Best male and female vocalist of all time?

interesting to see freddie mercury being a common choice.

so last yr my health went very seriously bad & i went "missing" for a few months.
around the same time were the freddie mercury auctions in london.

amongst the stuff were the gold albums.
amongst the gold albums were 3 sets - each having made gold in south africa.

i was one of the bidders on the one set - myself along with a local "tv broadcast company" - who wished (probably still do) to remain anonymous.
the idea was to "bring them back home". we would both retain 50% ownership, but they would have rights to display for public / marketing interest for a negotiated period.
thereafter, we would both relinquish our 50% interests & the items would be donated to a public entity (museum etc), for public access.

i landed up on a ventilator under induced coma - the person nominated to make decisions on my part under those circumstances was not sure what to do (auction bidding was never ever part of my instructions), my bidding had to be withdrawn as the "broadcast company" was not sure how or if to proceed in the circumstances.

if i can find the stuff from sotheby's, i'll post here .
this was the actual lot

www.sothebys.com

Queen – Freddie Mercury's in-house South African sales award for multiple albums | Freddie Mercury: A World of His Own | Crazy Little Things 2 | 2023 | Sotheby's

<p>Queen – Freddie Mercury’s in-house South African sales award for multiple albums</p><p><br></p><p>A South African in-house gold sales award presented to Freddie Mercury, four albums mounted together: <em>A Day At The Races</em> (1976), <em>News Of The World</em> (1977), <em>Live Killers</em>...
www.sothebys.com www.sothebys.com


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this is a very very difficuilt question to answer.
and while I love Freddy I think he was more of a showman than a fantsic singer. sure he had range, but there are better.
same with Pavarotti amazing talent but compared to a few of his contemporize singers he had a more limited range. there were people who could go lower but not quite as high.

for me there is Will Ramos. his singing when he does covers of sleep token songs shows just how capable he is, and with more exposure and training he will do many great things.
when he performs with Lorna Shore and you realize that some of the noises he makes are in hale based noises and some are exhale noises, and there are moments when he makes those at the same time you can see he has achieved something that is past circular breathing. sure most people will not at all enjoy that, but the talent is insane and cannot be discounted just because pig squealing is not your thing.


for Female vocalist there is no question in my mind.
Floor Jansen
wacken 2013.
ghost love opera score.
there is a thing in nightwish fans reffered to as a floorgasm. it is what happens when someone watches that for the first time and the note hits. there are a few moments in that performance that it could happen. but for me it was at the 7min mark when she holds that note for so long. but I was a fan of nightwish way before she joined. and In always believed no one could replace Tarja, but then I saw that. the fact that she had 24 hours notice before filling in for the otehr singer and learned the set list on her flight from Amsterdam to New York and nailed it just adds to how amazing of a performer she is.

there are also some beautiful versions of Phantom of the opera Floor does either with Henk Poort or with Nightwish that is worth checking out for those who put Sarah Brightman on the list.
don't get me wrong Brightman is amazing, but floor can hit lower notes if needed, and can sing up to Soprano (not Metso like Brightman)
 
Another vote for Floor Jansen.

Does the best version of Phantom of the Opera by far!

On my bucket list is still go to go one of their concerts.
 
Floor Jansen for me. She can sing anything, and brilliantly. If you haven't watched Bestezangers, I would recommend that.

For males. Probably Freddy Mercury.
 
impossible to pin it down to just 1 male and 1 female. what with all the genres etc.

but heres one from left field...

This guy could go super low... and even as high as maria...

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's voice is quite unlike any other. At turns heavy and hulkingly powerful, yet also nimble and pointedly precise, his vocalisations have come to epitomise not only the tradition of the Sufi qawwali but the art of singing itself.

www.theguardian.com

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Womad 1985: the qawwali star invokes rapture

Revellers on Essex’s Mersea Island were transfixed by the sheer spiritual power of Khan’s first performance outside south Asia
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com

check him out
 
Pitbull said:
Reading through this again this morning, some very good artists here. As I look through this thread I remember a Greek singer who sang "My friend the wind". Just can't recall his name. Was also an amazingly gifted talent with massisve range. Off to go find his name quick

Edit: Demis Roussos
Click to expand...
What a voice.
 
Roy Orbison and Whitney Houston

But I know fokkol about music
 
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