The most beautiful female voice of all time

Taken overall, Patsy Kline comes to mind, but I'm sure I can do better once the thread gets going.

Re: The most beautiful female voice of all time


I would pick Ella Fitzgerald. :wink:

I like female voices like Patsy Cline's and Sade's - any smooth, mellow alto.

For sheer emotion, whatever the emotion, I like Bonnie Raitt's voice. She's good at communicating feeling and I think she has a very versatile voice. Sometimes when I hear her on the radio, I'm struck by the voice, but don't even realize it's her until they announce who it was- happened when I heard her sing "Home" the first time. She sounds totally different on a blues tune than on a straight ballad.

I can't pick just one though - I don't listen to enough classical with voices or opera or even jazz to have an informed opinion in those areas.

Mady Mesplé was the epitome of Léo Delibes' Lakmé.

Lemme go pull the CD out . . .

Check her out in the Choeur et Orchestre du Théâtre National de l'Opéra-Comique's production of Lakmé(EMI).

Her duet in "Viens, Mallika. . . " with Danielle Millet has been used continually in movies and comercials for decades now.

I've got to go and give this recording another listen. It's been too long.

Re: The most beautiful female voice of all time


Didn't strike me, but reminded me of Julie London

Another really good voice is Melissa Manchester..although I don't know her too well

Re: The most beautiful female voice of all time

The song,"Midnight Blue" and her voice are one of my all time favorite combinations of singer and song. I don't know if she wrote that song to accomodate her voice, or if someone else did, but it was an inspired choice.

I'm surprised..I've not listen to her for ages..

I remember going to see (the film) Mullholland Drive...

I was rivetted by this performance - I believe it's by Dolores Del Rio, I haven't heard of her, but her voice is amazing!

I can only find this example.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvmcUJFkfrE&search=David%20Lynch%20Mullholland%20Drive%20Trailer

I don't think any female voice has touched me more than Alison Krauss'. I recall where I was and what I was doing the first time I heard her on the radio. She possesses an angelic voice, and combines it with breathiness that entrances me.

Other women have had similar registers. Dolly Parton comes to mind. But Dolly's playfulness took away from her singing performances, IMO. Alison has all the ingredients combined to perfection.

Re: The most beautiful female voice of all time


I always like Julie London's "Cry Me A River".

I also like Whitney Houston . :wink:

Barbra Streisand.

Peggy Lee.

I agree, Sarah Brightman is up there, too.

This is a tough call. We need to break this down into categories, I think. How does one compare a Sarah Brightman to, say, an Aretha Franklin?

Diana Krall and Holly Cole. So very many great female vocalists, and often their voices do not have to exude quality, exactly, but I listen for both quality and intonation and the sense of the feeling that washes over me. My friend, Bill once told me that I bathed in music rather than listen with a critical ear. He was right.

BBB
It would be easier to suggest singers if divided into the types of music: classical, blues, jazz, rock, children's music, etc.

Would we all choose the voices of our mothers singing lullabys to us?

BBB

I'm somewhere in the Patsy Cline/Ella/Streisand camp. For me, it's the crystal clearness of the voice.

I like a lot of female voices in different kinds of music - and which is best is surely arguable.
I'm moved by Callas' singing an aria from Gluck's Orphee et Eurydice -

It's #6 on this A2k Amazon link for her La Divina 2 cd -

Orphee et Eurydice, Maria Callas

Dolly Parton? My toenails cringe, when I hear her.

There are many many female singers with superb voices - Mama Cass
was one, so is Carly Simon, Enya, Astrud Gilberto, Billie Holiday,
Alicia Keys, and many more...

I was amazed by Susanna Foster's glorious soprano voice in the 1943 Phantom of the Opera.

BBB

Barbara Streisand and Mary J Blige.