Girls Girls Girls!!!

I'm a sucker for a female voice... always have been. And I LOVE bands with cool chick singers! I used to be in such a group. Here, have a listen.

I'm going to get to my "Top Five List of Favorite Female Singers" in a second, but before I do, let me just get a quick "Top Five List of Female Singers I hope To God I Never Hear Ever Again" out of the way.

Here they are in no particular order... they are all hated equally:

Celine Dion
Gloria Estefan
Alanis Morrissette
Meredith Brooks
Melissa Etheridge

OK... now that that unpleasantness is out of the way... Here is my "Top Five List of FAVORITE Female Singers Of All Time..."

Olivia Newton John

This is where my whole obsession with female singers started. She was my first crush! I know she has some really hokey songs and all, but I can't help it... I am "Hopelessly Devoted!" Her slow vibrato still does it for me after all these years. I might add, that for fans of Olivia, the new Emma Bunton (aka Baby Spice) album sounds frighteningly similar to something Olivia should have recorded!

Sarah Cracknell

If Emma Peel (played by Diana Rigg, of course) had been a popstar, she would have been Sarah Cracknell. The frontwoman for Saint Etienne, Sarah is a 60's cut-out girl with sexy silky vocals and an aura of class and sophistication.

Sarah Blackwood

An angelic voice with a devlish attitude, Dubstars' Sarah Blackwood is the type who would sing you softly to sleep after a particularly nasty shag... God how I love her.

Sophie Ellis Bextor

Sophie slipped a few notches after she decided to put her career on hold and give birth instead (that's how my last band ended!), but I still adore her. An interesting voice... sometimes Deadpan Jarvis, other times Soulful Alison Moyet, but always catchy... and her videos totally rule!

Harriet Wheeler

Harriet Wheeler of The Sundays is my favorite girl singer OF ALL TIME. Period. Cute and Mousey but with the ability to belt when she wants to, I can find at least one line in every "Sunday's" song where she does something ever so subtle and completely tasteful: a little extra vibrato, a little shout, there's always something! She has her imitators (Natalie Umbriglia and that "Sixpence" girl), but to me, when it comes to the best of girl singers... "Here's Where The Story Ends."

Who's on your "tippermost toppermost" list of girl singers? Yes, I really do want to know...