Can't be White and be a "soul singer"?

I love me some George Michael too.

White people, in general, aren't convincing in the "soul" category because their life experiences haven't brought them to the level of psychological dept that requires one to sing soulful lyrics that bring people to tears

@Rumi & YG: Right?! I stan hard for BR!

Lemme go see if I can find my old thread....

Rumbera wrote: modelbusiness82 wrote: Finesseful wrote: They can. Hall and Oates did it. My only issue with the whole blue eyed soul thing is that it gets way more attention than the black artists who've been doing it.  Agreed, anyone of any race has the potential to sing soul. But there's a huge difference between mimicking "the great ones" and bringing your own form of "stank" to put on the genre. One shouldn't be getting attention just for being non-black and singing soul music.   I agree

For real, I don't mind Joss Stone, but you can definitely tell that she spent a great deal of her upbringing singing classics, and training her voice in that style. As when she sings some tracks, her voice sounds positively lifeless. I would say the same of A. Keyes. There's a huge difference in her singing songs like "fallin" versus some of her other more recent popular tracks.

And I would also agree that there aren't very many main stream "soul" AA singers out there either that are really doing the genre justice.

And R. Thicke/JT attempt to dabble in soulful and I question it. I remember R. Thicke from his first song when he was only known as "Thicke" and the track  "When I Get You Alone" (which I really like). That track is minimal on falsettos (which I really hate by the way regardless of who's doing it unless it's Smokey) and would definitely be classified more as R&B. IMO, JT is "soulful" if you're a fan coming from his boy band days. But if you've been exposed to soul your whole life, it's a weak imitation of the genre.

Yardgirl wrote: Rumbera wrote: Yardgirl wrote: Rumbera wrote: Honestly, I don't think that there are any current black soul singers. Where are they at ??  Raphael Saadiq. I don't care about an artist's skin colour. There are artists who I consider to be soul singers but I won't even go there because I'm not trying to be stoned.   I always put him in the neo soul category along with Meshelle N'dgeochello, Erika, Angie Stone the likes.   Please share you artist, no stoning from me. George Michael  I'm a huge fan.

I George Michael. "Father Figure" is one of my fave's. I personally wouldn't call him soul...but he's fantastic. I really love his song "beautiful". There's a remix of it from The Ones, called "Flawless". Amazing. If I find the YT link, I'll post.