Norah Jones. She's wonderful on her CD, and even better live.

Johnette Napolitano {of Concrete Blonde}
Patty Griffin
Diana Krall
Billie Holliday
Etta James
Patti {of Tuck & Patti}
Sarah Maclachlan
Tracey Thorn
Christina Aguilera {i just wish she wouldn't drown her voice in bass heavy songs}
Allison Krauss
Charlotte Church

Amanda McBroom
Amy Holland

Ella Fitzgerald is the best female singer.

Julie Andrews is pretty good too.
Carmen McRae, June Christy, Sade, Anita O'Dell, Grace Slick (good call), Christina Aguilera, Mariah Carey...all good. Oh, and Chaka Khan too - man, could she sing! Karen Carpenter, Aretha Franklin, Diana Ross. Hmmmm, I like quite a few of them.

Bjork
Dido
Sarah Machlachan
Janis Joplin
Grace Slick (Jefferson Airplane)
Pat Benatar


I'm not into female singers that much but those I listed above is what I like to listen to.

Fiona Apple
Erykah Badu
Lauryn Hill
Toni Braxton
Tina Turner
Aretha Franklyn
Stevie Nicks
Christine McVie
Jill Scott
Janis Joplin
Natalie Merchant
Alica Keys


Upcoming singers

Avirl Lavigine
Vanessa Carlton

Amen, I love Patty Griffin! Beautiful voice, and an awesome songwriter to boot. Her new album 1,000 Kisses has hardly left my CD player since it was released.

Living With Ghosts is great too, but my fav is Flaming Red, which seemed to get its ass kicked by critics. Oh well, what do they know?

I agree with the nomination of Allison Krauss, but am surprised at the omission of the late, great Eva Cassidy, who's Songbird was Number 1 in the UK last year for a time, some 5 years after she died.
See:
http://evacassidy.org/eva/
for more info

Gotta go with Sarah McLachlan.

I also think Sade and Lauryn Hill has very nice voices. Lauryn Hill's MTV Unplugged album is fantastic. I'm definitely going to have to pick it up sometime.

Margo Timmins is her name, and I am in love with her... :D

I'm gonna have to go with:

Andrea Corr
Shakira

The Corrs are just good in general, and Shakira has a heck of a singing voice for someone who only learned English a year ago.

Geike Arnaert of Hooverphonic has an amazingly beautiful voice!

Wow.. great topic.

I'd have to list the following:

Jonatha Brooke (www.jonathabrooke.com) Awesome live :)

Sarah McLachlan
Tori Amos
Bjork
Shirley Manson
Stevie Nicks
Billie Holiday
Ella Fitzgerald
Alanis Morissette
Fiona Apple
Liz Phair
Ani DiFranco
Sarah Brightman

the one who is in the band that has a song that kind of goes like, '...complicated, and it grows and it turns it up...' or something like that. the video has what looks like a bunch of guys doing those x games tricks. anyone know who i am talking about.

Madonna
Shakira
Dolores O'Riordan (The Cranberries)
Vanessa Carlton
Enya
Kylie Minogue
Gwen Stefani (No Doubt)
Tori Amos
Alanis Morissette

I agree with this post completely. Bjork is simply a goddess. Melora's voice is amazing, and I just love Rasputina. She does the backup vocals on some of the songs on the latest Candy Butchers album and it really makes the songs come alive.

I saw Martha Wainwright do backups for Rufus and she's got a great voice.

Other female artists I enjoy:

Ella Fitzgerald, Lauryn Hill, Fiona Apple, Kim Deal, Tori Amos, Lisa Loeb, Juliana Hatfield, Alicia Keys, Shirley Manson, Ani DiFranco

Kate Bush!


Mark

Kate Pierson is also a fantastic singer. As is Cindy Wilson. Together, they are incredible the way their voices wrap around each other.

never mind, i just found out that it is someone named avral lavine sp?

Sissel Kyrkjebø
Loreena McKennitt
Enya

And a third vote for Patty Griffin, although "1,000 Kisses" is my least favorite of her albums (fave is "Living with Ghosts").

Also love the following...

Hope Sandoval (of Mazzy Star)

Tonya Donnelly (of Belly)

Margo Timmins (of Cowboy Junkies)

Natalie Merchant (of 10,000 Maniacs but definitely not the dipped-in-grease-nasal-crowing of her solo career)

Heather Nova

Sinead O'Connor

For a minute, I thought I was going to be the first to mention Johnette Napolitano from Concrete Blonde. Glad to see someone beat me to it.

For anyone who wants to know why she's my only choice for this poll: See her perform live. Then you'll get it.

Kudos to the person who posted Billie Holliday. What an incredible lady! Same with Hope Sandoval, never can I get tired of hearing a Mazzy Star song.

My friend and I are in amazement that neglected here are:

Ultimate goddess of Rock un Roll....Justine Frischmann of Elastica
Harriet Wheeler of the Sundays
Miranda Lee Richards
Cat Power aka. Chan Marshall
Lauren Laverne (Gofton) of Kenickie
Suzanne Vega
Exene Cervenka of X
Kirsty Maccoll
Kim Deal
and obviously David Bowie in the '70's ;)