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Madonna is a wonderful and criminally under-rated singer


Jazzy Jan

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While stuck in a frustrating and annoying traffic jam this afternoon for over 2 hours, I luckily had my trusted IPod and always have it on shuffle songs. Naturally, I have so many Madonna songs on it, that I always hear plenty of her music mixed in with a lot of other songs from a huge variety of various artists. What struck me though, is how incredible her voice sounded compared to others that people often consider better singers.

With the songs I heard ranging from Borderline from her first album to Masterpiece and I'm Addicted from MDNA, all I can say is Madonna is probably the most under-rated singer in popular culture. Sure, everyone loves her music and knows she is an incredible entertainer but her ability as a singer is wonderful. No-one can sing pure pop perfection as well as Madonna does with Into the Groove. Her vocals on Live to tell are stunning as I find all of her ballads are. She conveys every emotion for every type of song and has done so since the 1980's through to today. The variety in her style of music and how she sings it is second to none. Her voice itself is lovely, clear and so expressive. Do others think that we do not rate her ability as a singer enough due to her being such a superstar on so many levels ? I am interested in other fan's opinions on this.

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I think her televised live performances have a lot 2 do with it.

In Europe the live broadcast of WTG is responsible 4 her reputation as a shit singer.

& then BAT was even worse :chuckle:

But you can't blame people really, S&S for instance was a bit of a nation wide scandal here...

the hype before the gig was insane as it was her 1st ever concert in Belgium...But reviews were

incredibly brutal, & people were genuinely disappointed, not hating or anything.

Concert goers after the gig, while leaving the venue, were filmed on the news almost

fighting...

female #1:'She can't sing, it was shit'

female#2: 'Yes she can sing, it was great, but if the audience...'

female #1:'Why should the crowd b enthusiastic, if she's singing like shit...'

:rotfl: the aftermath was horrible, & largely responsible 4 her next (MDNA) gig not being a sellout :sad:

My co-worker, texted me at the end of the gig: 'OMG she can't sing, i'm so disappointed...'

& then there was the whole 'she lip syncs' thing...cuz M was pointing out puddles of rain on the stage, giving directions, while the backing track kept 'on singing' (kept on singing!? Don't tell me you didn't notice #Where'sJohnDraper)

& it all felt like it was my fault :rolleyes:

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Guest Pud Whacker

While stuck in a frustrating and annoying traffic jam this afternoon for over 2 hours, I luckily had my trusted IPod and always have it on shuffle songs. Naturally, I have so many Madonna songs on it, that I always hear plenty of her music mixed in with a lot of other songs from a huge variety of various artists. What struck me though, is how incredible her voice sounded compared to others that people often consider better singers.

With the songs I heard ranging from Borderline from her first album to Masterpiece and I'm Addicted from MDNA, all I can say is Madonna is probably the most under-rated singer in popular culture. Sure, everyone loves her music and knows she is an incredible entertainer but her ability as a singer is wonderful. No-one can sing pure pop perfection as well as Madonna does with Into the Groove. Her vocals on Live to tell are stunning as I find all of her ballads are. She conveys every emotion for every type of song and has done so since the 1980's through to today. The variety in her style of music and how she sings it is second to none. Her voice itself is lovely, clear and so expressive. Do others think that we do not rate her ability as a singer enough due to her being such a superstar on so many levels ? I am interested in other fan's opinions on this.

i agree. shes a pop star with movie star looks but at the end of the day, shes a rock singer, those are her roots - and her live performances reflect that. she has more versatility as a singer than anyone ive seen in the last 30 years.

shes a marvel.

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There is something very special with M voice & I love it. I actually miss her voice if I don't listen to her music for a while.

Unfortunately, family & friends have always made a point to me that her voice isn't great or she lip syncs. :huh:

I have to admit I got worried with her vocals during the infamous grammys performance.

