Top Ten Singers of the 21st Century with the Most Soulful Voices
We all know the great vocalists that are Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Nina Simone, Dionne Warwick, Otis Redding, and many others that formed music in the 50s to the 70s. Now, with that many decades having passed since then, music of course changed so much that it only rarely resembles the songs popular back then, but no matter how much time passes, a singer's voice can still be as amazingly soulful as in the sixties - all that could happen is that they use it differently, or that it doesn't spark through on all songs because the singing abilities aren't in the center of attention.
Krishnan Nair Shantakumari Chithra, often credited as K. S. Chithra or simply Chithra, is an Indian playback singer from Kerala. Chithra also sings Indian classical, devotional, and popular music.
Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter, is an American singer and actress, who started out in the popular pop/r&b girl group Destiny's Child. They had multiple top 5 hits such as "No, No, No", "Say My Name", "Bills, Bills, Bills", "Survivor", "Independent Women", "Bootylicious", and "Jumpin', Jumpin" from 1999 to 2004. After they broke up in 2006, Beyonce pursued her solo career, creating smash hits such as "Crazy In Love", "Single Ladies", "Halo", "Partition", "Irreplaceable", "Drunk In Love", "Baby Boy", "Beautiful Liar", "7/11", and "Run The World (Girls)", and has since become one of the most influential performers and biggest celebrities of the 21st century. While a lot of her songs are just meant to be very catchy and don't focus on her singing, her vocals on ballads are absolutely mind blowing. In fact, it is often equal to the singing of 60s divas. With the right material she could easily record one of the best sung albums of all time, but apparently, she prefers more modern jams, which is fine too.
Examples: Listen, If I Were a Boy, Broken Hearted Girl
Christina María Aguilera is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer, best known for songs such as "Beautiful", "Genie In A Bottle", "Fighter", "Hurt", "Dirrty", "Your Body", "Lady Marmalade", "Reflection", "I Turn To You", "Come On Over Baby (All I Want Is You)" "What A Girl Wants", and "Candyman". She also sang soulful songs for the Burlesque soundtrack, a movie where she and Cher starred. I like especially Something's Got a Hold On Me (Etta James cover) but all songs are of this type.
Yeah that's true, she gave some great performances on that soundtrack. I just wished Cher had more than two contributions.
Nobody would ever deny the great singing ability of Christina Aguilera, and unlike Beyoncé, she showcased it on many occasions, also in her poppier songs. She also recorded a nostalgic album called "Back to Basics" inspired by jazz, soul, gospel and other genres of that time.
Examples: Welcome, Beautiful, Candyman
If anyone in Germany is the soul musician number one, it is Xavier Naidoo. What he manages to do is modernizing soul but still keeping its initial feeling. There might be modern drum kits in the background, but there is also pianos, guitars, and his crooning voice in the center. His lyrics aren't standard pop lyrics but have beautiful wordings and a bit of wisdom in it (sad thing is he's a terrible conspiracy theorist which unfortunately sparks through in more recent years, but he released several great albums before that). He has managed to top the German charts with each studio album since 1998 and rightfully so.
Examples: Wo willst du hin, Alles kann besser werden, Dieser Weg
Anastacia Lyn Newkirk is an American singer-songwriter, producer and former dancer. Her first two albums Not That Kind and Freak of Nature were released in quick succession to major success. When Anastacia's music first hit the stage in 2000 - and her debut singles already managed to enter the German top ten - most people believed she was black judging by her strong voice, before she herself became famous and everyone would immediately recognize her. Anastacia used this perfectly especially on her first two albums when she had strong funk elements in her music.
Examples: Paid My Dues, Not That Kind, I Ask of You
Adele Laurie Blue Adkins (born 5 May 1988) is an English singer and songwriter. Graduating from the BRIT School for Performing Arts and Technology in 2006, Adele was given a recording contract by XL Recordings after a friend posted her demo on Myspace the same year. She is best known with her international hit singles like Rolling in the Deep, Someone Like You, Hello, Easy On Me and the success of her second, third and fourth studio album which is 21, 25 and 30. Next to Lana del Rey, Adele is one of the two singer-songwriters who most perfectly use nostalgic musical 60s and 70s flashbacks in the 2010s. But while Lana del Rey celebrates the hazy hippie music of that time, Adele is far more rooted in the music of the great soul divas, and uses her voice perfectly to embody that.
Examples: Rolling in the Deep, Skyfall, Set Fire to the Rain
Mary Jane Blige is an American singer, songwriter, rapper and actress. She started her career as a backing singer on Uptown Records in 1989. She has released 13 studio albums, eight of which have achieved multi-platinum worldwide sales. It is no doubt that Mary J. Blige is a soul singer as her genre is usually classified as soul, even though I usually hesitate to call her that because of her hip hop and pop inspired sound - how does "Family Affair" sound any similar to "I Say a Little Prayer"? But her voice is a soul voice, and what a big soul voice it is, especially when she sings very loud.
