It's time for the Jesika_jay music awards for top artist! (Top 10 Artists)

Member Name: jesika_jay

Product:	Top 10 Artists
Date:	23/07/02 (86 review reads)
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I recently reviewed my top ten favourite singles and had so much fun doing so that I decided to bore you all with my top ten artists as well. So, here goes...

...10. Nelly Furtado

She is a very different yet very talented young woman who writes clever lyrics and devises catchy tunes. She composes her music to cater for a variety of tastes and has done various remixes of some of her hits with various artists. I like her sense of fashion as well- she wears what she likes no matter what the latest commercial fashion is and always looks good whatever she chooses to wear. Apart from this, Nelly has a very distinctive voice and uses it to her potential with the songs she writes.

9. Blur

Are my favourite indie group (well, actually the only indie group I like) who also have produced songs for many different tastes; I remember way back when they released the catchy 'Boys and Girls' it became a massive dance hit with various different remixes being played all over the club scene. Then there was 'Song 2' (my second favourite after Coffee and TV) which was a really good headbanging tune, if a little short (it only lasted just over 2 minutes in length. Blur have been a bit quiet lately, but when they release more music, it will be good, as Blur are a very consistent band in that everything they make is top quality!

8. UB40

I love their style! Their songs are so chilled out and romantic- I could listen to them for hours; whilst they make great background music when having that special dinner for two, they also make top karaoke tunes to drunkenly belt out when on a mad night out! (although I can't say I've sung them in karaoke before as they are, surprisingly enough, more suited to the male voice) My favourite track of theirs is 'Kingston Town' as I used to live in Kingston Town (not THE Kingston Town, I'm afraid, but Kingston a bit closer to home, in good ol' Surrey) and it brings back
memories of happy days... Close second comes 'Red Wine'.

7. Bob Marley

Everyone's top ten should feature good old Bob somewhere along the line- a classic artist not to be bad mouthed and all respect to him as the founder of reggae! I adore some- all- of his tunes. I don't actually have his albums (he was a little bit before my time, I must stress) but my parents and their hippy friends had all his old vinyls and I grew up listening to them. A proper chilled out guy with some proper chilled out tunes.

6. India Arie

Surprisingly enough, I found out about this trendy soulful newcomer through my dad (who is known for having an 'old' kind of taste) as he brought her album and plays it all the time. At first I thought she must be some oldie who's been around since the fifties, but after being forced by my dad to listen to her record, I found that I was wrong. My dad was very proud of himself, telling me that she was a new artist and that I should revise my chart music knowledge as HE knew who she was and I didn't- it's usually him who doesn't know anything about modern music, not me!
Anyway, I'm glad I listened, because India Arie has a beautiful voice and a style all of her own. She is a complete individual, not phased by strong commercial music tendencies to sing on and on about money, independence and materialism (naming no names here). India Arie writes all her songs herself and the words show depth and meaning to her songs. I am about to be a big big hypocrite now as I mention artist number 5...

...5. Usher

Having just slagged off commercial music and singing about materialism and money, I am now putting Usher into my top 5. Why? What makes him so different from the average money-hungry, materialistic rich kids who are oh so happy to let everyone know the size of their bank balances and just how many fancy cars they have in their fancy drives? And no, its not his r
ather large six pack. He's talented, that's what, even if he does seem a bit of a poser! I was quite surprised at the quality of his album; I bought it after liking all of his released singles, but didn't expect all of the other tracks on it to be such good quality. There are some tough RnB tracks combined with a mixture of quite soulful ballads which are actually really beautifully written and sung! Usher thoroughly deserves his place at number 5!

4. Fleetwood Mac

I might've said quite a bit about them in my singles review, but they have to be high contenders in my artist chart as they have released so many tracks which I have loved since I was a kid. Some of the best include 'Rhiannon', 'The Chain', 'Everywhere', 'Little Lies'... the list could go on for a while, but I won't go into it now as it could get very long and boring!
The best thing about them is seeing them do live performances- I already mentionned their performing ability- when they are on stage, they don't just sing the songs, they act them out as well. They put their heart and souls into every song and are fascinating to watch.
Isn't it just so annoying when people claim to be singers but don't sing live when they are doing a performance? That really really bugs me as the whole point in being a singer is to SING, is it not? When people mime, it just shows that they can't actually do what the studios tell us they are good at! (maybe this was a good thing too throw in room 101, it just reminded me of it when thinking about how good Fleetwood Mac are when they are live.)

3. Mary J. Blige

All of Mary's tracks have been consistantly brilliant and I have every album that she has ever released as I like her music so much. All of her songs are personal to her, which I think is nice, rather than just some old dribble that some 'pop stars' dream up.
The thing I like most about her is
her passion for what she is singing- every time I see her do a performance- no matter what programme it is, or how small the performance, she always looks as though she is totally lost and involved in the music she is singing. She also has a very distinctive voice and releases loads of albums and loads of singles, so her fans are never short of new material.

2. Whitney Houston

Whitney is- in my opinion- one of the luckiest people ever to have lived because she has been blessed with one of the best voices ever to exist. That woman can reach perhaps the highest- and lowest notes ever (apart from Mariah Carey of course who can somehow sing in a pitch higher than that of a mosquito) She ahs such an extensive range and a very very strong and controlled voice. Her voice is also extremely powerful and emotional. Her songs are- again- sung with passion and style.
She hasn't released anything for a while, though. Haven't heard anything about her for a while either. I'm beginning to wonder if she has just vanished off the face of the planet...

1. Madonna!

Congrats, Madonna for reaching the Jesika_jay top spot, this is one achievement more to be proud of!
She has been around so lond and blessed us with such merry tunes in her early years, and quality strong tracks in her later years. She has a record number of singles released and of number 1s reached.
Madonna is- and always will be- a classic and a legend to popular music.

The End.

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