Here, we’ve compiled a list of the best Singers Quotes from famous authors such as Tulsi Kumar, Morgan Neville, Zooey Deschanel, Linda Ronstadt, Spencer Matthews. Let’s look at these pieces of wisdom. We definitely have something to learn from them!
1
It’s very important for singers to feature in their videos because when we do playback for Bollywood, we tend to become the voice of the character – whether it’s the actor or a situation that we are singing for.
2
A lot of backup singers are really shy and don’t want their life documented. They’re not pining to be celebrity. They’ve had a front-row look at celebrity for a long time, and most people find out it’s not for them.
3
I feel there are tone singers, and there are more vocal gymnastics singers. And I think that’s amazing when people can do that, but I think there’s room for the tone singers. And there aren’t a lot of them.
4
I’ve been lucky in my life to work with people who I consider master singers.
5
When I was younger I was interested in fame. Lots of kids want to be actors and singers and stuff and it’s fun to be recognized and fun to have pictures taken of you.
6
Oh, man, I love the Staple Singers. I love Pop Staples’ guitar playing, too. He’s one of my favorite guitar players.
7
In country music the lyric is important and the melodies get a little more complex all the time, and you hear marvelous new singers who are interested in writing and interpreting a lyric and in all form of popular music.
8
There’s lots of singers that I love; I don’t know if I used any of them as role models. Maybe I would have been a better singer when I started if I had.
9
Actors are given songs that suit their voice and skill. At the same time, those songs which have a complicated tune and need expertise to perform should be given to trained singers.
10
It’s very difficult to get recognized in Bollywood. There are so many talented singers and so much competition.
11
I think I’ve been able to connect with people and their emotions through my songs. I feel honoured that despite having so many talented singers around, my work is always appreciated.
12
Aretha Franklin, she’s just the most amazing singer ever. But I think there are so many singers that I just loved and sang along to on the radio. I guess I just enjoy trying out different styles along the way.
13
I saw a lot of operas from backstage and watched a lot of rehearsals – my parents were singers.
14
I was actually going to go to a conservatory after I graduated college, now I’m thankful that Pentatonix happened because I’m working with singers in this realm of mainstream music, and to learn about how all that comes together has really helped my cello playing.
15
I had to put me foot down with the first record company. It was about 1975, when singers were being given names like Gary Glitter and Alvin Stardust, so they wanted to call me Benny Santini just because me dad’s an Irish-Italian with an ice-cream business!
16
In our country, singers are known as the voice of actors.
17
There’s a lot of female singers and I don’t want to dismiss them, but the male – and I have to be careful – the black male voice in jazz, whatever you say, is an important voice, because there’s a tradition of the music that should be touched on, there’s a sound that should be touched on.
18
He was a manager, one of the singers, I guess talent coordinator for the local talent in Harlem. His name was Lover Patterson. He was living right across the street from where my dad had his restaurant. I guess he saw a lot of kids come in, a lot of my buddies.
19
I love to sing with great singers.
20
Since I started composing I have always worked with series of tempos, even superimposed the music of different groups of musicians, of singers, instrumentalists who play and sing in different tempos simultaneously and then meet every now and then in the same tempo.
21
I know what I want at least, and the older I get I think I’m better at getting it out of players and singers.
22
Hindi film music has always been completely driven by the plot. We singers never had any say in compositions.
23
There weren’t a lot of girl singers around. Paul McCartney and John Lennon were the guys I looked up to.
24
Jokes rot. They’re not like songs. I always envy singers – Sting is always going to sing ‘Roxanne’. But people want to hear new jokes. I’ve written jokes as good as ‘Roxanne’, I believe. But I can’t tell them again.
25
We’ve always been fascinated with movie stars and singers, but the fascination with people who really have nothing to offer is something new.
26
Brian Owens is a young guy from Ferguson, Missouri, my hometown, who I don’t think emulates me at all, but I really enjoy his particular style. He kind of makes me think of the older school of soul singers like Sam Cooke, Marvin Gaye.
27
I’ve been lucky, because people have done such great versions of my songs, and I’ve worked with the best singers ever, and I’m lucky that way.
28
Everybody I’ve ever seen live sings out of tune, even the greatest singers in the world. And of course if you make a single nowadays, they’ll autotune it anyway.
29
I’d request politicians to stop diverting attention from the actual issues that affect the country. Please stop resorting to soft targets like singers and musicians as scapegoats.
30
You get better as an actor over time if you’re growing. Like singers.
31
Reality shows are the perfect platform to boost one’s career and the only way new singers can get work.
32
There is an actor’s responsibility in presenting the emotional content of the lyrics to an audience. But whether you do that in a straightforward fashion or an ironic fashion or a blase fashion is all about opportunities, and singers are missing opportunities as artists if they don’t pay attention to the lyric.
33
I always liked Nat King Cole. I always wanted to go my own way, but I always favoured other singers like Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaughn, Ella Fitzgerald – I loved Ella Fitzgerald. There are so many of them. Nina Simone was one of my favourites – Johnny Mathis.
34
By the time Guns n’ Roses spent 28 months from 1991 to 1993 touring the ‘Use Your Illusion’ albums, the tour staff sometimes approached 100 people. We were carrying not only backup girl singers, a horn section, and an extra keyboard player, but also chiropractors, masseuses, a singing coach, and a tattoo artist.
35
I don’t know why I keep saying this, and I don’t know why I keep using their names… And I’m not dogging them. I’m not slandering them. I’m not saying they are bad musicians. But how can Taylor Swift or Justin Timberlake win for R&B and funk? They are pop singers.
36
‘X Factor’ isn’t just about internationally recognized singers, it’s about all the rest of us. There’s a human interest story there.
37
I normally listen to Spanish music – well, Latin music. I like a lot of singers.
