Diana Ross Vocal Range /Profile:

Diana Ross

Vocal Type: Light lyric soprano
Vocal Range: 3 Octaves C3-C#6
Whistle Register:No
Vocal Pluses: Smoky lower range, which is dark and heavy. Her midrange is lighter, softer and has a warm timbre that carries through the to the top of the range. There is an intrinsic sweetness and youthfulness to the voice that is accentuated by her excellent phrasing. The chest voice is clear and light, effortlessly extending up to an A5 with the help of her excellent technique and clever mixing of the chest and head voice. The head voice is bright and robust, with great dynamics.
Vocal Negatives: The voice's lightness is often interpreted as it lacking power as whole, with the term "weak" sometimes being applied to the voice's tone.

Leona Lewis Dazzles At The 2011 Royal Variety Show, And Hits Some Of Her Lowest Notes Ever

With an apparent crisis of confidence in the club sound Leona Lewis courted with last single Collide, Leona and her team have decided to take her back to safer territory with the new EP Hurt while they figure out how to retool the upcoming 2012 album.

Consisting of 3 distinctly sombre, mid-tempo songs- which is odd considering the festive time of year- Leona decided to showcase the title track, and Nine Inch Nails (NIN) cover, at this year's Royal Variety show.

Watch Lana Del Rey Perform "Born To Die" In 3D.

Whip out those red and cyan 3D glasses because Lana Del Rey's live rendition of new song Born To Die- which is a gorgeous song, might I add- is available to watch on Youtube in the third dimension!

It's the first time I've seen this feature on the video streaming site, and it is certainly impressive when viewing the video in its highest quality. Don't get too excited though, you won't feel like Lana is quite in your room. It does give the video a depth of field that is not present otherwise and it suitably adds to the magic of the performance.

Janis Joplin Vocal Range/Profile

Janis Joplin

Vocal Type: Mezzo-soprano
Vocal Range: 3 Octaves 2 note E3-G6
Whistle Register: No
Vocal Strengths: Unique and prominent coarseness to the voice, with a throaty and guttural chest voice. Despite the heavier weight of the voice the belting range could extend high up into the fifth octave by mixing while retained this characterful rasp. The head voice was bright and full, with a smoother, delicate contrasting texture to the lower half of the voice. Her control in this part of the register was surprisingly strong and deft. Though her voice is remembered for its passionate rasp, it was also capable of a softer and smoother timbre, demonstrating the skill and ability she had as a vocalist. Interestingly, the frayed edges of the notes sang with this textured timbre sometimes allowed for harmonic chords to be created as two or more tones were produced by the voice at the same time.
Vocal Weaknesses: The coarsness of the voice could be found abrasive by some.
Recommended Listening: Maybe [demonstrates the softer texture of Joplin's voice, as well as her head voice ], Piece of my heart  [Shows the coarser side of the voice, as well as its passion]

The 2012 Grammy Nominations And Why I'm Not Really Bothered About Them.

I'm not usually a follower of the Grammy awards, bar the performances. Nor do I understand the importance, or prestige that they garner considering the politics and calculated decisions involved in selecting nominees and winners.

For instance, as much as I love Rihanna I can not believe her last album Loud- which was patchy- has received not only a nomination for the coveted "album of the year", but, even more incredulously, its also obtained a nomination in the "best vocal pop album" category. Are they having a laugh?

Lady Gaga performs "Marry The Night" and "You And I" At The 2012 Grammy Nominations Concert

No one could ever call Lady Gaga lazy. Still whizzing around the world and working as hard as ever on the Born This Way promotional trail, the singer stopped off at the 2012 Grammy Nominations Concert to deliver not one, but two knock-out performances.

Florence And The Machine Cover Drake and Rihanna's "Take Care"

Did you ever imagine that Florence Welch would be a Drake fan? I'm not sure I did- not that I'd given it much thought, I must admit- but she vocalised her like of the Canadian star not only directly, calling him one of her favourite artists- along with Rihanna- but also musically, by choosing to cover the title track of his new album Take Care.

Take Care is a dark and atmospheric duet between Drake and Rihanna that musically is based heavily on the Jamie XX remix of a Gil Scott-Heron track I'll take care of you. The Drake remake is also produced by Jamie XX but features some additional production by Noah Shebib. It's a pretty good song, but nonetheless, one I wouldn't have expected Florence And The Machine to cover. But perhaps that was the point.