to think Ronan Keating can’t sing? Which other famous singers can’t sing?

[BlackBucketOfCheese]

When I was a teenager I thought Ronan Keating had a great voice (despite not being my type of music) but I think I probably just fancied him. I’ve just heard one of his songs from around 1999 pop up on a Spotify playlist and he sounds like a goat yelping into a Pringles can.

I know lots of pop stars can’t sing for shite but in my head I had him in a bracket of people who can sing nicely - despite probably not having listened to his music for 20+ years.

Can RK sing?

Which other pop stars who people think are decent singers actually turn out to sound like a farm yard animal with trapped wind.

Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan are poets who sing truths and that is a lovely sound to my ears. I love Madonna and Celine too for different reasons.

Don't think Cheryl, Kylie have good voices and Arianna and Mariah do my nut in.

I think tone, emotion, genre, lyrics, tempo, chorus, energy, looks, style, all play a part in whether you enjoy listening to someone. Most of it is down to personal taste and there are definitely singers who aren't the best technically that I enjoy listening to over ones who are but who don't appeal to me in some other way whether that be their pitch, genre, particular song.

How has no one mentioned Jedward. Rohan Keating boils my piss so don't think I can be objective as I hate that extra bit he ruins normal sounding words with.

Ronan Keating can sing
Robbie Williams is a mimic rather than a singer
Alicia Keyes can't sing in tune
Paul McCartney can still sing but probably shouldn't
Lady GaGa can seriously sing
Katy Perry and Pink can both sing much better than their big hits showcase.

There's a band called Blue October and my friend loves them but I think the singer sounds like he has a bubble in his throat
I disagree. Justin Furstenfeld can sing. Blue October are amazing live, never lip sync.

Florence (and the machine)

Sorry, what - bon jovi and pink?
There is a massive difference in liking the style of someone/a band, and saying they can't sing

My friend is a professional session singer and has worked in a studio with Jess Glynn. Apparently her voice is terrible, really flat and she relies totally on effects.

Adele is lucky she can still sing at all. She was just belting in her early stuff and it was not a surprise she had to go off with vocal issues - there was no technique at all.

Madonna.

Jarvis Cocker is a terribly weak singer (good songwriter though).

Simon Le Bon hit a terrible note at Liveaid (2 thirds of the way in)

I don't think it's a binary can or can't sing, there are very few people who straight up can't sing like Jenny Frost, Kelly Osborne, Geri Halliwell just like there are very few people who sound good singing everything. There are people that are technically excellent singers but I just don't like their voice or singing style.

Most people have a range that they sound good in and prior to using studio trickery people sang in that range. For example people may not like Kylie's voice but there's not a huge difference between how she sounds recorded and how she sounds live. More recently they use auto tune and other techniques so that singers release recordings that they can't ever reproduce.

But bad singers have good days and good singers have bad days and judging on one performance isn't necessarily fair. For example Cheryl sounded crap with Gary Barlow but sounded much better duetting with Snow Patrol

Ellie Goulding and Robbie Williams

Madonna can sing.She wouldn't be the biggest selling female ever if that was the case.
She's not a belter like Mariah.Mariahs voice goes through me. She has no Warmth.

For me, a bad singer is one that sings with no emotion. Doesn’t matter how technically good they are. You can tell when a singer really ‘means it’!

@Snookie00

These posters saying that George Michael, Beyoncé and Adele can’t sing. Who do they think is a good singer?

Not liking their style of music doesn’t mean that someone can’t sing. And these professionally trained “friends” that are scathing of famous singers always seems like petty jealousy.

Well, I love Adele's voice, but she's had serious vocal problems while still quite young because of bad vocal technique. She had to have surgery and it's why she gave up touring.

Singing is about more than a nice sounding instrument.

@Caramelwhispers

I might get shot down for this but the Gibbs brothers from the Bee Gees particularly Robin. Cilla Black couldn't sing either, however these singers were entertainers so got away with it.

Not a Cilla fan but listen to 'any one who had a heart' on youtube , i think she was just starting off , she is very good.

Ronan always sounds like he's singing through his nose.
Jess Glynn sounds like a goat.

Just catching up and laughing at the replies.
Come on, Ronan Keating’s voice sounds like it could be used as an example of a covid dry cough.

Jess Glynn is so distinctive and flutey, I feel like I should like her voice but for some reason I don't. Maybe I'd feel differently if she had better songs.

For me, a bad singer is one that sings with no emotion. Doesn’t matter how technically good they are. You can tell when a singer really ‘means it’!

For me Ronan Keating sings it best, when he sings nothing at all.

I saw Ronan live in Once the Musical (which is genuinely utter wank but that’s not his fault. It was about 5 years ago and he was decent. Not world class but I think can’t sing is but harsh

... this however made me laugh

For me Ronan Keating sings it best, when he sings nothing at all

I've heard a lot of singers who were very passionate but still sounded like shit. Passion and emotion are important, but to be art, they need to be shaped.

In our house Tsmainsqueezw Anyone who had a heart is sang Cilla style as a way of condemning a singer. I wonder if we are listening to the same versions!

I watched footage of Live Aid online the other day. Watching singers like Phil Collins, who I am not a particular fan off, walk on stage with nothing apart from a piano to accompany him and just sing live - zero auto tune or any other 'help' - made me realise how poor singers are today compared to those of yesteryear. They had real talent and could actually sing. Honestly most of the best singers are already dead.

The Beatles. All of them. How did they ever reach the status they did?

ugh Stevie Nicks, so flat and out of tune I hate her voice soo much.

Adele just shouts, and says Skyfow...crumbow which bugs the hell out of me

Jess Glynn bleaty awful noise

Whitney and Mariah screeching shouty divas.

Mel C was the WORST of the Spice girls

All the Beatles together so nasally.
George Harrison or Lennon , good in their own right. McCartney however, nasal and v annoying.

Saw Elton John live, front row, we left less than half way through, ( we were given the tickets as we werent really fans but he was feckin dismal)

I'm glad someone started this thread as I was getting a rage with the radio playing all these flippin annoying artists and who the hell thought they were good, and it seems lots of us are in agreement that many artists have dreadful vocals.