38
Movie stars and singers never fully pass away because their images are replayed on film and recordings, over and over.
39
There are hundreds of people running around with great voices. If they would study and develop them they could become great singers.
40
There are a lot of singers who cannot sing to save their lives. We have to accept it, but thank God there is such a thing as live shows. It’s only when people are faced with live shows that the world gets to know how good or how bad they are.
41
I hadn’t been a recording artist all that long when albums came on the scene, and I was one of the first singers to point the way to how varied an album’s contents could be.
42
In Malaysia, we have a lot of divas, like Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey singers. And they were all so so talented, just very talented. For example, there’s this one jazz singer, her name is Sheila Majid, and I was always singing her songs.
43
Getting comments like that from even the young people at the shows who probably aren’t singers, the girls who just tell me that I’m an inspiration to them, for one reason or another.
44
I wanna get backup singers, but I don’t think I will ever get backup dancers.
45
I have the background singers of Ray Charles, the background singers of Smokey Robinson, and the background singers of Barry White and I built a choir around that.
46
Right out of school, I did this show called ‘Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812.’ It is based on a classical text with new music – not necessarily confined by a certain genre. It was a diverse, interesting group of musicians, actors, nonactors, and singers all creating this thing that is bigger than all of us.
47
I have written for, very fortunately, some great singers from Frank Sinatra to Elvis Presley.
48
When I’m just tryna funk, it’s gonna be the Staple Singers, man – Pop Staples. And Ray Charles. Ray could take ‘Eleanor Rigby’ and make that funky.
49
I grew up in eastern Kentucky, and we would sing in the churches, and there’s lots of good mountain church singers out there. Like a lot of folks who turn out to be secular music artists, that’s a lot of the training you put in, whether you know it or not.
50
I think Alison Krauss is one of the most amazing singers ever. As a songwriter – this is gonna sound cheesy – I love Randy Newman. And my mom passed on a love of Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell. At one point I was so into the Indigo Girls, just like I was so into the Dixie Chicks, those female harmonies.
51
Loretta Lynn, Tammy Wynette, Dolly Parton and I were the first female headliners, where we would book our own opening acts. Before that, it was a standing joke that it was more like we had ‘pretty little girl singers’ opening for a male headliner.
52
Just look at the messages today’s media are sending everybody, from TV and commercials to actors and singers. Kids are just drowning in that 24-7 and it’s getting really bad.
53
Novelists get to say plenty in their massive tomes; rock singers only get four-minute songs with two verses and a chorus’ worth of lyrics, and so there’s a real pleasure in accessing the intelligence behind the music, even if it doesn’t qualify as ‘great literature.’
54
I feel responsible to make something original as a Japanese artist. There are lots of singers and guitarists, but I feel that on stage it’s meaningless to copy something someone has done before.
55
It’s taken me to be an older guy, an old man, to have an old man’s voice. Because I only liked old men’s voices. As a kid, I didn’t like pip-squeaked singers.
56
I love James Taylor and Carole King, Joni Mitchell – this is, like, early ’70s stuff. I love the stuff from the ’40s. I love that tight harmony that the studio singers in the ’50s would sing. I love Patsy Cline. Yeah, I’m all over the place.
57
Young singers are much better educated musically, much better informed, through discs and videos, than I was.
58
I’m a big fan of skilled singers. Some of my favorites are Cee-Lo Green, Donny Hathaway, James Fauntleroy, and Kim Burrell.
59
I won because I was the people’s favorite dancer, and that’s what I work with these Idols on. There have been 1,000 singers before you that are as good or better than you, but you’re not trying to be the best singer ever. You’re trying to be the people’s favorite singer.
60
Lots of opera singers are just boring.
61
With all singers, insecurity is your best security. That’s why we’re such loud people and why we walk all funny. You think, ‘Are people interested?’ But I think our band has something and they know we don’t just put albums out. We do think about it.
62
My parents are actually very famous singers in Bulgaria. My dad was in a rock band, and my mom was in a pop group. They met, fell in love, and actually formed a group together to escape the country because it was Communist, and they couldn’t leave. They didn’t know any English but eventually found their way to America.
63
I now have plans to create a school for singers in Vienna, and I would love to found one in the Middle East, too, if possible.
64
It’s a misconception that singers in Punjab use music as a backup in case their acting fails. For me, singing is the front, it’s not the backup, it was acting that happened by chance.
65
I had different bands. I played with the Acoustic Warriors for the most part, without girl singers. It was the same kind of sound, acoustic guitar, bass, with violin and sometimes accordion, and the guys would sing, that kind of thing.
66
I grew up listening to Beethoven and old jazz singers like Billie Holiday, Nina Simone and Anita O’Day. But those were, like, the only women I listened to – I hated women pop singers.
67
The great thing about being the son of Maya Angelou is that I had the good fortune to grow up around some of the greatest black artists, dancers, singers, musicians, and actors of our time.
68
I have known Chithra long before I became a composer. Her growth has amazed me; she had not seemed extraordinary when I saw her singing at shows or recording tracks, for singers like S. Janaki and P. Susheela, at Tharangini Studio in Thiruvananthapuram.
69
Sometimes songwriters and singers forget that. They get a melody in their head and the notes will take precedence, so that they wind up forcing a word onto a melody. It doesn’t ring true.
70
I’ve always been a bit of an orphan, because actors say, ‘Well, he’s more of a dancer.’ And dancers say, ‘No. He’s really a singer.’ And singers say, ‘No. He’s an actor.’
71
Henley’s one of my favorite singers. I’ve maintained a friendship with Don over the years.
72
The very beautiful and very touching thing about opera singers is they are very willing to do whatever you want. Unlike actors, who constantly want to know why they’re doing something, opera singers will sort of follow you into the fires of hell.
