A2A

Here are my personal picks for singers who are overrated and aren’t that good as singing:

The Females:

Beyonce: People always swoon over her like she’s the most powerful voice in history or like she has some incredible talent. And I’ll tell you this. Beyonce is an average singer at best. She has never and I repeat NEVER been able to reach the kind of high notes that Mariah or Whitney easily did in their prime. She often lacks emotion in her voice and frankly has reaped the benefits of coming into fame at a period of time when “big voiced divas” like Whitney, Mariah or Celine were seeing their careers start to fade and the music industry was more focused on dance artists like Jennifer Lopez. She also had the luxury of her father, Matthew Knowles spending a lot of money marketing and promoting her. “Destiny’s Child” was created solely to turn Beyonce into a superstar; and it worked. She got all the solos and all the attention in that group. The other girls were essentially background singers.

Taylor Swift: I find her personality hugely off-putting and her voice massively irritating. She is very talented at writing songs, but is a moderately talented vocal performer. Her voice always sounds nasally and incredibly annoying. She always sounds like she’s whining.

Katy Perry: Another one with moderate talent. But she’ll always be best known for wearing odd costumes and colorful wigs. A decade from now it is unlikely she’ll still be regarded as a popular singer. Her career will fade eventually.

Madonna: Never known for having a strong voice; Madonna always got her fame through endless creativity, ambition and sex appeal. She was a master at marketing herself, creating controversy to get people talking about her and was a chameleon who changed her looks and style constantly. She also benefited from repeated exposure on MTV and VH1 where her videos were played constantly and helped turn her into a mega-star.

Jennifer Lopez: An actress planted in the music industry to sell records. She was never considered a talented singer or someone with good vocal range. She was heavily marketed by the record label and was meant to be a short-term fad who would release songs when she had big movies coming out. Somehow through charisma she turned herself into a superstar. But she’s never had a great singing voice.

And for me, perhaps there is no greater example of this topic than: Britney Spears. She clearly has stage presence and people find her endearing. But have you heard this chick sing live? It is like listening to nails on a chalkboard. It’s pitchy, squeaky, out of tune and sounds like a chain smoker who just smoked a dozen cigarettes and is trying to sing. It’s AWFUL! Just awful.

The Males:

Ed Sheeran: Somehow he’s inexplicably popular. Yes, he’s a brilliant and accomplished songwriter, but as a singer I’d say he’s clearly overrated. His Grammy win for Song of The Year for “Shape of You” was ridiculous in every way. He really has an okay voice but doesn’t deserve all the praise he’s getting for his voice.

Rod Stewart: Yeah, he seems to have fan base among a certain generation, but I’ve always found his voice to be horrible. He really screams more than he sings. He is in my opinion a garbage singer.

Barry Manilow: I really haven’t ever understood why he even has a fan base at all. His songs are the musical equivalent to fast food; just terrible in every way.

Donny Osmond: Everything about Donny is repulsive to me. From his hammy delivery to his over the top stage presence. No Thank You for Donny Osmond.

Justin Timberlake: Yes, he is super popular but I’ve always found him to be vastly overrated. I never even thought he was the best singer in ‘NSYNC (I thought JC Chasez was superior). I’ve never understood why he became so popular. His voice is average, and he’s really benefited from a lot of marketing that touted him as his generation's Michael Jackson. He’s not that great.

Adam Levine: Voice is okay, okay stage presence. But frankly aside from “This Love” all of his songs are forgettable garbage. People seem to act like “Maroon 5” is an amazing, important band, but frankly after one of their singles falls from the charts nobody remember them anymore. Their hits aren’t going to become classics we’ll remember 20 years from now.