Best live singers (all time)

Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra (December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer, songwriter, actor, producer and director. He is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, having sold more than 150 million records...

Maynard James Keenan (born James Herbert Keenan; April 17, 1964), often referred to by his initials MJK, is an American progressive metal singer, songwriter, musician, record producer, winemaker, and actor, best known as the vocal...

Enrique Miguel Iglesias Preysler (born May 8, 1975), simply known as Enrique Iglesias is a Spanish singer, songwriter, actor, and record producer. Iglesias started his career in 1995 on an American Spanish Language record label Fo...

Freddie Mercury (born Farrokh Bulsara; 5 September 1946 – 24 November 1991) was a British singer and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist and lyricist of the rock band Queen. As a performer, he was known for his flamboyant...

Bryan Guy Adams (born 5 November 1959) is a Canadian musician, singer, and photographer.

Whitney Elizabeth Houston (August 9, 1963 – February 11, 2012) was an American singer, actress, producer, and model. Houston is one of pop music's best-selling music artists of all-time, with an estimated 170–200 million records s...

David John "Dave" Matthews (born January 9, 1967) is a South African-born American singer-songwriter, musician and actor, best known as the lead vocalist, songwriter, and guitarist for the Dave Matthews Band. Matthews was born in...

Thomas Edward "Thom" Yorke (born 7 October 1968) is an English musician best known as the singer and principal songwriter of the alternative rock band Radiohead. As a multi-instrumentalist, Yorke mainly plays guitar and piano, but...

Céline Marie Claudette Dion ( born 30 March 1968) is a Canadian singer, songwriter, businesswoman and occasional actress. Born into a large family from Charlemagne, Quebec, Dion emerged as a teen star in the French-speaking world...

James Alan Hetfield (born August 3, 1963) is the co-founder, lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist, main songwriter, and lyricist for the American heavy metal band Metallica. Hetfield is mainly known for rhythm playing, but has also per...

Johnny "J.R." Cash (February 26, 1932 – September 12, 2003) was an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, actor, and author. Although primarily remembered as a country music icon, his genre-spanning songs and sound embraced rock...

Jeffrey Scott "Jeff" Buckley (November 17, 1966 – May 29, 1997), raised as Scott "Scottie" Moorhead, was an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. After a decade as a session guitarist in Los Angeles, Buckley amassed a followin...

Eddie Vedder (born Edward Louis Severson December 23, 1964) is an American musician who is best known for being the lead vocalist and one of three guitarists of the grunge band Pearl Jam...

John Robert "Joe" Cocker (20 May 1944 – 22 December 2014) was an English singer and musician. Cocker's cover of the Beatles' "With a Little Help from My Friends" reached number one in the UK in 1968. He performed the song live at...

Robert Anthony Plant (born 20 August 1948) is an English musician, singer, and songwriter best known as the lead singer and lyricist of the rock band Led Zeppelin. He has had a successful solo career spanning over 40 years...

Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and composer. With John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr, he gained worldwide fame as a member of the Beatles, one of the...

Sir Michael Philip "Mick" Jagger (born 26 July 1943) is an English singer, songwriter and actor, best known as lead vocalist and a founding member of The Rolling Stones.

Adele Laurie Blue Adkins (born 5 May 1988) is a British singer and songwriter.

Edward Christopher "Ed" Sheeran (born 17 February 1991) is an English singer-songwriter, musician, and occasional actor.

James Douglas "Jim" Morrison (December 8, 1943 – July 3, 1971) was an American singer songwriter, and poet best remembered as the lead singer of The Doors.

Mark Freuder Knopfler (born 12 August 1949) is a British singer, songwriter, guitarist, record producer and film score composer. He is best known as the lead guitarist, lead singer and songwriter for the rock band Dire Straits, wh...

Björk Guðmundsdóttir (born 21 November 1965), known mononymously as Björk, is an Icelandic experimental singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and occasional actress. She initially became known as the lead singer of the alterna...

Mariah Carey (born March 27, 1969 or 1970) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. She rose to prominence after releasing her self-titled debut studio album Mariah Carey in 1990. It went multiplatinum and...

Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, record producer, dancer, and actor. Called the King of Pop, his contributions to music and dance, along with his publicized personal life...

Paul Frederic Simon is an American musician, actor and singer-songwriter. Simon's fame, influence, and commercial success began as part of the duo Simon & Garfunkel, formed in 1964 with musical partner Art Garfunkel...

Tracy Chapman (born March 30, 1964) is an American singer-songwriter. She is a multi-platinum and four-time Grammy Award-winning artist.