73
Dorsey played the upright bass and steel guitar, as well as acoustic guitar. Johnny played acoustic guitar and together they were fabulous songwriters and singers.
74
Singers, like Frank Sinatra and myself, we interpret the songs that we like. Not unlike a Shakespearean actor that goes back to the greatest words ever written, we go back to the greatest songs and bring about my interpretation of them.
75
But I’m really into old music – bluesy, soulful singers, like Etta James, Ray Charles, and Aretha Franklin. I wouldn’t have minded being born in the 1960s!
76
There was a time when stars were made out of music videos but today singers rely on actors to make their singles hit. I find that sad.
77
I think I’m making a difference for a lot of young singers.
78
I was born in Faridabad but brought up in Delhi and Mumbai. My father had been living hand-to-mouth and literally slept on railway platforms when he came to Mumbai for the first time to become a film singer. My parents were both singers; they sang together and fell in love due to their singing.
79
A lot of the new people they choose on shows like ‘American Idol’ and things like that – I don’t ever hear lead singers. They always seem to choose to pick people that are great singers, fabulous singers, but they’ve never got the voice that makes a great lead singer.
80
It’s always beautiful to sing with other great voices. I like voices in general. It’s a big privilege to have great singers next to me.
81
I don’t want to bore people with stories about being in rock n’ roll and being a mother. Other singers do it. I can, too. I just do what I have to do. It’s not that hard. It’s just different.
82
My dad loved black singers. So listening to New Orleans music, eventually I wanted to play an instrument.
83
When I joined the music scene, a lot of big-ticket singers were not getting good work… It was a lean phase.
84
My favorite flamenco singers, they’re not trying to look pretty. They’re trying to put truth in what they do, in the way they express themselves. Sometimes that’s not beauty, but it’s beautiful.
85
Latino patriots have served and fought in every war. They are artists, dancers, singers, poets and journalists, teachers and scientists. More and more Latinos are becoming entrepreneurs and businesspeople, contributing to the wealth and economic well-being of the nation.
86
I think it was just an opera. Now, you go to opera, you expect to see and hear what the opera is. So, it was Catfish Row. It was singers. Marvelous voices. It didn’t make no difference what color they were.
87
I’m always thinking about songs and how I can sing a song that would resonate with my voice, my persona. I want it to be a pleasant experience that’s not just about hearing my voice. I remember some singers whose voices were so pretty, it didn’t matter what they sang – you loved it.
88
There are a lot of actors who try to get records made and try to make record deals, and everybody goes, ‘Ugh.’ It used to be expected in the entertainment business. I mean look at Sinatra, Bing Crosby. All these guys started out as singers.
89
I love female musicians, female singers.
90
Marty Robbins was one of the first singers that really hit me hard.
91
I have trouble watching singers because they are so sincere.
92
I listen to archival and historic recordings. I love watching singers. I learned a lot from watching videos.
93
As for singers, I’m fond of Mohit Chauhan.
94
To me, that’s when music was music. Every studio had a full symphonic orchestra and a whole bunch of singers they used on every picture. Every radio show had singers on it, and NBC and CBS had their own staff orchestras. Music was everything. And it was good music; it wasn’t based on three chords.
95
There are two ways of being creative. One can sing and dance. Or one can create an environment in which singers and dancers flourish.
96
For the most part, I’ve been influenced by black singers and singers I couldn’t sound like. Whenever I tried to do a dark note or a bent note, I would just sound like Hootie And The Blowfish.
97
I got to record at Capital Records, which was especially awesome. You see all those big singers like Ariana Grande, Beyonce: they’re all recording at Capital. It was really cool to be there every single day and just hang out.
98
The fact is that the learning process goes on, and so long as the voices are not stilled and the singers go on singing some of it gets through.
99
For me, I’ve written and produced for pop singers, but, like, female pop – I love that. I think it’s putting me in the game that I love girl pop. All my writing is inspired by it.
100
I’m a musician at heart, I know I’m not really a singer. I couldn’t compete with real singers. But I sing because the public buys it.
101
The male gay community seems to be very into female singers. I think it could be the songs we sing. They’re more open with their feelings. And they have good taste!
102
Punjabi film industry is not yet ready to give change to new actors, but if Punjabi singers, who already have a fan following, enter the industry, it will be a great help to uplift the industry.
103
Now, it’s not that Super Junior and I are singers or actors for the fans. We’re family.
104
We are true singers but that maniac Frank Farian would never allow us to express ourselves.
105
I think people who are artists, actors, singers, great songwriters, they tend to have a hyper state of emotion where they feel things very, very deeply, probably more deeply than the average person walking down the street where it may affect them, but not to the same extent.
106
You know, the funny thing was that I grew up listening to, like Whitney Houston and Cece Winans, and a lot of American singers.
107
My role models came in my imagination, from what I’d heard on the radio or on record… Vera Lynn I loved, but I’d only ever heard her on the radio. Gospel singers, Bessie Smith, Mahalia Jackson. So it was in my head that I visualised the emotion but no way to see how people do it.
108
It is only your passion which takes you forward. So it is my gyaan to all budding singers that keep faith in your passion and prepare yourself, because you will get that opportunity sooner or later, and if you can prove yourself, people will line up for you.
109
I have friends of mine that are actors or singers, and they’re the classic guys where, they’re onstage, and they’re like, ‘Okay, the blonde in the third row, seat 24, bring her to my dressing room.’ I’ve never, never taken advantage of that, I swear to God.
110
It’s extremely important just to keep things positive and happy as much as we can… I think it’s important that singers, actors, or whatever use our voice to spread positive messages as much as we possibly can.
111
There were a few singers at home, one or two aunties. We did have a piano but I think that got put on the fire eventually.
