Sheryl Suzanne Crow is an American singer, musician, songwriter, and actress. She is noted for her optimistic and idealistic subject matter, and incorporation of genres including rock, pop, country, folk, and blues. She has released twelve studio albums, five compilations, and three live albums, and contributed to several film soundtracks. Her most popular songs include "All I Wanna Do" (1994), "Strong Enough" (1994), "If It Makes You Happy" (1996), "Everyday Is a Winding Road" (1996), "My Favorite Mistake" (1998), "Picture", and "Soak Up the Sun" (2002).
Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner, known as Sting, is an English musician, activist and actor. He was the frontman, principal songwriter and bassist for new wave band the Police from 1977 until their breakup in 1986. He launched a solo career in 1985 and has included elements of rock, jazz, reggae, classical, new-age, and worldbeat in his music.
Boyz II Men is an American vocal harmony group from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, best known for emotional ballads and a cappella harmonies. Formed in 1985, they have been a trio composed of baritone Nathan Morris alongside tenors Wanyá Morris and Shawn Stockman since 2003. During the 1990s, Boyz II Men was a quartet with bass singer, Michael McCary, who left the group in 2003 due to health issues that were diagnosed as multiple sclerosis.
Erica Abi Wright, known professionally as Erykah Badu, is an American singer and songwriter. Influenced by R&B, soul, and hip hop, Badu rose to prominence in the late 1990s when her debut album Baduizm (1997), placed her at the forefront of the neo soul movement, earning her the nickname "Queen of Neo Soul" by music critics.
Norah Jones is an American singer-songwriter and pianist. She has won several awards for her music and, as of 2023, had sold more than 50 million records worldwide. Billboard named her the top jazz artist of the 2000s decade. She has won nine Grammy Awards and was ranked 60th on Billboard magazine's artists of the 2000s decade chart.
Joscelyn Eve Stoker, known professionally as Joss Stone, is an English singer, songwriter and actress. She rose to prominence in late 2003 with her multi-platinum debut album, The Soul Sessions, which made the 2004 Mercury Prize shortlist. Her second album, Mind Body & Soul (2004), topped the UK Albums Chart and spawned the top-ten single "You Had Me", Stone's most successful single on the UK Singles Chart to date. Both the album and single received one nomination at the 2005 Grammy Awards, while Stone herself was nominated for Best New Artist, and in an annual BBC poll of music critics, Sound of 2004, was ranked fifth as a predicted breakthrough act of 2004. She became the youngest British female singer to top the UK Albums Chart. Stone's third album, Introducing Joss Stone, released in March 2007, achieved gold record status by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and yielded the second-ever highest debut for a British female solo artist on the Billboard 200, and became Stone's first top-five album in the US.
Ana Lila Downs Sánchez is a Mexican singer-songwriter. She performs her own compositions and the works of others in multiple genres, as well as tapping into Mexican traditional and popular music. She also incorporates indigenous Mexican influences and has recorded songs in many indigenous languages such as Mixtec, Zapotec, Mayan, Nahuatl and Purépecha. Born and raised in Oaxaca, she primarily studied at the Institute of Arts by Oaxaca and briefly attended the University of Minnesota, before withdrawing to focus on her musical career. She soon began performing in the traditional music scene of Oaxaca City.
Martina Mariea McBride is an American country music singer-songwriter. She is known for her soprano singing range and her country pop material.
Angélique Kpasseloko Hinto Hounsinou Kandjo Manta Zogbin Kidjo is a Beninese-French singer-songwriter, actress and activist noted for her diverse musical influences and creative music videos. Kidjo was born into a family of performing artists. Her father was a musician, and her mother worked as a choreographer and theatre director. Kidjo has won five Grammy Awards. She is a 2023 Polar Music Prize laureate.
