First of all, I have been screwing with these YouTube links for about half-an-hour, trying to get various videos to embed, and it just isn’t having it! Is this a new YouTube and/or WordPress thing? Because if so, I will be ever so cross. I’ve been trying the “Official” videos, other video links, just those home-made videos that give you the lyrics… everything! None of them will embed! They all direct back to YouTube itself to watch the video.

Let’s test a non-music-oriented video:

Huh,. okay, trailers still work then, I guess. Which is good because I use movie trailers videos a lot more than anything else. I wonder what the boggle is with music. I am perplexed.

(EDIT: During the draft process of writing this article, those songs may finally have embedded somehow well AFTER I was done messing with them. The Internet is strange)

ANYWAY.

It dawns on me that, as I listen to the music across all of my Spotify playlists, I’m a particularly big fan of female pop artists. Mostly of the modern era, but dating back quite a while. I’m not sure why, but I do tend to dig them more than their male counterparts. The voices, maybe? What they sing about? Something, I am sure. I just enjoy them more.

Aside from that realization, though, part of the impetus for my having made this list is that current pop star Olivia Rodrigo just keeps putting out banger after banger. Everything she has come out with, I’ve been a big fan of it even before I realized it was her. And I started wondering: if I made this list, how high would she climb?

So does she even make it at all? Let’s see…

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10. Christina Aguilera

Christina Aguilera and her stunningly powerful voice supplant Lizzo who I initially had at #10, but had to boot off because of all of the recent controversy surrounding her. I’m not going to lie: I enjoy Lizzo’s music more than a lot of folks on this list. But rumors of her sexually harassing and assaulting her crew and dancers can’t be overlooked. Separating the art from the artist is one thing, but these accusations are still too fresh to look past.

So yeah, I went with Pittsburgh hometown star Aguilera as my #10 after all. She’s someone I used to dig in my college days a lot more than I do now–through no fault of her own; I just forget to put her songs on a lot of my playlists–but when I do hear something like Fighter or Beautiful or What A Girl Wants… I get into it!

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9. Tina Turner

The gutteral and emotional voice of the late Tina Turner comes up next on my list. It’s impossible to not jam out to Tina Turner’s songs; she simply put too much energy into them. She was a dynamo of power and intensity.

Her performances were legendary, and her songs were right there with them.

She’s here at #9, so I wouldn’t say she was Simply The Best, but she was pretty darn close!

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8. Lady Gaga

It took me a while to get into Lady Gaga, who I thought was too distractingly gimmicky in her early days of wearing meat suits and hatching from eggs or whatever.

And way back when Just Dance came out, I read an interview with her where she admitted she wanted to have a four-way with The Jonas Brothers.

So yeah, I thought she was a stupid Madonna rip-off going for overt sexuality and public weirdness to get attention.

But you know what?

Just Dance, Poker Face, Love Game, Bad Romance, Applause… these are all great songs. She has some weaker singles, sure, but her good ones are absolutely marvelous.

It’s a bit of a shame that she has laid off the music for a bit to focus on her acting–and that she’s going to be in Joker 2, ugh–but it’s safe to assume when she does release new tunes, they’ll be great.

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7. Cardi B

Cardi B sings about fucking and being rich. I mean… I enjoy one of those things and sure would like to enjoy the other! Who doesn’t/wouldn’t?!

One of the lyrics to Bodak Yellow is “My pussy clear like a lake; he want to swim with his face”. Come on. That’s inspired. I love that.

Also, WAP pissed off all of the people who deserve to constantly be pissed off about women’s sexuality, and their constant hand-wringing and telling on themselves over it was glorious to behold.

Clearly I don’t hold much against Cardi B, who is unabashedly singing the songs she wants to sing about what she wants to sing about. Keep being you, Cardi.

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6. Olivia Rodrigo

Oh hey, here she is.

An amazing case of recency bias (probably), but as I noted above, Rodrigo has done nothing but hit home runs from Driver’s License through the most recent single, Bad Idea, Right?. And Good 4 You is my favorite new song of the 2020’s so far. What. A. Banger.

Everything she comes out with, I’m going to listen to and throw on my pop-oriented playlists without question.

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5. Aretha Franklin

I mean… it’s Aretha Franklin. What do I need to say?

Respect. Natural Woman. I Say A Little Prayer.

It’s Aretha Franklin, the most powerful and respected female solo artist of all time. I am here for and enjoy that, just like anyone should.

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4. Pat Benatar

The rock icon of this list, Pat Benatar sang so many of the 1980’s best pop-rock hits. She’s one of those talents who, years ago when I was looking up songs to put on playlists, I did not realize she sang so many of the tunes I loved from the best decade for music.

That’s what I love about music. You can listen to it for years, but unless you are a big fan, you may never know that so much of what you enjoy all come from the same talent pool. Benatar’s repertoire is like when I watched Mama Mia and went “ABBA sang all of these songs?!”.

Pat Benatar sang so much more than I thought she did! Great stuff that I adore, and it was all her! So she gets the four spot leading into a strong top three.

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3. Madonna

Kind of like Aretha Franklin… it’s MADONNA. What do I have to say? She is arguably the biggest pop star that ever was, and certainly so in the realm of female vocalists. