Rolling Stone: Aretha Franklin “Best Female Singer”

American soul singer Aretha Franklin (“Respect”), who passed away in 2018, tops the current list of the best singers of all time by music magazine “Rolling Stone”. However, it’s surprising that five-time Grammy winner Celine Dion didn’t make it to the top 200. “With all due respect, with the exception of Celine Dion, arguably the greatest vocal technician of all time, this list amounts to treason,” music producer Jamie Lambert wrote on Twitter. Britain’s Daily Mail said: “There are no major surprises in the top 10 on Rolling Stone’s list, except for the fact that Dion was overlooked.”

At the start of the new year, the newspaper published an updated list of the “200 Greatest Singers of All Time”. R&B star Whitney Houston and soul pioneer Sam Cooke, who sang one of the major hits of the American Civil Rights Movement with “A Change is Gonna Come,” took second and third.

Rolling Stone magazine first published its list of the 100 Greatest Singers in 2008. Commenting on the update, the authors wrote: “Before you start reading (and commenting), please remember that this is a list of the greatest singers, not a list of the greatest voices.”