Priscilla Marie Winans Love, known professionally as CeCe Winans, is an American gospel singer who has garnered 15 Grammy Awards, the most for any female gospel singer; 31 GMA Dove Awards, 19 Stellar Awards, 7 NAACP Image Awards, 1 Billboard Music Award along with many other awards and honors to her credit including being one of the inaugural inductees into the Black Music & Entertainment Walk of Fame in Atlanta, Georgia. Winans is the best-selling and most awarded female gospel singer of all time, and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and Music City Walk of Fame.
Jody Vanessa Watley is an American singer, songwriter and producer whose music crosses genres including pop, R&B, jazz, dance and electronic soul. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, she was a member of the R&B/funk band Shalamar, who scored many hits, notably in the UK. In 1988, she won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist and has been nominated for three Grammy awards.
Yolanda Yvette Adams is an American gospel singer, actress, and host of her own nationally syndicated morning gospel show. She is one of the best-selling gospel artists of all time, having sold over 10 million albums worldwide. In addition to achieving multi-platinum status, she has won four Grammy Awards, four Dove Awards, five BET Awards, six NAACP Image Awards, six Soul Train Music Awards, two BMI Awards and sixteen Stellar Awards. She is the first Gospel artist to win the Grammy Award for Best Gospel Song. She is also the first Gospel artist to be awarded an American Music Award.
Patti Austin is an American Grammy Award-winning R&B, pop, and jazz singer and songwriter best known for "Baby, Come to Me", her 1982 duet with James Ingram, which topped the Billboard Hot 100 after its re-release that same year.
Bettye LaVette is an American soul singer who made her first record at sixteen, but achieved only intermittent fame until 2005, when her album I've Got My Own Hell to Raise was released to widespread critical acclaim, and was named on many critics' "Best of 2005" lists. Her next album, The Scene of the Crime, debuted at number one on Billboard's Top Blues Albums chart and was nominated for Best Contemporary Blues Album at the 2008 Grammy Awards. She received the Legacy of Americana Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2023 Americana Music Honors & Awards.
Mind Control is the debut album by Jamaican American artist Stephen Marley, released on 20 March 2007. The album won a Grammy in 2008 for Best Reggae Album. An acoustic version of the album was released on 23 December 2008.
Jenny Amanda Katarina Jenssen is a Swedish singer and songwriter who first rose to prominence as the Swedish Idol 2007 runner-up. Her first album, Killing My Darlings (2008), became one of that year's best-selling albums in Sweden, peaking at number 1 on the Swedish album chart. She also had success with her music singles, with seven individual placements on the Swedish singles chart.
Conya Doss is an American singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, and has been a major figure in independent music for over two decades. Conya is known as an innovator and is widely known for her eclectic work and light vocal range. She is known as The Queen of Indie Soul. Her music combines R&B, soul, funk, neo soul, and jazz.
Joanie Leeds is a Grammy-award winning musician best known for her work as a children's musical artist.
Just Chillin' is the fifth studio album by American guitarist and singer Norman Brown, released in July 2002 through Warner Bros. Records. The album was produced by Paul Brown and features guest vocal performances by Miki Howard, Michael McDonald, Chanté Moore and Debi Nova. Guest instrumentalists include Rick Braun, percussionists Lenny Castro and Paulinho da Costa, Jerry Hey, Pino Palladino on bass, James Poyser, and Bill Reichenbach Jr. on trombone. The album contains six tracks written or co-written by Brown, a cover version of Janet Jackson's "Let's Wait Awhile" and three additional songs.
Charles Kent Wilson, also known as Uncle Charlie, is an American singer and the former lead vocalist of the Gap Band. As a solo artist Wilson has been nominated for 13 Grammy Awards and 11 NAACP Image Awards, received a 2009 Soul Train Icon Award, and was a recipient of a BMI Icon Award in 2005. In 2009 and 2020, he was named Billboard magazine's No. 1 Adult R&B Artist, and his song "There Goes My Baby" was named the No. 1 Urban Adult Song for 2009 in Billboard.
