1. Mariah Carey
As I've mentioned before, Mariah is my favourite singer. She's had a long career (coming up 25 years) which started in 1990 with the release of her debut single Vision Of Love and debut album Mariah Carey. To date she has released 62 singles including Vision Of Love, Honey, Heartbreaker, My All and We Belong Together, and 14 studio albums (as well as additional remix and greatest hits albums) including Mariah Carey, Music Box (1993), Butterfly (1997), The Emancipation of Mimi (2005), Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel (2009) and her latest Me. I Am Mariah... The Elusive Chanteuse, released in 2014.
Here is Obsessed which is from Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel and came out in June 2009. The song is supposed to be aimed at rapper Eminem who claimed to have dated Mariah, something which she has denied. In the video she's dressed up as an Eminem lookalike!
There is also an Obsessed remix featuring rapper Gucci Mane which you can watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7HO62Hmkg4
2. Jennifer Lopez
Jennifer started out as a dancer on the American TV series In Living Color in the 90s. She went on to act in films and launched a music career in 1999 with the release of her debut single If You Had My Love and first album On The 6. Since then she has brought out 44 singles which include her debut, Love Don't Cost A Thing, Waiting For Tonight, Jenny From The Block, I'm Into You featuring American rapper Lil' Wayne and Booty with Australian rapper Iggy Azalea, and 8 studio albums, including On The 6, J.Lo (2001), This Is Me...Then (2002), Love? (2011) and her current release A.K.A which came out last June. She has also released a remix album and a greatest hits.
This is Love Don't Cost A Thing, one of J.Lo's most successful singles. It got to No 1 in several countries, including the UK, Ireland and New Zealand. It's from her 2nd studio album J.Lo. Her 2nd husband Cris Judd is a dancer in the video.
3. Celine Dion
Celine Dion began her career by releasing French albums in her home province of Quebec in Canada. She is French Canadian and sings mainly in French and English, although she has also released music in other languages including Spanish, Mandarin Chinese and Japanese. Her debut album La voix du bon Dieu (which according to Wikipedia translates as "The Good Lord's Voice or "The Voice of the Good God" came out in November 1991 when she was 13. The first single from the album was Ce n'était qu'un rêve ("Nothing But A Dream/It Was Only A Dream").
She was managed by René Angélil, who she later married. Celine also won awards at the Japanese singing contest Yamaha World Popular Song Festival in 1982 and won the 1988 Eurovision Song Contest representing Switzerland.
In 1990 Celine released her first English album Unison and went on to become a star in the English speaking world as well as the French. She has released 14 French studio albums and 11 English so far. Some of the most well known English ones are Celine Dion (1992), The Colour of My Love (1993), Falling Into You (1996) and Let's Talk About Love (1997). Her French album D'eux (1995), which translates as "Them", "About Them" or "From Them" is classed as the best selling French language album of all time.
Celine's career is even longer than Mariah's and she has released an impressive 140 singles! Some of the most popular are The Power Of Love, Think Twice , Because You Loved Me from the 1996 film Up Close & Personal, All By Myself and My Heart Will Go On from Titanic (1997). Her latest French album is Sans attendre (2012) and her latest English one is Loved Me Back To Life (2013).
In recent years Celine performed in residence at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas but last summer she put the show on hold to spend more time with her husband Rene, who is ill.
Here's one of my favourite Celine songs, Falling Into You. It's from the album of the same name and was released in February 1996. I used to have this album on cassette tape and thought I might have a CD copy too but if I do, I don't know where it is now! But with iTunes it's a lot easier to buy music these days :)
4. Christina Aguilera
Christina performed on American TV show The Mickey Mouse Club as a pre teen and teenager along with contemporary Britney Spears (see below). Prior to that she appeared on American TV talent show Star Search in 1990. In 1998 she sang the song Reflection from the Disney film Mulan.
Her career took off with the release of her debut single Genie In A Bottle and self titled debut album in 1999, 7 studio albums and 42 singles followed. Genie In A Bottle is one of her best sellers to date.
Some of Christina's hit singles are Come On Over Baby (All I Want Is You), Dirrty featuring rapper Redman, Fighter, Beautiful, Ain't No Other Man, Not Myself Tonight and Say Something with A Great Big World. One of her most successful albums is Stripped (2002) and other releases include Back To Basics (2006), Bionic (2010) and her latest Lotus (2012).
Christina is half Ecuadorian and half European American, and in 2000 she brought out a Spanish language album Mi Reflejo (My Reflection) which contains Spanish versions of her hits Genie In A Bottle, Come On Over Baby and I Turn To You and original Spanish songs.
Genie In A Bottle is my absolute favourite Christina song. It was No 1 in the US, UK, Canada and Australia and No 2 in some other countries.
Check put the Spanish version Un Genio Atrapado (I think it translates as something like "A Genie Trapped" or "Trapped Genie"): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsYg48vuOTo
5. Sarah Connor
German singer Sarah Connor (birth name Sarah Lewe) is very successful in Germany and other countries in mainland Europe. Her career began in 2001 when she brought out her debut single Let's Get Back To Bed- Boy! with the rapper TQ and she has since released 7 studio albums, one compilation album and a Christmas album. The compilation (Sarah Connor) was Sarah's debut US album and contains songs from her other releases, such as French Kissing from her debut Green Eyed Soul (2001), Bounce from Unbelievable (2002) and Music Is The Key from Key To My Soul (2003).
Sarah has released 23 singles. Her most well known songs in the UK are Let's Get Back To Bed-Boy!, One Nite Stand (Of Wolves and Sheeps) featuring Haitian rapper Wyclef Jean, Unbelievable and Bounce. From Sarah With Love was her breakthrough single in mainland Europe (it wasn't released in the UK). Sarah's last album was Real Love (2010) but she is currently working on a new album. She has also been a judge on the German version of X Factor.
