Vocalist of the Decade: Our Contenders

The Grammys recently announced their nominations for Album of the Year, and in light of that announcement, I'm reminded of the most powerful vocal performers of our lifetime.

Starting off strong, Ariana Grande's consistent and extensive discography would be remiss not to mention. She's charted 22 times on Billboard 100’s top ten hits and nine times as number one, all reaching over 1 billion streams. Her newest album 'Eternal Sunshine' unfortunately hasn’t been nominated for Album of the Year at the Grammys, however this doesn't diminish her success for the decade and she is still definitely receiving her flowers for her newest role as Glinda in Wicked.

Adele is an obvious choice for best vocalist of the decade, and for good reason. With 16

Grammys under her belt, seven of them being in the past decade, she has truly shown the

world her incredible vocal abilities. Despite releasing music sporadically, she's undeniably a phenomenal singer and certainly deserves a break for carrying the weight of the music scene on her shoulders.

Justin Bieber started off his career off on YouTube and was discovered at age 13. Since then

he has been a non-stop fan favourite, stealing hearts worldwide. Despite criticism of his song 'Yummy', he became the first artist to rank number one on both RNB and country charts in the same week. Additionally his 2020 duet with Ariana Grande, 'Stuck with U', debuted at number one (yet again Ariana proves she's great) on the Billboard Hot 100, marking the highest-performing debut for a male-female duet on Spotify.

We’ve got to give the Brits some more credit for our vocalists and Sam Smith makes it

easy to do so. They started off the decade with their album, 'In The Lonely Hour', which won a Grammy. The following year they won four more Grammys including Song of the Year for

'Stay With Me' and won a BET award for best new artist. In 2016, for their song 'Writing's on

the Wall', in the James Bond film Spectre, they won an Oscar.

Lastly, let's talk about Billie Eilish. Her song 'No Time to Die' for the James Bond film of the same name had fans floored, showcasing her ability to belt theatrically. She also won a Grammy for her debut album in 2020, 'When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We

Go?'. Her notable music moments happened a lot earlier than 2020 though, gaining

popularity from her first song 'Ocean Eyes' in 2015 when she was just 13.

Though the conclusion is unclear, here are a few more honourable mentions. Sia and her popular hits 'Chandelier' and 'Elastic Heart', Hayley Williams' of Paramore fame showing off her talent in 'All I Wanted', Bruno Mars with his latest album 'An Evening with Silk Sonic', and RAYE's jaw-dropping vocal performances stay consistently extravagant.

There you have it, I’ve given my two pence. Who do you think wins best vocalist of the

decade? It truly is a talented lineup.

Edited by Jasmine Pegg