Best Female Singing Voice

[RichardW]

Glad to see the early shout-outs to Annie Haslam. She lives in one of the suburban Philadelphia counties near me and I saw her perform with Renaissance a few years ago. It was a little sad, as she no longer has the range or power of her 70s prime. But then, who does?

Any votes for Maddy Prior?

 

[MaidenVT]

Depends on the genre but the best would have to be Barbra Streisand

 

[mindwell]

Mary Margaret O'Hara.

 

[zubrycky]

Yma Sumac. Her range and musicianship is still unmatched.

 

[azureblue]

Leigh Harris, aka New Orleans' "Little Queenie"
Leigh Harris
The songs she is known by My Darlin New Orleans

Doing a Gospel version of a song she wrote _ Gumbo Heaven

Her scatting at 319 BPM - Cloudburst

The there for Mardi Gras If Ever I cease to Love

And raw rock - Down Home Girl

 

[zubrycky]

Clara Nunes.

 

[jim nolte]

There is no “ best” my personal favorites, Elizabeth Fraser “ Cocteau Twins”, Lisa Perry “ Dead Can Dance”, Harriet Wheeler, “ The Sunday’s”, voices from the celestial realms.

 

[zubrycky]

Teresa Salgueiro.

More of her celestial voice.

 

[Brad Easley]

11 pages and no mention of Rachel Price?! Com'on now! I can listen to this one 1,000 times and still get goosebumps.

 

[zubrycky]

Inhana.

 

[Funky Ghost]

It's completely subjective so my answer is, it depends on my mood.

Karen Carpenter - 70's through and through.

Vann Johnson - Power, vocal agility and stunning sustain. She was a vocal athlete.
Bonnie Raitt - One of my favorites of all time.
Grace Potter - She's a crazy mix of sultry vixen, smokey barroom crooner and blues woman

Delores O'Riordan - The Irish gals I love most all have a quality to their voice that's nearly impossible to define and equally impossible to ignore
Sinead O'Connor
Sinead Lohan
Enya

Sade
Chaka Khan
Toni Braxton

Martina McBride - I saw her in concert. Better live than her already crazy voice would have you believe.
Allison Krauss - Crystalline. Voice of an angel.

 

[zubrycky]

Jex Thoth.

 

[Hurricane Jimmie]

So Anyway, when I was getting started in music, she was every young man's dream....mine anyway.
Plus she could really sing.
BTW Linda... if you ever start singing/touring again I'll be sitting by the phone waiting for the call.

 

[G On Bass]

Julie Andrews (no need to post samples)

Lately and in some cases for the last few years, I've been enjoying:
Skye Edwards of Morcheeba


Orianne with Stereodrome:


CéU

 

[LonesomeKris]

Susan Werner!!!

 

[non]

chrissie hynde
neko case

 

[Mediocrity Man]

My vote goes to Karen Carpenter, hands down. If there were a female angel, she would sing like Karen.

Your vote goes to .... ?

No favorite but I love Haley Reinhart. Featured on American Idol and Post Modern Jukebox.

 

[GrapeBass]

Nina Simone

 

[FilterFunk]

Personally, I could never narrow it down to a single "best," but my favorite is Chaka Khan.

Honorable Mentions: Aretha Franklin, Stephanie Mills, Gladys Knight, Roberta Flack

 

[Jack Butler]

So many greats, really depends on my mood. Nightwish is fantastic, but so is Aretha Franklin. I dig Joan Baez. Linda Ronstadt is incredible. Whitney Houston needs no explanation. Also while I don't love a lot of her actual songs Christina Aguilera has one of my all time favorite voices. Just love her range and phrasing so much.
All of the ladies in this cover sound pretty amazing...