This is One Nite Stand (Of Wolves and Sheeps) which is from Unbelievable.
6. Koda Kumi
Koda Kumi (or Kumi Koda in Western terms, since in Japan the surname comes
first) is one of the most popular singers in Japan. She is my favourite J-pop singer. :) Kumi has released 56 singles and 11 studio
albums so far. Her breakthrough single was Real Emotion/No Kotoba and her career took off further after she released her 4th studio album Secret in 2005. In 2006 and 2007 she was Oricon's best selling artist.
Koda's music is mostly J-R'n'B, with some J-pop and more rocky and
dancey songs too. As well as Secret her albums include debut Affection (2002), Black Cherry, (2006), Kingdom, (2008), Trick (2009), Dejavu (2011), Japonesque (2012) and Bon Voyage (2014). Her 12th album Walk in My Life is scheduled for release on 18th March (in Japan and probably Hong Kong and Taiwan as well).* It's my birthday coming up, so maybe I could have it as a belated birthday present!
Kumi's debut single Take Back came out in 2002 and some other singles are Butterfly, You, feel and Candy featuring Japanese rapper Mr. Blistah and Koishikite. Kumi has also released greatest hits albums. A few of them are BEST ~ first things~ ( 2005), BEST ~second session~ (2006), BEST ~ BOUNCE & LOVERS, (2007) and BEST~ third universe~ & 8th AL UNIVERSE ( a double that also contains her 8th studio album).
This is Candy, one of my fave songs from BEST ~second session~.
Note: Avex videos are blocked from being shown on third party applications. If
you click on the video, you can watch it fine on YouTube. :)
For more Koda Kumi songs check out my post of Top 10 songs: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2014/06/top-10-koda-kumi-songs.html
*A good resource for buying Japanese music is YESAsia.com.
7. Britney Spears
Britney acted in off-Broadway musical Ruthless! as a child and also appeared on Star Search like Christina Aguilera (see above). She later starred alongside Christina on The Mikey Mouse Club. After originally planning to audition for girl group Innosense, Britney ended up as a solo artist and launched her career with her debut single ...Baby One More Time in 1998 (in America, it wasn't released here till early 1999, I remember getting it for my birthday), which is one of her most successful singles. (The famous schoolgirl video!). In 1999 she released her debut album of the same name. Her second album Oops!..I Did it Again was the fastest selling album by a female artist ever in the US.
Altogether Britney has released 42 singles and 8 studio albums. Her hit singles include ...Baby One More Time (No 1 in several countries), Oops! I Did It Again, I'm A Slave 4 U, Toxic and Hold It Against Me. In addition to Baby and Oops! her most successful albums have been Britney (2001) and In The Zone (2003). Circus (2008) also reached No 1 on the American charts. Britney's latest release is Britney Jean (2013). She has also brought out greatest hits and remix albums.
Here is Womanizer. It's from Circus and came out in September 2008.
8. Jessica Simpson
Jessica debuted in 1999 in the US with the single I Wanna Love You Forever. (It was released here in early 2000). She had also auditioned for The Mickey Mouse Club when she was younger but didn't get in. Her first album Sweet Kisses was 2x platinum in the US and successful internationally. Jessica's success continued with the release of Irresistible, the first single from her 2nd album (also called Irresistible) in 2001.
During her early career Jessica was dating Nick Lachey from American boyband 98 Degrees. They released the duet Where You Are in 2000. The couple married in October 2002 and starred in a reality show called Newlyweds: Nick & Jessica which documented their married life. Newlyweds was popular around the world and raised their profile. Jessica released her 3rd studio album In This Skin in 2003 in America and 2004 in the UK. It's one of her best selling albums. The first single off In This Skin was With You and the video featured Jessica and Nick in scenes similar to the TV show. Newlyweds ended after 3 series in 2006, due to Nick and Jessica divorcing.
Jessica has released 5 studio albums in all, her last 2 being A Public Affair (2006) and Do You Know (2008). She has also brought out 2 Christmas albums. In addition to singing she has appeared in several films, .the most well known being The Dukes of Hazzard (2005), for which she recorded a cover of country singer Willie Nelson's These Boots Are Made For Walking.
This is Irresistible, one of my favourite Jessica songs.
There is a So So Def remix which you can watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eid9veVtp1o
9. Delilah
British singer Delilah (real name Paloma Ayana Stoeker) first appeared on the music scene when she sang the vocals on dance/dubstep duo Chase & Status' single Time in April 2011. In September that year she released her her debut single Go. 5 singles followed, Love You So, Breathe, Inside My Love (cover of Minnie Riperton's), Shades Of Grey and Never Be Another featuring English rapper Devlin. (The album version doesn't feature him). Delilah's debut album From The Roots Up came out in summer 2012. She hasn't released any music since 2012 but is currently working on her second album. I hope it comes out soon!
Here is Go. It was originally released as a digital download.
10. Katy B
Another British singer, Katy B (real name Kathleen O'Brien) debuted in 2010 with Katy On A Mission. Before that she featured on other people's songs. She released her first album On A Mission in spring 2011. More singles from On A Mission were Lights On (with English rapper Ms. Dynamite), Broken Record, Easy Please Me and Witches' Brew. Katy also did the vocals for Magnetic Man's single Perfect Stranger and the song appears on her debut album.
In late 2012 Katy released the EP Danger as a free download. Her second album Little Red came out in February 2014. Singles from the album so far are 5am, Crying For No Reason and Still.
This is What Love Is Made Of. It came out as a single in summer 2013 (digital download only) and doesn't feature on any albums or EPs.
That concludes the list! Do you have a fave singer from it? Who are your favourite female solo singers?
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