Christopher Anthony John "Chris" Martin (born 2 March 1977) is an English singer-songwriter, pianist, guitarist, and is the lead vocalist and co-founder of the band Coldplay.

Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight, 25 March 1947) is an English singer-songwriter, composer and pianist. He has worked with lyricist Bernie Taupin as his songwriting partner since 1967; they have collaborated o...

Ronald Belford "Bon" Scott (9 July 1946 – 19 February 1980) was a Scottish-born Australian rock musician, best known for being the lead singer and lyricist of Australian hard rock band AC/DC from 1974 until his death in 1980. He w...

Edwin Farnham "Win" Butler III (born April 14, 1980) is an American-Canadian lead vocalist and songwriter of the Montreal-based indie rock band Arcade Fire. His wife Régine Chassagne and younger brother Will Butler are both member...

Aretha Louise Franklin (born March 25, 1942) is an American singer and musician. Franklin began her career singing gospel at her father, minister C. L. Franklin's church as a child. In 1960, at the age of 18, Franklin embarked on...

Marvin Gaye ( born Marvin Pentz Gay Jr. April 2, 1939 – April 1, 1984 ) was an American soul singer, songwriter, and musician. Gaye helped to shape the sound of Motown in the 1960s, first as an in-house session player and later as...

Shania Twain (born Eilleen Regina Edwards; August 28, 1965) is a Canadian singer and songwriter. Twain has sold over 85 million records, making her one of the world's best-selling artists of all time. She is also the best selling...

David Scott "Dave" Mustaine (born September 13, 1961) is an American musician. He is best known as the co-founder, guitarist, and lead singer of the American thrash metal band Megadeth, and well known as the original lead guitaris...

Michael Trent Reznor (born May 17, 1965), known professionally as Trent Reznor, is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and film score composer. As a vocalist and multi-instrumentalist, he has led the industrial rock pr...

Iggy Pop (born James Newell Osterberg, Jr.; April 21, 1947) is an American singer-songwriter, musician and actor. He is the vocalist of influential proto-punk band The Stooges, who reunited in 2003, and has been known for his outr...

Scott Richard Weiland (né Kline; October 27, 1967 – December 3, 2015) was an American musician and singer-songwriter. During a career spanning three decades, Weiland was best known as the lead singer for the successful rock band S...

Ray Charles Robinson (September 23, 1930 – June 10, 2004), professionally known as Ray Charles, was an American singer, songwriter, musician and composer. He was sometimes referred to as "The Genius", and was also nicknamed "The H...

Christopher Francis Ocean, is an American singer, songwriter and rapper. Ocean started his career as a ghostwriter for artists such as John Legend, Justin Bieber, and Brandy. In 2010, he became a member of alternative hip hop coll...

Declan Patrick MacManus (born 25 August 1954), better known by his stage name Elvis Costello, is an English musician, singer-songwriter and record producer. He began his career as part of London's pub rock scene in the early 1970s...

Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949) is an American musician, singer, songwriter and humanitarian. He is best known for his work with his E Street Band. He is nicknamed "The Boss".

Amos Lee (born Ryan Anthony Massaro, June 22, 1977) is an American singer-songwriter whose musical style encompasses folk, rock and soul. He was born in Philadelphia and graduated from the University of South Carolina with a degre...

Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll (born February 2, 1977) is a Colombian singer, songwriter, dancer, record producer, choreographer, and model. Born and raised in Barranquilla, she began performing in school, demonstrating Latin, Arab...

Brian Johnson (born 5 October 1947) is an English singer and songwriter. Since 1980, he has been the lead singer of the Australian rock band AC/DC, with whom he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2003...

Brian Hugh Warner (born January 5, 1969), known professionally as Marilyn Manson, is an American musician, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, actor, painter, multimedia artist, and former music journalist. He is known for his cont...

Stanley Allison "Stan" Rogers (November 29, 1949 – June 2, 1983) was a Canadian folk musician and songwriter.

Zhao Wei (born 12 March 1976), also known as Vicki Zhao, is a Chinese actress, pop singer, and film director. She is considered one of the "Four Dan Actresses" in China. While studying at Beijing Film Academy, Zhao became an Asian...

James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was an American singer and dancer. The founding father of funk music and a major figure of 20th-century popular music and dance, he is often referred to as "The Godfather of Sou...

Janis Lyn Joplin (January 19, 1943 – October 4, 1970) was an American singer-songwriter who first rose to fame in the late 1960s as the lead singer of the psychedelic/acid rock band Big Brother and the Holding Company, and later a...

Ben Harper (born October 28, 1969) is an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist.