SINGY GIRLS

Noisettes - Never forget You

One that definitely has to get a mention is Helen Shapiro.

Born in the East End of London in 1946, she was catapulted to fame when she had a hit in 1961, when she was still fourteen.
This was just pre-Beatles, when nearly every youngster was either in a group, or trying to form one.
Helen's parents encouraged her into the world of music from a young age, but were so hard up that they could not even afford a record player. It was widely reported that she had to take her first single round to a friend's house to hear it being played.

Three hit singles were released in quick succession, and she was still fourteeen by the time the second topped the charts, causing an absolute sensation at her school. The video for that second hit shows the effect it all had on her schoolmates.

Hit 1. Don't Treat Me Like a Child.






Hit 2. You Don't Know.







and hit 3, by far her biggest.....

Somebody mentioned Nina Simone already? One of the top 20th century female singers in my book, up there with Ella, Edith and Patti (Smith, not Labelle) and some others.

http://youtu.be/8Uy8cyVWU2A

Apologies for this being a bit somber for the thread. Ladies can do protest songs too...

I can't stand Mireille... A fabricated product.

In my generation, the best French lady singer was IMO Veronique Sanson. She could play decent piano and guitar, she wrote her own songs, and she had a beautiful voice.

Her first hit: Amoureuse


Vancouver


Allah
(mid 80s?, about a female suicide bomber - this led to death threats and she had to stop her show for a little while for security reasons - this was years before the Satanic Verses and 9/11)

In 1985, Andrew Lloyd Weber wrote a requiem in honor of his mother. His Pie Jesu has proven to be the most popular rendition ever recorded. Here it is sung by Hayley Westenra, my all-time favorite singer:

Hayley Westenra was a favourite of my Mum, also a New Zealander.

When I first saw her on TV (I've just hunted it down on youtube, she was 16) I immediately knew the song, as Mum used to sing it to my sister's baby, her grandaughter, when she was trying to get her to sleep.

Hine E Hine. (Hine means girl child, or little girl)

I've already posted this, at the beginning of the thread, as sung by Kiri te Kanawa, the great New Zealand soprano. In honor of your mother, here is Hayley singing "Pokarekare Ana" . . .

Thanks, Set.
My Mum could swing her pom poms to that song! All the girls learnt it at school.
She could speak quite fluent maori right up into her old age, even though she was of Lancashire stock, and came over to the UK when she was a teenager, when her parents decided to return.
They all had their lessons in Maori on two days of the week when she was living there.
Another song we used to hear regularly was Po ataraoo (sp?) Which her school friends in Kaitangata sang to her on her day of leaving. It's the Maori farewell song, and possibly one of the most beautiful songs I've heard.
I'll now go find it.....

We had

They're all girls singing this (I think), so therefore qualify as having the right credentials for this thread.





Aforementioned pom poms snippet. She always used to get them out, if you'll pardon the expression, as her party piece at Xmas.
After a few guinnesses, of course.....

Nina Hagen - she actually COULD sing.