song, her voice carries the ebb and flow of a whirlwind romance, her fingers trace the steps of the story across the ivories of her piano, but her vocals are the essential accompaniment.

Neither the keys themselves, nor Alicia?s sweet, rousing tones ever out-perform one another. Instead, throughout her career, she?s employed each as two halves of a whole. Her gorgeous Prince cover ?How Come You Don?t Call Me? is a masterclass, juxtaposed with her spoken-word swaggering comments, which always serve to remind you just how young she was (just 20) when she sang with the experience of someone who knows that initial infatuation only leads to future heartache. In her lower registers, she?s smokey and sultry, but her head voice is so bright it shines a light through the dark. That?s especially true of her latest album. It?s her most honest, soul-searching, and political work to date, possessed of a gospel quality and an ageless melody. ?Eve Barlow

66. GLADYS KNIGHT

My generation rightly anoints and acknowledges Beyonc?, also known as Queen Bey, as R&B and pop royalty. I think most my age would also know that Aretha Franklin will forever be the Queen of Soul. But, sadly, I doubt many could tell you that Gladys Knight reigns as the Empress of that same genre. Regal monikers may be a bit silly, but they?re also a way for us to honor those performers who touch, console, and empower us. And if those truly are the criteria for vocal royalty, then Knight, with The Pips often at her side, proves as regal as any singer on this list.

?Just sing the song and say the words,? Knight once advised. It?s the type of advice ? useless to most of us ? that reveals her natural ability to inhabit a song. Whether belting out a refrain, delicately dancing around a verse, or matter-of-factly telling us how it is, never does her sincerity come into question. She becomes that woman willing to leave it all behind for the right man (?Midnight Train to Georgia?), that friend acting as a beacon during life?s tempests, (?Storms of Troubled Times?), or that trapped lover who can?t bear to hurt someone she still cares for (?Neither One of Us?). And it only takes one listen to keep-on-keepin?-on anthem ?I?ve Got To Use My Imagination? to understand that Knight was turning lemons into lemonade long before Beyonc? was born.

In a time when our president-elect regularly goes out of his way to devalue women, an emboldening voice like Knight?s remains as relevant and needed as ever. Long live the Empress of Soul. ?Matt Melis

54. CHRISTINA AGUILERA

Christina Aguilera possesses the kind of pop sensibility belters wish for. Where many of her contemporaries ? Pink, Britney Spears, etc. ? pack a star power that eclipses their vocal inconsistencies, Xtina was blessed with a voice that?s as robust as it is approachable. And she isn?t afraid to show it off. Aguilera is often criticized for ?oversinging? or allowing her runs to get out of hand, and while it?s true that she?s no master of technique, it?s hard not to be swept up in her hooks.

Aguilera, more than most other prestige vocalists, truly understands the appeal of a solid pop hook, and the multiple registers she can slip into make them that much more memorable. It?s a versatile thing, her voice, leaping nimbly between pop, jazz, blues, and gospel, not to mention mid-range coos and bright, piercing belts. All of this was notable from her earliest singles (?Genie in a Bottle?, ?What a Girl Wants?), and her career choices since have often been in service to her talent rather than to her status as a pop star. Her voice has shown signs of aging, however, which is why it?s probably a good thing that she?s found a home as a mentor on The Voice. She?s a teacher to be trusted. ?Randall Colburn

53. PRINCE

Biologists will tell you that the voice starts with the contractions of the diaphragm. Not so for Prince: His voice began much lower, with the rising and falling of the pelvis. The tools he used were different than most; many vocalists are improved with the use of filters or Auto-Tune, but by some acoustical trick, Prince sounded best when he was standing in front of a blowing fan, his gorgeous perm and copious chest hair waving in the breeze. In short, while many musicians on this list owe their placement to their natural gifts, Prince became a great singer by sheer force of personality.

Before his untimely death in The Great Rock Massacre of 2016, the artist formerly known as an unpronounceable symbol (the better to get out of a dispute with Warner Bros.) released a staggering 39 studio albums. Like the sex in his lyrics, Prince wrote songs because it gave him pleasure to do so. He didn?t care if his androgynous style left some questioning his masculinity, and he didn?t care if you made fun of his height. Prince reveled in the joys of a life uncensored; he was great because he was so uncompromisingly himself. ?Wren Graves

49. DONNA SUMMER



Dance and R&B music as we know it wouldn?t be the same without Donna Summer, who dominated the disco scene (and, later, the pop charts) in the 1970s on the strength of a powerful, elastic voice. After kicking off her solo career with the 1975 smash ?Love To Love You Baby? ? a funk-flecked slow jam during which Summer crooned in ecstasy ? she spent the next half-decade showing off an impressive vocal range that was both traditional and forward-gazing.