Examples: As, One, No More Drama,
Peter Gene Hernandez, professionally known by his stage name Bruno Mars, is an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, and choreographer. ...read more. I may not be an expert for his music, but what always striked me was his excellent performance on that "Grenade" song. Also his music appears to not rely on electronic instruments which adds to the soul feeling. But as I said, I don't know too much by him.
Examples: Grenade, Just the Way You Are, The Lazy Song
Sarah Marianne Corina Lewe, better known by her stage name Sarah Connor, is a German pop and soul singer and occasional songwriter from Hamburg born on June 13, 1980.She is one of the most successful German solo artists of the 21st Century, with her songs "From Sarah With Love", "Music is the Key", "Just One Last Dance", "Living to Love You" and "From Zero to Hero" topping the German single charts and several of her albums reaching Platinum and Gold status in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. ...read more.
While Xavier Naidoo is Germany's male soul singer number one, Sarah Connor is the female one, even though like Mary J Blige she also has a lot of songs that are simply pop, even though I prefer her uotempo songs over Blige's. Connor's dramatic ballads brought her to the top of the German charts more than once. She has one of my favorite voice's of all time, but I didn't add her higher because her voice is a bit "too white".
Examples: Living to Love You, From Sarah With Love, Deutsches Liebeslied
Pharrell Lanscilo Williams, born April 5, 1973, known professionally as Pharrell, is an American singer, rapper, and record producer. Williams and Chad Hugo make up the record production duo the Neptunes, producing soul, hip hop and R&B music. Much like with Bruno Mars, I don't know all too many songs by him, but his singing, especially the one done in falsetto reflects that popular in 70s black music.
Examples: Get Lucky, Angel, Happy
Conchita Wurst or simply Conchita is the stage name and persona of Austrian singer Tom Neuwirth, who was born on November 6, 1988 .She has been a TV personality of moderate success for years in Austria, and rose to fame in other European states after winning the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest with her song “Rise Like a Phoenix” . Since then, she reached a-list celebrity status in her home country and has been given the honorific nickname “Queen of Austria”. ...read more.
The Austrian drag queen with the authentically female voice stunned everyone at the Eurovision song contest 2014 with her extraordinarily big voice, and won the competition, earning her megastar status in Austria. She so far has only one album though.
Examples: Rise Like Phoenix, Where Have All the Good Men Gone, Heroes
Chester Charles Bennington (March 20th, 1976 - July 20th, 2017) was an American musician, singer, songwriter and actor, best known for being the lead singer of Linkin Park. Before he was known for Linkin Park, Bennington was the lead singer of post-grunge act Grey Daze who was heavily inspired by Stone Temple Pilots they released two albums with Chester before his death. Wake Me and No Sun Today, a third album called Amends would be released in 2020 consisting of voice samples from Bennington. After Grey Daze dissolved, Bennington would join Linkin Parkin in 1999 formerly called Hybrid Theory, replacing former vocalist Mark Wakefield, who would go on to become Taproot's producer. Even with Bennington's ...read more. The Greatest Vocalist Of All Time...
Avril Ramona Lavigne is a Canadian–French singer-songwriter and actress. By the age of 15, she had appeared on stage with Shania Twain; by 16, she had signed a two-album recording contract with Arista Records worth more than $2 million.
One half of the hugely successful 2000s duo Ich+Ich and later on a successful solo singer, Adel Tawil's fascination for RnB definitely influenced the way he sings on his indie songs. Often it recalls Xavier Naidoo's singing style, though the music itself isn't as soulful.
Examples: Du erinnerst mich an Liebe (Ich+Ich), Lieder (solo), Stark (Ich+Ich)
Corey Todd Taylor was born in December 8, 1973. He is an American musician, author, and actor best known as the lead singer and lyricist of the Nu-metal band Slipknot and hard rock/alternative metal band Stone Sour.
James Alan Hetfield was born on August 3, 1963. He is an American musician, singer and songwriter known for being the co-founder, lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist and main songwriter for the American heavy metal band Metallica.
Amy Lynn Hartzler, known professionally as Amy Lee, is an American singer-songwriter, classically trained pianist and composer. She is also the lead singer to the Arkansas band Evanescence.
Michael Jackson (Michael Joseph Jackson; August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, dancer, and songwriter. He passed away from cardiac arrest caused by a propofol and benzodiazepine overdose on June 25, 2009. He donated (at least) a remarkable 500,000,000 dollars to charity. Michael is also known as The King of Pop (a title given to him by Elizabeth Taylor) or under the initials MJ. Dubbed the King of Pop, he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. ...read more.
Amy Jade Winehouse was an English singer and songwriter known for her deep expressive contralto vocals and her eclectic mix of musical genres, including soul, rhythm and blues, and jazz. She is also a well-known member of the 27 Club, as she overdosed on alcohol at age 27. She is the definition of modern soul