The top 20 singers of alltime, according to 10 millionNME votes

Wed 22nd Jun, 2011 in International News

NME readers have cast 10 million votes in a poll which has revealed that Muse’s Matt Bellamy is the most notable singer to have emerged during the last quarter century of musical endovour and that Axl Rose is the world’s greatest living singer.

Michael Jackson topped the poll with an average score of 9.02 out of 10 ahead of Queen’s Freddie Mercury who was given a score of 8.39. Elvis Presley took third place with an average of 7.17 and Guns N’ Roses Axl Rose finished fourth with 6.47. Axl is also the only living singer to make the top five on the list. Nine of the top twenty performers have joined the choir in the sky.

And in further evidence that women can’t sing Aretha Franklin was the only woman in the Top Ten, while Tina Turner scraped into twentieth position.

NME’s Top 20 singers of all time::

1. Michael Jackson
2. Freddie Mercury
3. Elvis Presley
4. Axl Rose
5. John Lennon
6. David Bowie
7. Robert Plant
8. Paul McCartney
9. Stevie Wonder
10. Aretha Franklin
11. Matt Bellamy
12. Ray Charles
13. Jim Morrison
14. Bob Marley
15. Elton John
16. Kurt Cobain
17. Steven Tyler
18. Mick Jagger
19. Marvin Gaye
20. Tina Turner