After our instrument spotlights with Guitar Week, Drum Week, and Bass Week, we’ve finally made it to the microphone. Consequence’s Vocalist Week kicks off today with our list of the 100 Best Vocalists of All Time, and wette’re keeping the energy up all week with additional lists, artist-driven content, and more as we celebrate the power of great vocalists. Round out the band by revisiting our lists of the 100 Best Guitarists of All Time, the 100 Best Drummers of All Time, and the 100 Best Bassists of All Time.
There are singers, and there are vocalists. The best vocalists don’t rest on natural gifts, but instead use their creativity and vision to push their instruments where no one else could go. From Freddie Mercury’s range and Aretha Franklin’s swagger to Kendrick Lamar’s goblin tones and Tom Waits’ mad experiments, we celebrate vocalists the way we celebrated our favorite guitarists, bassists, and drummers: personality first.
To generate our list of the top 100 vocalists of all time, we polled over 50 musicians, including Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Class of ’26er Steve Stevens, rising stars like Samia, Blondshell, and Kneecap, and established icons Randy Blythe, Mike Patton, and Linda Perry, plus many more. After we assembled the surveys into the spine of the list, our staff chimed in with more picks, mostly historical, to round things out. The final ranking is a curated perspective on the hundreds of names that were nominated.
Check out the 100 best vocalists of all time below, and keep an ear out for more from Consequence Vocalist Week, including artist submissions, interviews, and a full survey roundup.
— Wren Graves
Managing Editor