Vocalists
A ranked list by GreenJadeForest · 12 items
Will rank as I go. I expect this to get into the hundreds
- Billie Holiday
1GreenJadeForest's latest · 2026-11-06★★★★★Made some of the greatest choices of all time.
- Sarah Vaughan
2GreenJadeForest's latest · 2026-11-06★★★★★So smooth, tender, with such depth of emotions. I have a bias because she has such a low voice. I love September Song, Misty, and Black Coffee
- Aretha Franklin
3GreenJadeForest's latest · 2026-11-06★★★★★Hit every note with great confidence and made great choices. I especially love Young, Gifted and Black
- Ella Fitzgerald
4GreenJadeForest's latest · 2026-11-06★★★★★Technical precision combined with great expression and a great sense of humor.
- Donny Hathaway
5GreenJadeForest's latest · 2026-11-06★★★★★The goat at emotional expression. No way I could ever sing like this. I love his cover of Jealous Guy
- Marvin Gaye
6GreenJadeForest's latest · 2026-11-06★★★★★So smooth and emotional, love What's Going On
- Tony Bennett
7GreenJadeForest's latest · 2026-11-06★★★★★I appreciate that he didn't ever over sing anything, he held back when he needed to. Also, in many of his songs he'll sing it pretty straight and laid back the whole time, and then at the end he'll hit like the highest note I've ever heard and draw it out for a really long time. Super impressive
- Julie Andrews
8GreenJadeForest's latest · 2026-11-06★★★★★Technically masterful with the widest range ever, and I also really appreciate her emotion. She was so hot in Mary Poppins
- Amy Winehouse
9GreenJadeForest's latest · 2026-11-06★★★★★Her technical skills are really underrated because she is so contemporary. You need to listen to all of her live recordings to hear her crazy talent. She got better as she got older. On a personal level, I think she was very cool and relatable. If I was that famous, I probably would have made a lot of the same choices as she did.
- Dolly Parton
10GreenJadeForest's latest · 2026-11-06★★★★★Amazingly talented singer with a crazy high voice, and a very nice and cool person in real life. Also had an extremely cool look, especially for country music. And she sang good country, too. I especially love the song "When Someone Wants to Leave as Bad as You Want Them to Stay." So simple, yet so amazing.
- Leonard Cohen
11GreenJadeForest's latest · 2026-11-06★★★★★My favorite songwriter; seeing him live was like a religious experience. His lyrics make me shiver and put into words thoughts and feelings I didn't know how to express. I'll hear the same song for the 50th time and can't get over how clever each line is. As a person, he seemed very cool and relatable. I like how he wasn't trying too hard to be edgy or bohemian like the other artists; he always carried a touch of the everyman and was humble. A lot of people compare him to Bob Dylan. They both have brilliant compositions and lyrics. I always say that Bob Dylan had the better composition/guitar skills, but Leonard Cohen's lyrics were way better. As a vocalist, he's underrated. I think he always had the emotional content, but his voice actually got better as he got older because he got that uniquely low range with a breathy quality. It became very, very rich and worth hearing. And he still moved it up and down; listen to the song "Always" where he uses imperfect raspiness and breathiness to express exhilaration.
- Fiona Apple
12GreenJadeForest's latest · 2026-11-06★★★★★The most authentic person in the music industry. Probably one of the people I can relate to most because she feels things so deeply and has a strong sense of justice. I taught myself to sing by trying to imitate her at age 13. She got me more interested in singing in general (before that it was Led Zeppelin), probably because I could relate to her lyrics so much. She's another artist who puts thoughts and feelings that I couldn't express into words. I also feel that way about Leonard Cohen and Tom Waits, but Fiona Apple also comes at it from a female perspective. And of course I could understand them even more after going through a break up
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