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well said Jan i agree with every point you make. M has a very deep and emotional voice, i love how she channels her emotions when she sings and i adore her deeper register

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One of the best voices in pop! Others may have a bigger range or can belt out a tune but only very few can transport so much emotion and honesty the way Madonna can. The imperfections in her voice make it perfect.

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So true! Her voice is so versatile and unique. She's definitively underrated as a singer for sure. But some people like to think she's the ultimate example of bad vocals in pop music for some biased reason. I even saw people saying Britney Spears, Rihanna and Rebecca Black are better singers than her :lmao: :lmao: :lmao:

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Guest CzarnaWisnia

At least she's singing while performing. There's someone else I shall not mention that has been hailed as a great performer and musician but basically lets the backing track do all the work. I still don't understand why someone would pay for that shit.

MDNA T had a lot more miming than her other tours though.

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well she could do a mini tour playing little places and promoting herself and her new record that way; to show she can sing. but she doesn't really seem to care as long as the tickets keep selling. (although the demand will be lower and lower now that she tours a lot more.)

i really think she should do it. and even now more than ever because its been sooooo long since she did a mini promo tour with some acoustic songs. she could really benefit from it. i guess not (yet again.. sigh) with this album because it seems to be EDM primarily, but heck, maybe she could.. I know Im gonna sound like a whiny madonnatribe member now but showing off her wonderful voice would be the best promo she can do now.

funny thing is that she seems to put out the best vocals when no one is watching (so to speak) like that little performance she gave for her secret project. elliot smith's cover of BTB. one of her best vocal performances in my opinion. if those 2 fans didn't film it we wouldn't have heard it. that's really sad actually. some say it's professionally filmed. so where is it? why not show it off? any other artist with a bad rep for singing would showcase that and put it in the critics' face.

doing little things like this could really change people's wrong perception of her. (although she does have her bad moments, obviously. but she's a million times a better singer than britney & co without a single doubt. ) I think releasing a ballad again or a dance song where her voice is prominent can help a lot too. and not relying on backing tapes on tour or shows too much. obviously. as pathetic as it sounds, people don't really care for the depth of a show. as soon as they see some lip-synching it's like she's a puppet. forget the powerful messages and amazing imagery of the opening of MDNA and Im a Sinner. she put the backing tape too loud so the quality is down and all is shit. it's as if that's how their mind works.

(what astonishes me is that copycat using a backing tape for like every song (except a few ballads) and getting away with it. she's on britney's territory but because she creams like a crazy person for 2 minutes she gets away with it. and with such a tacky kid eurovision song-contest-inspired show nonetheless as if all the previous faking cancels it out.)

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Madonna is NOT a studio act. She was born to perform on stage. And her live vocals take us to another dimension or something to that effect. Don't deny. Even her performance at the 1998 VMAs -- that was cool, she fucked them keys like no other. The only thing that irritates me is that she forgot the lyrics (the part where she sang "she's got a little piece of heaven.." instead of "she's got herself a universe gone quickly...", the breakdown).

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That would be nice, Nikki because I do enjoy her singing without all the bells and whistles. But I don't think it would change some people's impression that she can't sing. People are going to think what they want to think. If you look at the youtube comments on Behind the Bars, there are plenty of comments about what an awful singer she is and how bad she sounds.

People are kind of set in their opinions about certain artists. It works the other way too. There are artists who are known as great singers and if they go out and give a bad performance one day no one will say they sounded bad but will say they are great.

I think she should do more stripped down gigs around her voice if that's what she wants to do artistically, but not because she is trying to change people's perceptions of her because that never works. But if she wants to continue doing the kind of tours she has been doing, then she should do that and shouldn't change just to please people.

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While stuck in a frustrating and annoying traffic jam this afternoon for over 2 hours, I luckily had my trusted IPod and always have it on shuffle songs. Naturally, I have so many Madonna songs on it, that I always hear plenty of her music mixed in with a lot of other songs from a huge variety of various artists. What struck me though, is how incredible her voice sounded compared to others that people often consider better singers.

