Before Adele: A Short History of British Soul Divas
Dusty Springfield was a pop chanteuse with a blond beehive until she recorded 1969’s erotically charged Dusty in Memphis, backed up by crack Southern musicians; it set the mold for almost every U.K. soul woman to follow.
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Annie Lennox
The Eurythmics frontwoman was first known for her chilly New Wave precision, but few singers can match her full-throttle soul-diva melisma. She’s delved into R&B for most of her career, covering songs by the Persuaders and the Temptations.
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Sade
The first Brit soul singer to become a real-deal R&B star in the U.S. Unlike her brassy, Motown- and Stax-influenced U.K. peers, Sade has a cool purr that suggests luxury and longing. She re-emerges once a decade, conquers the adult-contemporary world, then glides back to her castle.
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Alison Moyet
First known as the singer on Yazoo’s early-1980s hits like “Don’t Go,” Moyet became a fixture on the U.K. charts, thanks to her huge deep-blues contralto and brokenhearted love songs.
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Amy Winehouse
Her public image threatens to obscure her gifts: Winehouse borrows from Sarah Vaughan, Sixties girl groups and modern R&B, and melts them down into corrosive soul ache.
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Adele
In a year of sex bombs and art projects on the pop charts, the biggest surprise hit of 2011 is 21, a breakup LP that could have been recorded in Muscle Shoals, Alabama – the work of an earthy, full-figured 22-year-old whose go-to outfits are billowy turtleneck sweaters.
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