Certain hits found Summer taking singing cues from the 1960s (the Motown-influenced ?Back in Love Again?; the carefree-sounding ?I Remember Yesterday?) or contemporary soul music (the glittery ?Last Dance?). However, on disco smashes ?Hot Stuff?, ?Bad Girls?, and the wildly influential Giorgio Moroder collaboration ?I Feel Love? ? featuring her cascading, lilting vocal oohs ? Summer made the case that a voice could be manipulated and molded in tandem with dance beats or an electronic backdrop. Unlike many of her peers, she successfully transitioned into the 1980s, courtesy of hits such as ?She Works Hard for the Money?. Call it a case of music trends finally catching up to vocal genius. ?Annie Zaleski

44. MARY J. BLIGE



The Grammys are usually the broadcast equivalent of an Ambien, but every once in a while an artist rises above the lame-joking, overlong variety show mess and justifies our watching. ?No Drama?, a tale of overcoming alcohol, drug, and relationship abuse, isn?t Mary J. Blige?s very best song, and many fans of the ?Queen of Hip-Hop Soul? wouldn?t put it in their personal top 10. But her Grammy performance was so energetic, so full of pain and longing, that it instantly became an awards show classic.

Mary J. Blige is one of the most innovative and underrated pop stars of all time. In an era when women were expected to bare it all like Madonna, she performed in baseball caps and combat boots. As Ethan Brown of New York Magazine has pointed out, her duets with Method Man and Ghostface Killah set the trend for songbirds and rappers sharing tracks, a formula that still dominates the Top 40 today. But what stands out most from her three-decade career is her vocal style: passionate, potent, fire-breathing soul. ?Wren Graves

30. BEYONC?



Next year will mark the 20th year Beyonc? has been singing for the world. The voice we hear from her now ? husky yet energetic, irrepressible but impeccable ? has developed and deepened over the years, and it made itself known early. When vocal coach David Lee Brewer met Beyonc?, who was a mere eight years old, she ?let loose ? one of the most impressive sounds I?d ever heard from a child,? he wrote. ?Something about it grabbed me and wouldn?t let me go. The sound was molten gold, with a distinguished timbre.?

Clearly Beyonc? has never been much of a shrinking violet, but B?Day did mark a turning point for Queen Bey as a singer. ?Deja Vu?, ?Ring the Alarm?, ?Irreplaceable?: the album is teeming with tremendous vocal performances. She?d follow up with more incredible tracks like ?Halo?, ?Love on Top?, and ?Rocket?, which left Justin Timberlake and Timbaland gobsmacked in the studio. That?s why we think of Beyonc? the singer most often in terms of power and strength, especially when she hits every note during her kinetic live performances. But more overlooked is how Bey twists her voice in the most thrilling and expressive ways, like the verse she laid on the ?***Flawless? remix, where she took cues from her collaborator Nicki Minaj. Like her hypnotic monotone on ?Haunted?. Like the gloriously self-assured dismissals of ?Sorry? (?Suck on my balls, balls, I?ve had enough!?). And still ? Beyonc? never sounds like anyone but herself. ?Karen Gwee

19. MARIAH CAREY



Over a career that has lasted nearly three decades, Mariah Carey sits at the pinnacle of tremendous voices in pop music. Throughout the ?90s, she ruled the Billboard charts, hitting number one with 14 different singles over the course of the decade. Her booming voice, which stretches from a deep baritone up through multiple octaves, propelled her to be a defining star of the past 25 years. She may even be one of the last stars to turn an original Christmas song into an everlasting standard, no small feat. Though a sharp songwriter with an ear for the best hooks, it was her magnificent voice that had fans coming back time and time again.

For an example, look no further than this 1995 live clip of ?Always Be My Baby? in the midst of her world-conquering run. While it may not rely upon the pure powerhouse of huge ballads like ?Hero? or the Whitney duet ?When You Believe?, the classic encompasses all of her strengths: the gentle falsetto, the doo-wop melodies, the signature vocal runs, all leading to the booming showstopper. Here you?ll find everything that made Carey one of the most powerful vocalists of her generation. ?David Sackllah

08. AMY WINEHOUSE



What separates Amy Winehouse from the truly classic jazz singers ? your Billie Holidays, your Ella Fitzgeralds ? isn?t her talent, but rather her timing. The precocious Jewish girl from north London arrived decades after the greats had come and gone, leaving her to stand alone in a room while her huge, smoky voice sucked up all the atmosphere. Winehouse may have sung with that mixture of all-out emotion and total control that characterized the jazz greats, but she was also the most uniquely modern singer of her time, capable of hopping from ?60s girl-group sass to ?90s hip-hop cadences and arriving at something revelatory. Her rotten luck was to possess that kind of otherworldly talent at the same time the media went digital and lost all semblance of integrity. Perhaps she might have lived to make another Back to Black had we only listened to the first one closely enough. ?Collin Brennan

06. WHITNEY HOUSTON



It is a cosmic injustice that the woman who would eventually be nicknamed ?The Voice? was created in such a way that she could begin her career as a fashion model, but that was Whitney Houston: Aretha Franklin and a Covergirl rolled into one impossible package. According to a recent scientific study, she could hit notes that were a bajillion octaves apart. Her velvety lower registers, powerhouse middle notes, and piercing head voice were employed at will, bouncing from one end of the spectrum to the other with invariably perfect pitch. But it was Houston?s emotional depths, the way she could wail in longing and hurt (enhanced by her public pains: her abusive relationship with Bobby Brown and her lurid, drugs-and-drowning death), that made her a spokesperson for the downtrodden and a beloved figure worldwide.