112
In the days following 9/11, when we were reeling and disoriented, there was a kind of solace to be found in old recordings, and even pseudo-folk singers like James Taylor seemed to be safeguarding something, drawing back bygone days.
113
I’m from Michigan, but I’m just as country as anyone else. Maybe I don’t have the speaking voice of most country singers, but it is what I love. It’s how I’ve always sung, and it’s what I grew up on.
114
We have always been like The Eagles and Fleetwood Mac in that we have numerous lead singers.
115
Singers like Gladys Knight are mostly responsible for how I learned to sing.
116
I don’t think I can speak of the achievements of Indian cinema because it’s so large next to me. It’s not stopping. It’s ever-growing. We are going towards the right direction. We are evolving as a filmmaking industry as actors, directors, producers, singers, musicians. Everybody just pushing the boundaries.
117
I have a fondness for jazz, particularly for jazz singers, Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald all the way through the Sinatra era.
118
World music can be sometimes like the lumber room in which all the non-English singers are dumped. When you are singing in Arabic, no matter what your style of music or artistic proposition is, you are faced with some of that reality.
119
I think when you’re doing a musical, you have to be attuned to the director’s vision. You’re working with a variety of people, singers and dancers, so you have to create movement and dance that is for all abilities. You have to further the story through the dance.
120
There’s a happy medium to everything, even with powerhouse singers. You don’t have to belt it out all the time. You don’t have to overuse something.
121
I don’t know what singers feel like when they make a song and people clap along and love it, but when people walk up to me and say the food was outstanding, that’s what it is all about. I cook because I like to make people happy.
122
I didn’t even respect singers until I heard Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra and Louis Armstrong.
123
There are very few singers who know the art of creating music which plays with people’s feelings and emotions.
124
I’m a fan of real singers. I just gravitate towards that.
125
I don’t know many singers who actually do like the sound of their own voice.
126
In the end, yes, I’m the singer of Old Dominion, but we’re a band of great singers and great musicians, and we just respect each other so much.
127
I try to always motivate young kids who want to be singers or actors or whatever it is they want to be that anything is possible with hard work. It doesn’t matter where you’re from or what language you speak – as long as you work hard, you can achieve those goals.
128
The people I admire are Tim Buckley and John Martyn – singers that grew into themselves and were honest. John Martyn is one of the great soul singers because soul is not a genre; it’s a feeling.
129
Along with ‘Free,’ where I sing quite a bit, there are additional songs on ‘Skin’ where you can hear my voice in the background – lots of ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs.’ But more often than not, I use my vocals to prompt other rappers and singers to feel calmer, better, bolder.
130
Composers, artists, actors, singers – all of them, I think, unconsciously learn from others. I’m sure it’s not conscious, but they can’t help it.
131
I have always looked up to Adele and Christina Aguilera as singers ever since I was very young, and now my favorite male singer is Hozier.
132
Harout Pamboukjian is one of the biggest Armenian folk singers in the world. In the ’70s, he was making these records that were really Zeppelin-influenced.
133
The male singers who had the same range I did, when I was growing up, didn’t do much for me. But put on Nina Simone, Carmen McRae or Nancy Wilson, and I’d be in seventh heaven. Female vocalists just did more with their voices, and that’s why I paid more attention to them.
134
Hindi film songs are the best of everything – whether it is lyrics, melody and talented singers.
135
All disco singers are non-professionals who can’t do live shows. It loses what black people have created.
136
I always thought competition was for horse races and it never belonged in art. I never felt that competitive with other girl singers, really.
137
People think top singers are overpaid, but opera houses have a top fee, which is a good thing. Of course concerts are different- everyone wants to make as much money as possible.
138
I’ve tried to learn as much as I can about the great jazz singers to understand what makes them important, vital artists, but there is always something more to learn.
139
I would love to make a bunch of country demos and write country songs for really great country singers.
140
It’s normal; Arab women have always been very active at the forefront of culture – as film producers since the 1920s; as singers, dancers, choreographers, writers for much longer than that.
141
I was brought up on listening to 78 rpm records from crooners to opera singers to solo piano players.
142
When classical singers or dancers look at cinema with derision, I have half a heart to tell them that they’re wrong. They’re losing a platform.
143
I’m under no illusion. There are lots of male singers out there with raspy voices.
144
My voice doesn’t sound like anyone else’s. I wanted to sound like my favorite singers when I was young because when you’re young you don’t put much value on uniqueness. But later I realized I had something special to offer.
145
For creators, especially for me as a composer, I am sure for singers also, it is sad. It is not exciting that we have to create something that someone else has already done before.
146
My practice is to take a sheet, write the song number in the left side, name of the production, and time of recording. Only when I have to fill the name of the singer do we look out to see who is free. When the singers we want aren’t there, I end up singing it! That’s how I became a singer.
147
I’ve worked with some of the best of them. Not just directors like Sam Peckinpah and David Lynch, but writers like Sam Shepard and singers like Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, and Kris Kristofferson.
148
It’s fun singing with other people who are really good singers. There’s something kind of poignant about braiding a couple vocals.
149
I’ve seen a couple of singer switches happen right before my eyes, one being Roy Khan to Tommy Karevik in Kamelot, and the other was Anette Olzon to Floor Jansen in Nightwish. Those happened with me present, and I saw how well the fans took to these singers because they were presented in the proper way.
150
I’m like two different people. The way I sing comes from the music I listened to when I was younger, from black American R&B singers. My speaking voice is something else. It’s what my mum and dad taught me.
151
I think Phil Collins is one of the most underrated musicians, singers, performers – he is absolutely amazing, I think, and I think he’s probably got a bit of a rough ride occasionally because he became so mainstream and so popular.
152
Whether it be Beyonce or Justin Bieber, we see singers who have absolutely nothing to offer anyone as they walk off stage clutching three Grammys in each hand.
