Friday vote - Best British singer

am not doing links in case risky pulls it again, but i imagine there’ll be a ton of write-ins for this one!

in honour of ed sheehan’s new album so he’s on here (turn out centrist dads!)

have decided to eliminate bands, otherwise it’d just turn into a beatles vs stones vote i’d imagine, so this is solo singers

upvote to vote!

ed sheeran

elton john

kate bush

adele

van morrison

amy winehouse

elvis costello

david bowie

george michael

Is this about voice or as an artist?

annie lennox

phil collins

sting

Wot Bertha said.

dusty springfield

dido

ok that’s my list - vote / add vote posts as you want

Is this about voice or as an artist?

i dunno if there’s much of a distinction tbh but you can interpret the vote however you want (and there’s no barrier on voting for multiple artists as long as you aren’t sockpuppeting the vote for one person!)

oh - vote closes at 12:30 when rof will have declared the best british singer of all time!

Tom Jones?

Or do you have something against the Welsh?

The correct title for this thread is "a list of MoR vocalists who have mostly succeeded without being very good singers."

Sophie Ellis Bextor!

Vera Lynn?

So, best means favourite, singer means artist too, at least they’re all British. Are you another of rof’s millennials that can’t get past the definitions section in an agreement? No, wait, what’s a woman?

But at least you know who to vote for.

Toss up between George Michael and Timmy Mallett.

i dunno if there’s much of a distinction tbh

Elizabeth Fraser may not have the best technical voice, but she's the best artistic voice.

There’s quite a big distinction tbf.

It’s the difference between Pavarotti and Dylan for example.

I like Pavarotti. I like Dylan. Who's better? Fight!

Placido - he’s the dogs! Pav-a-rotti, shut your mouth!

Donnie Munro

Yes, but you don’t like Dylan because of his singing voice, right?

Dylan-Morrissey-Robert Smith

What else is in today’s cancel bag?

Toss up between George Michael and Timmy Mallett.

What a mental image.

Wrong

Facile even by the standards of this playpen. What’s gender anyway?

Robert Plant?

I was going with Dusty Springfield too

Vera Lynn wasn't a great singer. Of that era, someone like Helen Clare was much better.

Florence Welch

Julie Andrews was good.

Gotta be George!

Des O'Connor was pretty good - or so Morcambe and Wise used to say

Right now I can't think of anyone I'd put in front of Marina Diamandis.

ROB HALFORD

Guy Garvey

JKR has a lovely singing voice

faod, I assume this thread is about the second best British singer, as the first five entries do not universally state Freddy.

Daaaaaaaaaaaaay-o

Hannah Reid from London Grammar, Amy Winehouse. It's got to be Adele though, hasn't it.

Freddie Mercury (that range, omg)

Amy Winehouse (altho probably more songwriter than singer)

George Michael

Dusty Springfield (no relation)

(minor shout for Petula Clark)

Kate Bush

Aled Jones.

That bloke off the Go Compare advert. Bloody love 'im.

Barney Greenway.

Bruce Dickinson.

Taylor Swift. SHE'S AN HONOURARY BRIT. YES SHE IS SHUT UP SHE IS.

The best singers I've seen live:

Joan Armatrading (the deepest most spiritual soul, revealing pathos, fragile unrequited emotion. Mesmerising guitar work. Then she chats to you and she's just an ordinary Brummie).

Morrissey (a jazz singer in a way. Forget the words. Imagine his voice is a tenor sax, improvising, winding in and out of the harmony).

Joan Armatrading’s The Weakness in Me is just absolutely heavenly

checking in at halftime dux’s write in sophie ellis bexter is in the lead with four votes

So, best means favourite, singer means artist too

of course best means favourite, it’s a vote

why distinguish between singer and artist?

if you’re favourite voice is dusty and your favourite artist is adele, vote for them both

(surprised freddy hasn’t had a write in tbh)

Roger Daltrey

Christine McVie

Joss Stone

Ellynora

Beth Gibbons

And Corrine Bailey-Rae, of the newer crop.

Would make me giggle to have Chill announce that JKR was officially the UK’s best singer. Get voting peeps.

Amy WineHouse

well in a hotly contested category sophie ellis bextor becomes the winner with five votes!

apologies for missing her off the initial list and well done to 3 dux for recognising her talents!

What passes for entertainment

Matt Munro

Male: Freddy just in ahead of Georgios for me (what a mental image...) - tbh I think it's very close between the two as singers but Freddy was a better musician, songwriter, showman. Ironically my absolute favourite Georgios performance was when he covered a Freddy song. Honourable mention: Bryan Ferry (ahead of Bowie and Elton for me).

Female: Springfield, Wino. Didn't have much time for Wino when she was still alive, but her stuff has grown on me greatly over time. Honourable mention: Bonnie Tyler, just squeaking in ahead of Annie Lennox.

Julia Fordham (even though she lives in California now)

Who came second Chill?

Julia Fordham is a good shout. I remember listening in raptures to her first LP when it first came out.

I wonder if she was born before or after her mum broke her pelvis in that skydiving accident on Blue Peter? Was that before Goldie had Bonnie?

If anyone's interested, I was at school with Bruce Dickinson.

I genuinely can't tell if these suggestions are serious or not.

Most of these people are completely unremarkable vocally.

Sophie Ellis Bextor (who I like, actually): her voice is utterly average.

At least Plant and Dylan did something original.

Chronology:

1978 - Goldie replaces Shep

1979 - Sophie is born.

1984 - Janet Ellis breaks her pelvis (first British woman to achieve a 90 second freefall parachute jump)

1986 - Bonnie replaces Goldie as Blue Peter dog.

Who came second Chill?

it was a tie jim - winehouse, costello, Bowie and Tom jones all got 3 votes apiece!

hotly contested as i said

Kate Bush

Oops, sorry already there

no Beatles on the list?

Chill - I think there was a surprise outsider who had 4 votes! Impressive, her range of talents.

no bands on the list ff

(which is why i didn’t include queen originally as it was on the edge - can see it as freddy as a solo singer + backing band but didn’t like the precedent it was setting)

Dylan: "Not so much songs but rather exercises in tonal breath control."

They all had solo careers though. Even Ringo.

But all Ringo wanted was a photograph, not necessarily to be recognised by rof as a great singer

"Joan Armatrading’s The Weakness in Me is just absolutely heavenly "

Oh man this merits re-listening to. I thought I had lost the ability to hear it because it was on endless repeat in my local bar in the 90s but it's back :)

I call a miscount,

Chill’s prejudices led him to ignore votes for a certain nominee he thinks is a witch (at the time the vote officially finished she had 4, a fact he completely ignored in his 13:01).

In the spirit of fairness, I believe a recount is in order and a time extension to allow postal votes. If we check the status of the voting now, we have a new winner!