Singers with Unique Voices: Artists That Are Already Mega-Famous (The Unique Voices Club #20)

Every Friday, I write a post about singers with unique voices not commonly heard in mainstream music in an effort to educate emerging artists and music lovers and inspire them to embrace their own quirks. This week, in its 20th post, I'm writing on a collection of already-famous artists that definitely would be in The Unique Voices Club.

Just me. Not famous yet. Taken by Salma Kilaouy

Welcome to this 20th blog post of The Unique Voices Club, where we share the power of the unconventional and the power of art. I've decided to do something a little different this week. Instead of focusing on just one indie artist with a small following, I'm gonna make a list of several unconventional artists that have made it big by being different, along with a small description of why I like them and how they've inspired me.

In case you haven't read my intro post outlining how The Unique Voices Club came into existence, it began as a radio show I ran in college playing the music of these artists I'm writing about. It was born out of my own eclectic music journey growing up in South Africa with mostly pop radio and choirs and then the bizarre season that was classical voice training. Every voice teacher had their own ideas of how I should sound. And so I was like, who out there is making whatever sound they want and making success with it?

Besides the indie world, there are some singers with unique voices in the mainstream world and have actually built an audience out of crafting something original and true to them. So I present to you a small list of famous artists who technically could be considered part of the Unique Voices Club.

1. Regina Spektor: I've been listening to Regina since before she signed to a major label, and her song "Samson," about Samson and Delilah from the Bible, is one of my favorite songs to cover.

2. Bonnie Raitt: Besides blending slide guitar with basically every genre, Bonnie's voice has an earthy tone of not-quite-rasp but still kinda smoky.

3. Ellie Goulding: Her folktronica and electropop songs along with her husky, malleable voice make for some good background noise while you're working on an art project.

4. Melanie Martinez: I covered her in post #16. Enough said.

5. Birdy: When I first introduced this project to potential fans they praised Birdy and her borderline operatic delivery.

6. Aurora: I truly feel like I walking through some Nordic forest with snow on the ground and falling on my face when I listen to her voice.

7. Joan Armatrading: I was introduced to her in the midst of my own musical education, and other than Tracy Chapman (see below), there aren't many Caribbean contraltos like her. She sounds like a warm fuzzy blanket.

8. Ingrid Michaelson: Her music reminds me of Sara Bareilles but more intentionally quirky. You can check out my guitar cover of her song "Ghost" below this list.

9. Amy Macdonald: Her soft-spoken contralto voice blends elements of folk, rock and pop, along with her Scottish diction.

10. James Blunt: He possess a high tenor and nasality, utilizing a lot of falsetto, and described as poetic, kind of like the early folk artists.

11. Jewel: She can go from a breathy, tender upper register to a deep vibrato-filled wail in seconds.

12. Cher: She got a lot of flak growing up because her voice was lower than a dude's but now everyone loves her.

13. Tracy Chapman: I wrote about how her music would be great in a musical here.

14. Alanis Morissette: She's a rocker that will let her voice and her body do whatever while she's performing in order to express the feeling of the song, which means yodelling and letting her voice run all over the melody.

15. Sia: The queen of rasps and cracks.

16. Kate Bush: She really needs no description, with her artpop and bizarre but congruent melodies.

17. Michael Jackson: I grew up on the Jackson 5 which featured early Michael with an agile voice way higher than mine, which still applied until his death.

18. The Cranberries/Dolores O'Riordan: I had to include an Irish one for my sibling-in-law, but nonetheless Dolores's lilting voice and yodel effects, along with her keening in some of the songs, make me want to cry even against a rock instrumentation.

19. Scorpions/Klaus Meine: The strong German accent adds to a nasally rasp and wide vocal range.

20. Grace VanderWaal: She basically won AGT off of her uniqueness. I didn't sound like that when I was 12, probably because I (and my classmates) was too busy trying to sound like Taylor Swift.

And that's the first 20 for this list! I'll add more in future anniversary posts, but for now, here are a small taste of some bigwigs that have made it big by staying true to their art and their authenticity. So in case you need further prove to invest in your uniqueness and start creating that art, here you go.

Stay tuned for more artists and why I love them on The Unique Voices Club! And here's a friendly reminder to subscribe to the blog so that you get the posts directly to your inbox and join my Patreon so that you can suggest to me artists that we should all be listening to. There's power in the unconventional!

Stay educated,

Alexia