153
Most of the dramatism in Wagner comes from a very close link between the music and the language of the text. So much of the expressivity of Wagner’s music dramas comes from the singers’ capacity to play with the sound of the language. This kind of thing you can do very well in concert performance.
154
Lou Reed is something like a personal favorite of mine, but you could always put me into that drawer of singers who can’t really sing, who speak their songs.
155
I’ve been blessed because there are a lot of great singers out there that didn’t make it past their first album.
156
George Jones is country soul. Once this kind of music sits in you and you take it all, it reaches down into your soul. George Jones to me was one of the most soulful singers of any genre. That drew me to his music. He knew how to present a song without really thinking about it.
157
I would wear flamboyant clothes and long hair, and most singers at the time didn’t.
158
It’s been a joy to be a part of other people’s journey, to be able to inspire and be a part of new singers coming up in this business.
159
I listen to a lot of singers, because I find phrasing to be one of the most essential elements of playing.
160
There are a lot of talented Punjabi singers in Bollywood and we are also using a lot of Punjabi songs and reprise versions of these songs in our films and I have also sung quite a few of them.
161
Like dancers with choreography or actors with scripts, jazz singers could take material that was known, even loved, then risk interpreting and revising it. They could conceal even as they revealed themselves. Inflection, timing and tonality were their language, at least as much as words.
162
My advice to singers is always the same: ‘Don’t sing the song, sing the lyric.’
163
I know singers; I’ve worked with some of the greatest singers in the world.
164
It worries me that young singers think you can shortcut the training and go straight to fame and fortune, and programmes like Pop Idol have encouraged that.
165
Ian and Sylvia, who, when you got right down to it, were essentially country and western singers. I just recorded his Four Strong Winds. It’s a wonderful song.
166
Nobody thinks mystery writers go around killing people, but they always seem to assume singers are singing about themselves, especially if you write melancholy songs like me.
167
There are many singers who have got an exceptional talent, but spend their lives singing in local trains or hotels. Does the country even know who they are? Music in India is restricted only to Bollywood. Whoever manages to make a mark there is remembered. The ones who fail to reach and make it big there are forgotten.
168
Broadcast radio was entering its own golden age during the Depression, with live programming on stations all through the day. Local stations needed singers, musicians, announcers, and whipcord personalities, along with Christian clergy to give prayers and pundits to speak on world affairs.
169
Obviously there are a lot of 12-year-olds over in America who are incredible singers.
170
I want to literally quit drag and go live in the woods somewhere and write music for my favorite female singers, like Miley Cyrus or Kacey Musgraves. I would love to be able to write music for them and hear these women I admire sing my songs. That would be like doing drag without having to get into drag myself.
171
Those old Appalachian singers use a falsetto sometimes. They can change their voices to sound high or low or really scratchy. When you’re singing, usually you’re trying to express some kind of pain or joy. I think that voice allows me to do a lot more of that.
172
The fate of the singers who, like my songs, went up in flame was also the fate of the books which I later wrote. All of them went up in flame to Heaven in a fire which broke out one night at my home in Bad Homburg as I lay ill in a hospital.
173
The mistake British comedians often make is trying to beat the Americans at their own game – getting visiting American singers on their shows, talking about ‘sidewalk’ instead of ‘pavement,’ sitting on high stools in a white dinner jacket doing ballads. That way, you simply end up with a mid-Atlantic mishmash.
174
When it comes to R&B singers, people think of soft men and technically I am not a soft man, not your typically R&B cat, so with a song like ‘Ice Box’ I wanted to be the voice for others.
175
I am on Facebook, but it’s mainly for friends and family, so it’s not my real name. But I am on Twitter a lot. I resisted it for so long, but I love it because I get to connect with people I look up to – actors, comedians, and singers.
176
While red carpets always existed, the importance given to fashionable appearances wasn’t that much in the mainstream music space. And now, even though everyone walks the red carpet, singers are expected to just walk down without waiting to be clicked or celebrated.
177
I believe I became one of the first singers to be launched via television exposure. I guess I was a new kind of musical stylist for a new kind of media.
178
I have often heard the statement made by foreign singers, as a demonstrated fact, that the German artists are artists in feeling indeed, and serious in their devotion, but that their singing is crude.
179
We know all about actors and singers because they do interviews, but with the royals, everything’s so tightly controlled. They live this strange reality behind closed doors.
180
I used to read the criticism on blogs about other people – mostly female actresses and singers – and even when they are extremely perfect and harmless, people still go after them. So I figure, if I’m going to get negativity regardless, why do I have to worry about what somebody thinks of me?
181
If writers, like comedians or singers, could only hear themselves bombing as they worked, it’s likely that certain books would be cut short after the first few leaden sentences.
182
I was born into a family of gospel singers. My early ambitions were many. I was going to be a ballerina. I almost had that one come true until I tore a tendon, so I transferred from my toes to my throat and that’s where the talent settled.
183
Back in Kuwait, I had started listening to a lot of English language music: western music, I would say – Kate Bush and Radiohead – and I loved Chet Baker, Etna James, a lot of singers and a lot of bands.
184
It’s easier to record because technology is advanced. That’s why there is a spurt in the number of new singers.
185
People who want to be singers can be nurtured and taught, and they can make great strides. But, the truth is, if you are completely tone deaf, it is never going to happen for you. It’s just a reality of life. It’s like me thinking I can be an Olympic swimmer. It ain’t gonna happen!
186
I’m the chairman of the board of the Actor’s Fund. It’s an incredible organization. It helps anybody that has made their living in the performing arts and entertainment: actors, singers, dancers, film producers, agents, managers, ticket takers, writers, anybody in times of need or crisis.
