Female Artists that Sound like a Man

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nina simone, marrianne faithful, nico all i have talked about and all have been described as "singing like a man"

i dont think so, do you ?
what are the gender politics of this ?
who else fits ?
what about the other shoe ?

― anthony easton (anthony), Friday, 2 May 2003 01:02 (twenty-one years ago) link

Defintely Nina Simone.

Wendy O. Williams circa Coup D'Etat through Kommander of Kaos.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 2 May 2003 01:25 (twenty-one years ago) link

whichever Pointer Sister sings the response stuff on "Automatic"

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Friday, 2 May 2003 01:34 (twenty-one years ago) link

My girlfriend. She even has a song about it.

― colin s barrow (colin s barrow), Friday, 2 May 2003 01:49 (twenty-one years ago) link

Wendy O. Jesus, I miss her.

― maria b (maria b), Friday, 2 May 2003 02:19 (twenty-one years ago) link

Joan Jett on some of her harder tracks.

― colin s barrow (colin s barrow), Friday, 2 May 2003 03:52 (twenty-one years ago) link

i dont think so, do you ?

somehow nina simone and nico sound unmistakably female to me too. i can't remember marianne faithfull for some reason.

what about the other shoe ?

lyrics aside, when i first heard "pony" i thought ginuwine was female. this goes for a lot of male r&b artists, i guess.

also, sloan's jay ferguson sounds like a pretty girl to me, especially on "between the bridges" - or at least he sounds like how dave foley in drag looks.

or something.

― brian badword (badwords), Friday, 2 May 2003 04:40 (twenty-one years ago) link

i've always thought that wendy o. williams sounded more like a woman who'd chain-smoked a carton of cigs a day for a decade, more than like a man.

― Tad (llamasfur), Friday, 2 May 2003 04:49 (twenty-one years ago) link

memphis minnie.

― j.a.e., Friday, 2 May 2003 05:16 (twenty-one years ago) link

I agree with Nico to an extent, and I've run into a lot of people who thought she was a man when they first heard her.

I'll throw in Dot and Betty Wiggin. Agree or disagree?

― Clay K., Friday, 2 May 2003 05:38 (twenty-one years ago) link

There's another thread like this one. I thought that the best suggestion was Timi Yuro. I don't think I would confuse any of the singers mentioned so far in this thread with a male singer. It's not just depth or roughness in the voice that makes it sound masculine.

― Amarga (Amarga), Friday, 2 May 2003 06:38 (twenty-one years ago) link

Tracy Chapman?

― Mark Groves (ujaku), Friday, 2 May 2003 07:10 (twenty-one years ago) link

Helen Shapiro.

― MarkH (MarkH), Friday, 2 May 2003 07:45 (twenty-one years ago) link

I still refuse to believe that Billie Myers is actually a woman.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Friday, 2 May 2003 07:45 (twenty-one years ago) link

Nina Simone most definitely

― Esquire1983 (esquire1983), Friday, 2 May 2003 08:50 (twenty-one years ago) link

Annie Lennox occasionally

― russ t, Friday, 2 May 2003 10:13 (twenty-one years ago) link

Tanita Tikaram sometimes.

― MarkH (MarkH), Friday, 2 May 2003 11:02 (twenty-one years ago) link

With the exception of Cyndi Lauper, all my favorite female vocalists have a gruff, ballsy voices. But I don't think that qualifies as singing "like a man." I understand the sentiment, though. Tina Turner, Janis Joplin, Johnette Napolitano, Theo (Lunachicks), Selene Vigil, Mia Zapata, Suzi Gardner and Donita Sparks etc. Basically, I really don't go for the Gwen Steffani types.

― Jeanne Fury (Jeanne Fury), Friday, 2 May 2003 13:45 (twenty-one years ago) link

It's interesting but if you listen to Mavis Staples and try to think of it as a man singing then she sounds like a man - normally she doesn't and, anyway, she's still miles better than Aretha Franklin no matter what.

― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 2 May 2003 13:48 (twenty-one years ago) link

as i said on the other thread, Sarah Vaughan...also, the woman singing on Pointer Sisters' 'Automatic' sounds a lot like that Nerada bloke

― stevem (blueski), Friday, 2 May 2003 14:07 (twenty-one years ago) link

Katrina from Lovelife definitely sounds like a man -- she's a growler/bellower, not just a throaty voice.

― Hurlothrumbo (hurlothrumbo), Friday, 2 May 2003 14:32 (twenty-one years ago) link

and, of course, Alison Moyet when she gets husky....

― russ t, Friday, 2 May 2003 14:50 (twenty-one years ago) link

i came here to say Tracy Chapman, but i've been beaten to that punch. It doesn't help that she also looks mannish on the first album cover.

― derrick (derrick), Friday, 2 May 2003 18:27 (twenty-one years ago) link

"he sounds like how dave foley in drag looks."

You mean strangely, disturbingly shaggable?

― skwurel plise (Squirrel_Police), Friday, 2 May 2003 21:27 (twenty-one years ago) link

Although most of you have never heard of her, the other Norwegian members here will probably second and third me on Norwegian singer Anne Grete Preus.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Friday, 2 May 2003 22:01 (twenty-one years ago) link

Amanda Lear.

And I keep hearing people describe Carla Bozulich's voice as androgynous, but I disagree.

― Mean Guy, Friday, 2 May 2003 22:10 (twenty-one years ago) link

Eddy Izzard.

― Helltime Producto (Pavlik), Friday, 2 May 2003 23:26 (twenty-one years ago) link

Sarah Vaughan???

― Sean (Sean), Saturday, 3 May 2003 00:11 (twenty-one years ago) link

wendy case of the paybacks

― Richard Hung Himce Elf, Saturday, 3 May 2003 09:49 (twenty-one years ago) link

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