Singers

Voices across musical styles.

People in Singers

53 profiles

Singer

Freddie Mercury

Fronting Queen and writing Bohemian Rhapsody.

Singer

Aretha Franklin

Turning Respect into a soul anthem.

Singer

David Bowie

Creating Ziggy Stardust and repeatedly reinventing his music.

Singer

Nina Simone

Bringing classical piano and civil-rights conviction into soul music.

Singer

Beyoncé

Making Crazy in Love, Single Ladies and Lemonade.

Singer

Rod Stewart

Singing Maggie May, Sailing and Da Ya Think I’m Sexy?

Singer

Mary J. Blige

Bringing soul singing and hip-hop together on What’s the 411? and My Life.

Rapper

LL Cool J

Recording Mama Said Knock You Out and becoming an early solo rap star.

Singer

Dolly Parton

Writing and singing Jolene, I Will Always Love You and 9 to 5.

Singer

Neil Diamond

Writing and singing Sweet Caroline and America.

Singer

Shakira

Singing Hips Don’t Lie, Whenever, Wherever and Waka Waka.

Singer

Bob Marley

Bringing reggae to a worldwide audience with the Wailers.

Singer

Peter Gabriel

Singing Sledgehammer and co-founding the WOMAD festival.

Singer

The Weeknd

Singing Blinding Lights, Starboy and Can’t Feel My Face.

Singer

Rihanna

Singing Umbrella, Diamonds and We Found Love.

Singer

Nat King Cole

Singing Unforgettable, Mona Lisa and The Christmas Song.

Rapper

Queen Latifah

Recording U.N.I.T.Y. and starring in Living Single and Chicago.

Singer

Lady Gaga

Singing Bad Romance, Born This Way and Shallow.

Singer

Billie Holiday

Singing Strange Fruit and reshaping jazz through intimate, flexible phrasing.

Singer

Paul Robeson

Combining a celebrated bass-baritone voice with outspoken civil-rights activism.

Singer

Barbra Streisand

Starring in Funny Girl and building a career across singing, acting and directing.

Singer

Ella Fitzgerald

Turning jazz singing and scat improvisation into a form of effortless virtuosity.

Singer

James Brown

Helping create funk through rhythm-driven songs and explosive stage performances.

Singer

Stevie Wonder

Creating soul albums including Innervisions and Songs in the Key of Life.

Singer

Cher

Reinventing herself across pop music, television and Oscar-winning film roles.

Singer

Bob Dylan

Expanding popular songwriting with poetic, political and surreal lyrics.

Singer

Kylie Minogue

Creating dance-pop hits including Can’t Get You Out of My Head.

Singer

Prince

Fusing funk, rock and pop in Purple Rain and a vast self-directed catalogue.

Singer

Paul McCartney

Writing Beatles songs and continuing with Wings and a long solo career.

Singer

Lena Horne

Singing Stormy Weather and challenging racial barriers in American entertainment.

Rapper

M.I.A.

Combining rap, electronic music and a refugee’s perspective in Paper Planes.

Singer

Tony Bennett

Singing I Left My Heart in San Francisco.

Musician

Louis Armstrong

Making the jazz solo a powerful personal voice.

Singer

Whitney Houston

Singing I Will Always Love You with extraordinary power and control.

Singer

Madonna

Continually reinventing pop music, performance and image.

Singer

Michael Jackson

Making Thriller and redefining the pop music video.

Singer

Gloria Estefan

Bringing Latin rhythms into international pop with Miami Sound Machine.

Singer

Buddy Holly

Helping establish the guitar-band sound of rock and roll.

Musician

B. B. King

Giving electric blues a distinctive singing guitar voice.

Singer

Hank Williams

Writing country standards including I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry.

Musician

John Lennon

Co-founding the Beatles, writing with Paul McCartney and recording Imagine.

Singer

Luciano Pavarotti

Bringing an unmistakably bright tenor voice to opera houses, stadiums and the Three Tenors concerts.

Musician

Chuck Berry

Helping define rock and roll with guitar riffs, teenage stories and songs such as Johnny B. Goode.

Singer

Miley Cyrus

Moving from Hannah Montana stardom to a solo career spanning pop, country and rock.

Singer

Tina Turner

Rebuilding her career as a solo rock and soul star with Private Dancer.

Guitarist

Jimi Hendrix

Transforming electric-guitar playing through distortion, feedback and inventive performance.

Singer

Bette Midler

Singing The Rose and Wind Beneath My Wings, and playing Winifred in Hocus Pocus.

Singer

Maria Callas

Transforming operatic roles into intensely dramatic performances, especially Norma and Tosca.

Singer

Frank Sinatra

Making songs such as My Way and Fly Me to the Moon standards of popular singing.

Singer

Taylor Swift

Turning personal storytelling into global country and pop success, from Fearless to the Eras Tour.

Singer

Édith Piaf

Giving French chanson an international voice through La Vie en rose and Non, je ne regrette rien.

Singer

Annie Lennox

Fronting Eurythmics and singing Sweet Dreams, Why and Walking on Broken Glass.

Composer

A. R. Rahman

Reshaping Indian film music with Roja and Bombay, then winning two Oscars for Slumdog Millionaire.