187
I advise wannabe singers to form a band, practise in your garage if you have to, but do as many charity or open mic shows as possible to get experience. I sang for seven years before getting a record deal, and I was already loving what I was doing. I just got lucky and got discovered.
188
I am one of the few composers who has been lucky enough to manage to do songs with female singers, despite the labels and producers wanting otherwise. They don’t believe that songs with female voices can work and often push us to work with male singers.
189
I listened to a lot of what my grandparents listened to: George Jones, Johnny Cash – a lot of old country singers. Patsy Cline.
190
I grew up with singers. My father’s mother sang opera. My dad was a big band singer. I can’t remember a time there wasn’t music in the house, so I grew up listening to great songwriters – George Gershwin, Cole Porter – and my grandma was playing opera for me before I was 3.
191
A lot of young people want to become jazz singers, but there are not more jam sessions like there used to be. I just want to have the opportunity to be able to bring that to some young people.
192
All great singers copy someone else in the initial stages.
193
Yes, because as composers we are looking for textured voices, and often the singers we find are not trained to perform in a studio environment. So we need technology to doctor their voices to suit the format.
194
I never really thought I was going to be a singer, honestly. I never listened to singers; I always listened to rap music.
195
We don’t live in an ancient era. Today, collaboration doesn’t mean two singers standing next to each other at the mic to sing together.
196
I’d say music runs in my blood. My parents are exceptionally talented singers, so even before I was born, it was a known fact to them that I’d become a singer. Thanks to my genes, I started off at the age of three and since then, music has meant everything to me.
197
People in Ireland take in the whole song. After a long history of great singers and songwriters and poets, they are able to consume the entire song – not just the external; they go inside.
198
With my previous record deal, it’d be like, ‘OK, so I have this track then, EMI – do you know any singers, maybe? Do you have any singers on your little label there?’ And funnily enough, they didn’t. But I prefer finding unknown singers myself anyway.
199
I’ve always said that Adele has turned so many people on to British singers – whether female singers or just like music from this country in general.
200
I feel very good when songs are recreated or different singers sing the same song.
201
Often you get wonderful singers who maybe aren’t as strong as actors, or you get wonderful actors who can’t sing very well.
202
James Ralston, my guitar player, has performed with Tina Turner for about 22 years. Jim Hanson on bass has played with Johnny Cash, Rodney Crowell and Bruce Springsteen, and they’re fantastic musicians and amazing singers they get a really cool vocal sound together.
203
Nowadays, everyone writes a cookbook. Models, singers, whatever, everybody thinks that they can do it and cook on TV. What they don’t understand is that if you want to do it well, you need to put in the hours.
204
As singers, we’re always taught to sing forward and place everything in the front of our resonating chambers. Donna Summer always sang in that space and had it naturally. Her muscle memory, the way she was built – she was a natural singer.
205
I can sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to you in twelve different places, but one of them is going to make you feel a certain thing, maybe it’s a vulnerability, maybe an innocence, maybe another way is sexy and soulful or bluesy whatever it is, but with singers, exploring keys, I think, is important.
206
When you talk about me having a favorite singer, it’s Celine. She is not only one of the most amazing singers, but she is just an amazing person.
207
There are some sounds that English singers find quite difficult to manipulate.
208
We made history. Two Latin urban singers on the cover of Billboard is incredible. I’m proud of myself, I’m proud of J Balvin, our music, and of all Latinos.
209
The past is filled with people who aren’t traditionally thought of as fantastic singers singing these songs that capture people; songs like ‘Louie Louie.’ I just aim toward that, and I think I’ve gotten better at it.
210
I actually prefer female voices to listen to, mostly, but among the male singers whose voices I like are Jeff Buckley, Art Garfunkel, that sort of voice. Contemporary crooners rather than rockers.
211
I think that freshness and that innocence is something that is missing from a lot of female singers. I’m certainly not denying that I’m young, but I’m not fluff.
212
Protest is patriotic. Since the beginning of musical time, American singers and songwriters have used their talent and bully pulpits to show us America’s strengths and shortcomings.
213
One piece of advice I often give young singers, including my son Vijay, is to not get sidetracked from their primary duty of learning music. This is the age of marketing and hard sell. Everybody wants instant results. But no amount of hard sell will prop you up if you don’t hone your craft.
214
Well, the first band was at nine, and I was on the road when I was 12 with the Sullivan Family Gospel Singers.
215
Audiences like their blues singers to be miserable.
216
The first artist I really loved was Stevie Wonder. That opened the doors to other soul singers like Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin.
217
For a producer, you want to be in L.A. You want to be close to the action, and in L.A. there are always singers, artists, songwriters, collaborators and other producers. It’s easy to get access to all that, which gives you more opportunity to work records.
218
Country singers put a lot of soul into their songs, and I enjoy that.
219
I went on tour with Ricky Skaggs and his wife, Sharon White, and the White Family in 2015. It was fantastic. They’re all the greatest singers of that country stuff, traditional country up into bluegrass.
220
So many great singers we know have come from the church.
221
I am absolutely not a roll-on-stage kind of girl! I would be totally freaked out if I didn’t warm up, and I don’t know how other singers do it.
222
Even if change in a voice is light, and people maybe don’t notice it, that slight change is, for singers, a bit of an earthquake.
223
A ton of little girls I talk to, they want to be actresses or singers or models.
224
A stand-up comic is judged by every line. Singers get applause at the end of their song no matter how bad they are.
225
You’re one of the most natural, great singers I’ve heard in a long time.
226
Oh, man, pop singers are terrible actors. We’re all bad.
227
There is one thing I should say, and it’s important: Young Broadway singers and anybody who is an orator of any kind – lawyers who have to speak in court or pastors or anyone who has a lot of stress on their vocal cords: You should do the maintenance. You should do whatever it takes to feel fresh and good.