Whitney Houston had two separate entries in the Guinness Book of World Records: First, for Most Simultaneous Hits (UK) and second, as the most awarded female artist of all time. That second record is obviously incredible, but the simultaneous hits are just as telling. Whitney Houston charted 12 singles in the weeks after her death, 30 years after she had begun her career and an ocean away from where she was born. Her passing was grieved everywhere that English is spoken and many places that it is not ? her music celebrated around the globe. ?Wren Graves

01. MICHAEL JACKSON



Have you ever watched Michael Jackson?s Moonwalker? Odds are if you were born between 1975 and 1985, the VHS tape sat somewhere next to your equally worn copies of Back to the Future, E.T., and Star Wars. Anyways, if you haven?t seen it, do yourself a favor and find it somewhere on YouTube as it?s worth a watch, if only for the captivating videos and the way it more or less bottles up the timeless magic and appeal of the King of Pop. The reason I?m bringing it up now is specifically for its opening segment, which captures Jackson singing ?Man in the Mirror? during his colossal Bad Tour across Europe. For a good three or four minutes, you can watch everyone lose their shit as he triumphantly lifts up their spirits with arguably one of the greatest songs ever. But look closer: It?s people of all nationalities, united and feeling it together.

That was ultimately the power of Michael Jackson; he had the ability of stopping everyone in their tracks, both in life and death. Some might credit this to his unprecedented dance moves, and they?d be right. Some might say it was his masterful production, and they?d be right. Some might point to the archive of hooks that fueled each of his songs, and they?d be right. And some might say it was his voice ? and they?d be right. He was the full package in a way we haven?t and probably never will see again ? the greatest performer who ever lived. So, yes, you could sit here and make cogent arguments for any of the multifaceted reasons behind his undying legend, but really it starts and ends with his voice. It?s his voice that connected the world together, and it?s his voice that never wavered as he slid into every kind of genre imaginable, from disco to rock to pop to hip-hop to R&B.

What?s more, it?s his voice that keeps on giving: Name any groundbreaking artist of the last 30 years and they?ll all point to him as a major influence, whether it?s his work fronting The Jackson Five, his salad days in Motown, or the decade and a half he turned his music into both a lifestyle and a brand ? doesn?t matter, it?s all in regular rotation. Even now, after all the dark and disturbing controversies that have surfaced over the last two decades, he remains an unstoppable, influential enigma. ?One of the first times I ever performed in front of a big group of people was at my kindergarten graduation,? Chance the Rapper, then 20 years old, told XXL. ?I did, like, a Michael Jackson impersonation as, like, a five-year-old. I had the suit and blazer, the glove and the fedora, and I just performed a whole Michael Jackson song. I?m sure it was ?Smooth Criminal?.? Shit?s off the wall. ?Michael Roffman

Full list
http://consequenceofsound.net/2016/11/the-100-greatest-singers-of-all-time/full-post/

[D.I.E.G.O.]

I really hate lists like this. They are always the fool. Amy over Mariah? Please. And if Whitney is 6...

[MAY]

 

[BAPHOMET.]

  @ Michael Jackson pipsqueak voice being #1

Mariah @ #19 and Amy being SO far above her. Get the fuck outta here 😭😭😭😭😂

[GMF]

Patti>>>>>>>>>>>>

[D.I.E.G.O.]

Billie over Ella?  White people are a iii

[BAPHOMET.]

  @ Axl Rose being #29 when he's a WAY better vocalist than most of the males on this list.

He's got more octaves than all the males.

[como la whore]

what a terrible list

[D.I.E.G.O.]

SCREAMING at James Brown in the top anywhere near 'retha. I cannot.

[KING BENTLEY.]

Alicia nullifies this list

[D.I.E.G.O.]

Alicia nullifies this list

And above Patti at that. What the heck?

[Marilyn]

Never heard of this source and this list is a joke.

[Kurama]

what's their twitter?

[D.I.E.G.O.]

Never heard of this source and this list is a joke.

COS is a really reputable music source, almost like Pitchfork. But this list is LATE

[Lazarus]

Never heard of this source and this list is a joke.

COS is a really reputable music source

!!