On Sunday, January 01, Rolling Stone released its 200 Best Singers of All Time list. In the 84th spot, legendary singer, Lata Mangeshkar was featured and the magazine penned a special note acknowledging her contribution to the field of music in India. They also took note of her melodious voice and how it inspired Britney Spears’ Toxic.
Speaking about Lata, Rolling Stone wrote, “The crystalline, eternally girlish voice of ‘the Melody Queen; is a cornerstone of Indian pop music, with a global influence spread via Bollywood films, whose golden era she defined. Lata was the empress of playback singers, the vocal magicians who perform songs for actors to lip-sync in lavish movie musicals, recording over 7,000 songs, by some estimates.”
Besides the late singer, the list also featured Qawwali maestro Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan in the 91st spot. Calling him “an icon in the realm of Qawwali”, Rolling Stone wrote, “It’s easy to lose track of time, and to hear how his music easily reached global audiences in the eighties when he began performing abroad and recording for Peter Gabriel’s Real World label.”
The top spot on the list was claimed by the late American singer-songwriter Aretha Franklin followed by Whitney Houston, Sam Cooke, Billie Holiday, Mariah Carey, Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder and Beyonce. South Korean singer-songwriter IU and BTS’ Jungkook with Canadian artist The Weeknd also made it to the list.