228
I’m a big fan of Lou Reed, and I do a lot of talking through songs. It’s more effective with my vocal limitations and also more powerful to slightly sing sometimes. It depends on the emotion, but I’m never going to try to compete with great singers.
229
My favorite singers in the world have been black singers, and you can go to any church and hear the best singers in the world – and I’m a singer, and I love singing!
230
I prefer to listen to a lot of male singers rather than females. Sometimes I find it a bit too shrill. I even find my own voice a bit too high.
231
The Italians are not indulgent, as Americans are. They don’t have the patience to teach young singers how to move. They think you should learn in school.
232
I find male singers and what they sing about fascinating. It makes me realize how little we know about ourselves and how little I know about myself. It’s interesting to see the male perspective.
233
I have always loved soul singers.
234
All kids, when they go to school, are pretty good artists and dancers and singers and poets. All that gets buried, basically through being educated, or brainwashed.
235
I say nice things about Mariah all the time. I tell Mariah all the time how much of a fan I am of her. She’s one of my favorite artists of all time… She’s shaped a generation of singers.
236
I think that live shows are more important for singers than composers, because composers still get a lot of recognition as compared to a singer.
237
A lot of what I have always done is do other singers.
238
I wish I could sing. I love singers, but I am way too shy. Scares the hell out of me.
239
My favourite singers are people like R. Kelly and people like that.
240
I never wanted to be like other blues singers. I might like hearing them play, but I’ve never wanted to be anyone other than myself. There are a few people that I’ve wished I could play like, but when I tried, it didn’t work.
241
I was 25 myself once. I also thought I knew everything. I also thought that I could give singers singing advice and comics comedy advice. When you’re that age, you know it all, so I understand it. But when you’re tired and you don’t have patience for it, you definitely snap.
242
A lot of singers find a musical genre people like and stick with it. That’s being a conformist. I sing ballads, rock, salsa, rap.
243
We’ve never been, really, singers or performers. We are a little bit but we are not like Mick Jagger or Keith Richards or anyone like that.
244
Every good gospel singer you can hear is a scat singer; they’re just using different syllables. There are a lot of jazz singers out there, and more coming out of the churches.
245
Jazz radio is not very friendly to pop singers who decide to make a jazz record. But a lot of people have been. A lot of the people I’ve talked to like the record.
246
I have so much respect for the big opera singers that I never dare to say I’m a singer.
247
Singers put emotions into songs which the actors later replicate on screen. When I know that I can also present myself well on-screen, why not do that?
248
I think there’s always been singers like that and i’ve done my fair share of cheese as well.
249
I was looking online; many singers have sung songs for the elections, but I am not doing anything like that.
250
Haryanvi songs are a rage in Bollywood, and some talented singers hail from Rohtak, Kurukshetra etc.
251
I really like female singers; I’ve got zero interest in working with male singers. Any male voice I need to do, I can do.
252
There is a lot of propaganda about opera singers not being able to act. That’s not necessarily true and hasn’t been true for a very long time. And certainly there were those instances when singers were told they need to fit into a certain size dress. Of course, women. Men? They just make the costume bigger.
253
Sometimes I like to make music together with a singer or with singers.
254
I love TLC and Aaliyah and all those early-millennial R&B singers.
255
I seek out hard things. I tried to imitate other singers. It was a self-discovery for me to move from imitating others to me growing to sing in my own voice. The opera was difficult and it felt like a personal conquest.
256
I always considered myself being an organizer. I’m very good at teaching singers, I’m very good at staging a show, to entertain people. But I never included myself. I never applied this to me as an artist.
257
Before the 20th century, to be a successful musician was merely to be one who was employed. A few, such as Liszt, Paderewski and several singers, had phenomenally lucrative careers, but they were rare – and Liszt gave all of his money away, travelling by choice in a third-class rail carriage.
258
Usually, certainly British singers, adopt an American accent when they sing and I think that usually people are thinking of somebody else, but I just think of very specific people.
259
I had this voice when I was in high school, except nobody thought much of it then. I developed it by imitating singers I admired – Alison Moyet, Boy George, later on Nina Simone.
260
Hanson is not the pop band that a lot of people think we are. I think we’re a lot more rooted in a lot of music history… we’re songwriters, we’re singers, we’re players first. We’re not entertainers, we’re not celebrities, and frankly, we don’t really want to be.
261
I listened to Billie Holiday a lot in order to learn to sing. She remains one of the extraordinary jazz singers. But my intent is to become my own voice, to be able to interpret these songs in my own way.
262
I think, as singers and performers, we are ambassadors of the human experience. I don’t want to get bored just talking about myself.
263
For me, it is incredible to hear singers in the metal scene telling me I had been their inspiration.
264
It often seemed like we had become a nation where the only heroes were rock singers and ball players and that there were no large men of probity who could be called upon for the task.
265
All you need in a successful boyband is two great singers and three okay singers and you get can away with it.
266
I had been warned by other directors that opera is hell. The singers don’t want to do what you want.
267
A lot of singers entered the industry with me. A lot of them struggled. Many have not been able to make it but some have sustained.
268
There are some singers that know exactly when to go, and others hang on much too long and that is the same, that is the same with judges.
269
In Korea, when I started, there wasn’t a trend where people chose to be both actors and singers. I was the first to do both. It was a great deal hard work, but I got a lot of support and love from my audience. And for me to receive the same treatment overseas, I felt that I was also very lucky.
270
I love singers like Hayley Williams from Paramore and Amy Lee from Evanescence.
271
The only thing is, with me – this may sound weird – there are a lot of R&B singers from that era that I actually don’t know. Like, I never grew up on Boyz II Men.
272
So many singers want to act, and so many actors try to sing.
