Most of those you've mentioned here are good singers, perhaps even great singers, but I don't much care for the type of music they sing. For example, I can recognize talent in opera but that doesn't mean that I want to sit around listening to that crap. Someone might be a great basketball player, but I still don't want to watch the game. Joan Baez has long annoyed me, even when I was more of a liberal than I am now, and most of her music hasn't impressed me to the point where I'd name her as one of the best female vocalists, but she had her moments. I particularly like her version of Forever Young, more than I did that of Bob Dylan or Rod Stewart.
I've never cared for Joan Baez music, maybe for the opposite reason. When I was a much more conservative than now, I didn't like who she sung with or hung out with. I didn't like the big crowds of hippies who came out to see them. Back then, a young man's long hair bugged me to no end. Drug use back then by whomever was a big no-no and folk music lost favor with me.
Ella Fitzgerald..."The First Lady of Song". Also Sarah Vaughan and Lena Horne! Smooth Jazz Ballads. Hal
My wife's dad was an Alameda County Deputy Sheriff, and he arrested Joan Baez for leading an anti-war disturbance outside the Oakland Army Recruiting Station in 1967. She was the "Hanoi Joan" of Folk Music. I liked her music, but she was a Commie sympathizer. The arresting Sheriff's name was also Harold, by the way. Harold
I think people choose certain favorite musical artists not necessarily just based on vocal ability. It's usually a person or style they identify with or who sings the way a person thinks and feels. Like, each person feels heartbreak a certain way. They will choose an artist who sounds the way they feel. Some people's feelings are represented more in classical music, some in country, some in jazz, etc. And some identify with a variety. It's ALL good, just a personal choice.
"Maria Elisabeth Ender, better known as Mariska Veres (pronunciation (help·info)) (1 October 1947 – 2 December 2006), was a Dutch singer who was best known as the lead singer of the rock group Shocking Blue." She was Dutch.
Janis Ian was and still is a favorite of mine. Granted, she’s not like the famous Jazz and Blues singers like Ella and Washington that I grew up with but this young (at the time) gal really brings the music home. I presently have her on my favorites list on “I heart Radio” and play her stuff all the time.