Hey all, new here. I also adore female vocals, they sound amazing on my HD800 and Utopia.
One of my favourite singers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdPiAexMyUY
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Big fan of Patricia Barber for many years. Usually use a track from her album “Cafe Blue” song “Mourning Grace” to test new equipment . On a whim , I took out an old recording of the Pretenders - Get Close this morning. Chrissie Hynde is a special voice . Forgot that this Album has the best cover of a Jimmy Hendrix song "Room Full of Mirrors.
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A little love for the latinas.
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Not one of my favorite voices, but I will say the only songs I’ve kept in my collection are from the original, closer to her roots Shakira Mebarak, e.g.
Moscas en la casa
Inevitable
Ojos así
(closer to how she sounds since going blonde and anglicized, but this is after all the first song that got the attention of “the industry” and started her down the path to becoming another product IMO)
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Some good Shakira oldies, abm0! Thanks for postin em.
Huh, strange, I don’t hear vulnerability from her, quite the opposite, I hear confidence, world-savviness, wisdom even. But otherwise yes, she’s in my summit-favorites section that I’ve recently moved out of my mood-based folders and into a separate folder for stuff that I take care not to listen to too often so I don’t become desensitized, the most precious gems, “can’t imagine music without them” etc.
To add a favorite that hasn’t been already mentioned, also from the “gems” folder, someone from whom I do hear vulnerability: Norway’s Maria Mena, with personal-life based lyrics, with uncomplicated, direct and highly emotional arrangements and vocals that make me breathe sparingly like a sniper (LOL), trying not to miss a single note. Her best albums are “Cause and Effect” and “Growing Pains” but selected tracks rise to the same level on other albums too.
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While we catch some last sunny days for the year (in some countries) another “gem” to mention would be Sara Tavares from Cape Verde off the West coast of Africa. Soul/jazz and local folk fusion, lyrics mostly in Cape Verdean Creole (Portuguese/African hybrid). My favorite albums are “Balancê” and “Xinti”, pure dripping positivity and sunny vibes.
All started several years before the pandemic when I stumbled on this video on YouTube (didn’t need better quality to know I had to search for everything she’d ever sung):
R.I.P. gorgeous musical creature. Maybe she’s now a Point of Light.
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Nice one, too bad I can’t see much from her on Bandcamp or HDTracks, or even on YouTube really.
To continue on a related note, the only one in my collection from the Arabic world is Oum El Ghaït Benessahraoui from Morocco, another YouTube discovery, couldn’t believe my luck seeing her invited to a local festival (EU) just a couple of years ago:
Apparently this piece is in one of the Amazigh/Tamazight dialects of the Berbers instead of Moroccan Arabic:
Thanks, awesome artists mentioned here, lots to follow up. 
Here’s another great musician and singer from Scandnavia (Norway I guess):
Anette Askvik
I’m into 90’s and grunge Rock, so the new Linkin Park member Emily Armstrong is great to me. Also, I found this Ukranian woman that is amazing! https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=noapology
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I find Emily’s voice fits perfect to Linkin Parks Sound. Looking very much forward to more new songs with her.
Like these three independent women:
Someone made a note on the headphones=ART podcast episode about how some artists sound when they can just sit down and do their thing “unmoderated” vs. how the producers make them sound when recording albums, and the first examples this brings to mind (though I don’t really know what was going on behind the scenes here) are from someone already mentioned up-thread: ZZ Ward
After hearing some live/acoustic versions of a few of her songs I actually couldn’t listen to the official album versions anymore, it’s like they’re from two completely different worlds, I had to download the live ones off YouTube - quality be damned - and keep those in my collection instead.
The way it’s done:
And the overproduced, overbusy, commercial, “WTH is this, who approved this” versions:
I even stopped following her after hearing the complete “Til the Casket Drops”, so I don’t know if they’ve stopped doing that to her music in the meantime, I’ll have to check out the newer albums.
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I totally agree with you. The difference is amazing. The original album is missing so much. Wow.
Wrt. Lianne LaHavas who has been mentioned thrice already, every couple of years I find myself going back to rewatch the video that revealed her existence to me - I couldn’t have asked for a better introduction.
Usually with my summit-faves it’s like… as a part of no longer being able to imagine a life where I didn’t know their music, I also tend to not remember where I heard them for the first time and what the first song was. This is the exact opposite.
Lianne LaHavas - No Room for Doubt (A Takeaway Concert for La Blogothèque)
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Some of my favorites…
Lydia Gray - ‘In My Eyes’
Ann Hampton Callaway - ‘Blues in the Night’
Carol Kidd - ‘Tell Me Once Again’
Jane Monheit - ‘Come Dream With Me’
Rickie Lee Jones - ‘Naked Songs Live and Acoustic’
Carmen McRae - ‘The Great American Songbook’
Solveig Slettahjell - ‘Silver’
Norah Jones - ‘Not Too Late’
Sinne Eeg - ‘Eeg - Fonnesbaek’
Liz Callaway - ‘Passage of Time’
Gillian Welch - ‘The Harrow & the Harvest’
Clare Teal - ‘Live at Ebenezer Chapel’
Cecile McLorin Salvant - ‘Dreams and Daggers’
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Don’t like all her stuff, some pieces are too eccentric for me, but 25-30% of it I’ve found very re-listenable.
Niia - Last Night In Los Feliz
Deeper Than Goodbye
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These two are nice. Well produced.
Back to the “summit-favorites” folder, a 2023 discovery I was gifted in YouTube comments (don’t the best ones tend to land in your lap when you’re least actively searching for anything?): MARO, a sweet Portuguese vocalist complemented exquisitely by the guitar work of Dario Barroso and Pau Figueres.
Whole album hortelã is fantastic.
Looking at her YouTube history she’s always been a busy bee out there trying to collab with everyone and anyone in similar genres, and I see some delicious live performance videos have been coming out of it lately, e.g.
(BTW, the aforementioned comments that brought her to my attention were under Lizzy McAlpine’s cover of “Dancing Queen” on the Stories channel:
)
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