273
The voice muscle doesn’t last forever. I have a lot of friends who are classical and opera singers. My friend Beverly Sills stopped singing in her 50s, so I’m careful with mine. But I’ll keep going as long as it lets me.
274
I like the audience to be engaged with the numbers I am singing and do not repeat my songs at any of my concerts. There are thousands of songs that I have lent my voice to with so many other singers, so why bore my audience by singing the same songs?
275
Americans can pretty much sing anything, whereas foreign singers are often limited in style, language, even composer.
276
We call out-of-tune singers as ‘Aurangazeb singers.’ I wouldn’t say I’m as bad as an ‘Aurangazeb singer,’ but I’m definitely no singer.
277
There are many singers who in spite of not making big in the industry are doing numerous shows and earning a lot of money.
278
Looking back at those great singers like Gordon MacRae and Howard Keel – they have such a specific kind of style that it seems like we don’t really appreciate anymore.
279
We have such fantastic talent in India, and there are some great Marathi singers, great sound producers, great sound engineers, and a great breed of lyric writers. But the problem is that you need a platform.
280
Knowing so many people like myself who are singers and in traveling bands, the people you’re in a relationship with feel slighted because they feel you’re giving all your energy to your fans, and there’s a lot of truth to that.
281
Unlike singers, who can earn for years by singing one song, we artistes have to be on our toes all the time. If I write something funny or create a joke in the morning, there will be someone narrating my own joke to me the same evening.
282
I don’t think I’m turning back the clock by doing these old tunes. I love rock and roll and popular music. It’s just that the spirits of the singers whose songs I do are living within me. That’s why the songs come out in the voices of the original singers. I’m not doing imitations. That’s the way they sound inside me.
283
You know, fame is a funny thing, man, especially, you know, actors, musicians, rappers, rock singers, it’s kind of a lifestyle and it’s easy to get caught up in it – you go to bars, you go to clubs, everyone’s doing a certain thing… It’s tough.
284
This is a fault common to all singers, that among their friends they will never sing when they are asked; unasked, they will never desist.
285
There are so many soulful singers, even the ones coming from London, like Adele and Jessie J, who are just amazing. It feels like a really cool time to be making music now.
286
Singers like her, Patti, Tina Turner, I revere them when I’m in their presence.
287
I know Becky G, Natti Natasha, and other Latina singers, we have been working many, many years and now we have the opportunity to show what we have, to show what we have been doing for many years. Great things are happening for women in the Latin music industry.
288
I think what makes the Byrds stand up all these years is the basis in folk music. Folk music, being a timeless art form, is the foundation of the Byrds. We were all from a folk background. We considered ourselves folk singers even when we strapped on electric instruments and dabbled in different things.
289
Like all soul singers, I grew up singing in church but sometimes I would leave early and sit in the car listening to gospel band, The Blind Boys of Alabama. Hearing their lead singer Clarence made me connect the idea of church and show business and see how I could make a career singing music that stirred the soul.
290
Lead singers, they’re their own breed.
291
I usually listen to various kind of singers. Curtis Mayfield was my favorite. James Brown, Tina Turner, queen of soul, I started to get that musical essence from that time before I even do my first song.
292
For all my songs, I keep changing singers till I am not happy.
293
My father had lived in the States in the 1960s for a while and came to love American Songbook material. Even today, he sometimes recognizes singers that I never even heard of, which is beautiful and inspiring.
294
The way I see it, all the popular singers are strippers.
295
I don’t really have a style icon but I really admire the way people dress like Gaga, Rihanna and Gwen Stefani. It’s good to be inspired by singers who write music and dress incredibly – rather than models and people in the fashion industry who dress immaculately anyway because it’s their style.
296
I grew up in a house that was always happy, and my family was always music, music. I started playing percussion very young, because I had some uncles who were musicians and all my aunts were singers.
297
For singers, I believe we can sing in a lot of keys. I know I have this big range, but the point is to find a key that emotionally connects people.
298
I am one of the few singers who has reinvented oneself with every song.
299
I hear singers on a daily basis and there are some who really end up touching your heart.
300
I think soul singers are much better singers than I am.
301
So many of these comics are just frustrated singers or actors – they want to get a gig doing a sitcom. It’s paint-by-the-numbers comedy, lame joke-telling. They’re drawn to it as a career move.
302
Guitar players never listen to lead singers.
303
I’m one of the best producers, one of the best singers. You hear me? I’m not just one of the best rappers. I’m one of the greatest ever.
304
I originally wanted to be an opera singer. I studied classical voice at the University of Washington but soon realised I didn’t have the instrument or the discipline. The road for opera singers is more difficult than for actors.
305
One of my all-time favorite country singers is a guy named Conway Twitty.
306
Jazz scares me. I’ve witnessed so many incredible singers and jazz musicians. Pop and soul music have always been the things that I felt like I could do.
307
I wouldn’t really call myself a Jazz singer I think it’s offending to real Jazz singers to call me a Jazz singer.
308
I’ve been a massive obsessive about jazz singers all my life.
309
I want to lead the pack in the process of making Indian singers bigger than actors internationally.
310
It took me a while to really believe in myself or feel determined about it, but then once I realized that it’s possible for anyone, and these people who are singers started off very normal… I realized that it was not that hard to do.
311
‘The Voice’ has lots of singers who fit the ‘Idol’ mold of young, innocent ingenues with psycho stage moms. But it also has long-suffering adult pros, with a whiff of thirtysomething despair in their voices. That adds an edge of realness.
312
There have always been female artists and singers putting bands together all the time. But we were not always getting credit for that because we didn’t know any better.
313
What’s interesting about Vampire Weekend, everyone in the band, except for me, had a band in high school in which they were the lead singers. And I’m the one who never had that experience.