With the songs I heard ranging from Borderline from her first album to Masterpiece and I'm Addicted from MDNA, all I can say is Madonna is probably the most under-rated singer in popular culture. Sure, everyone loves her music and knows she is an incredible entertainer but her ability as a singer is wonderful. No-one can sing pure pop perfection as well as Madonna does with Into the Groove. Her vocals on Live to tell are stunning as I find all of her ballads are. She conveys every emotion for every type of song and has done so since the 1980's through to today. The variety in her style of music and how she sings it is second to none. Her voice itself is lovely, clear and so expressive. Do others think that we do not rate her ability as a singer enough due to her being such a superstar on so many levels ? I am interested in other fan's opinions on this.

Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

She's proven so many times she CAN sing well. She doesn't have neither the greatest vocal range nor she can't belt like Whitney (for example) could, but she can fucking sing and she really means every single word when she's doing it.

Also, while she lipsyncs a couple of songs during an exhausting, out of this world concert (because let's face it, even the performers half her age couldn't do what she still does), SHE CAN ACTUALLY SING LIVE WHILE PERFORMING 80%/90% of the time.

She's great and i love her and her voice.

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Madonna has an outstanding singing-voice that brings her songs to life... that's why it's very hard for other people to make decent cover-versions of her songs... they lack her emotions in their voice... anyway, very few female artists have had a career like Madonna.. she'll forever be a legend... so peoples opinion about her voice do not matter the least ;-)

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When people say she can't sing I just say "go and watch Evita then get back to me".

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While stuck in a frustrating and annoying traffic jam this afternoon for over 2 hours, I luckily had my trusted IPod and always have it on shuffle songs. Naturally, I have so many Madonna songs on it, that I always hear plenty of her music mixed in with a lot of other songs from a huge variety of various artists. What struck me though, is how incredible her voice sounded compared to others that people often consider better singers.

With the songs I heard ranging from Borderline from her first album to Masterpiece and I'm Addicted from MDNA, all I can say is Madonna is probably the most under-rated singer in popular culture. Sure, everyone loves her music and knows she is an incredible entertainer but her ability as a singer is wonderful. No-one can sing pure pop perfection as well as Madonna does with Into the Groove. Her vocals on Live to tell are stunning as I find all of her ballads are. She conveys every emotion for every type of song and has done so since the 1980's through to today. The variety in her style of music and how she sings it is second to none. Her voice itself is lovely, clear and so expressive. Do others think that we do not rate her ability as a singer enough due to her being such a superstar on so many levels ? I am interested in other fan's opinions on this.

I so agree Janelle! While she does receive praise for her songs , she rarely gets the credit she deserves for her wonderful voice (her songwriting ability is also criminally underrated). As you stated , she conveys such emotion and is so genuine and believable - something other technically better singers are sorely lacking . Others may have 8 octave ranges or whatever and that is certainly an impressive gift, but if they don't make me feel anything, I'm not going to keep listening. Madonna always makes me feel what she sings and has moved me emotionally many times with her voice and continues to do so. Sure, she may have had some less than stellar live performances over the years but even the best singers can have an off day and there are so many brilliant live performances she has done (like the ones mentioned in this thread) that prove she is a fantastic and gifted vocalist.

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Guest CzarnaWisnia

I think it may have to do with the singles she chooses to release. They've not exactly been showcasing anything emotional for years. What emotion are you expected to convey singing GGW, TUTR, GMAYL, Celebration, Revolver, Hung Up or 4 Minutes? The general public doesn't get to hear the other songs on her albums where she shines more vocally, which is a shame.

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Can't really improve on what you've already said, Janelle! :) Her voice is ... just magic. It is amazing the range of qualities she has demonstrated over the years in different styles and settings. And always with emotion, texture, and authenticity. There's something about her voice that moves me and touches me in ways many other singers do not. (That doesn't mean I don't ever enjoy other music, but ... Madonna just has a special quality that few others have for me.)

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