#1 [url]

Jan 20 11 6:15 PM

In terms of current pop singers, excluding mariah, whitney and celine (because they are unanimously voted the 3 best of the past 3 decades and are all 10's), I think Kelly Clarkson has by far the best voice. I'd give her a 9.5. I think she's the best non-mariah "mariah", well, ever. I think Gaga is an 8 as well, I think her tone is pretty great. I'm not a fan of Beyonce's voice, but I can recognize she is a great singer as well. I'd give her a 7.5.

I occasionally love Rihanna's voice, but realize her range is extremely limited. I'd give her a 5.5. And, at the moment, I'd say Ke$ha is the worst. I think her talk-singing is even atrocious. I'd give her a 3.The worst part of that is I really like some of her songs, but think she ruins all of them. If Britney sang all of her songs, it would be amazing.

In terms of Britney- I won't even rank her voice. I'll just say that (abashedly), I love it. Her tone is extremely unique and I love that she is sort of acting when she sings. People always say it's all autotune and vocoder and stuff- it's not. I also happen to think her voice on a lot of her ballads is beautiful (Everytime- her snl performance of everytime proves she can sing ballads live, My Baby (i love how raw and pretty her vocal is), and her softer singing voice has some gorgeous tones.

Regardless, Mariah is #1 without question. I just watched her "Emotions" performance from unplugged- in the first 20 seconds, she wipes the floor with any other sing I've ever heard with her power, range, melisma, control, tone- holy poop she's amazing.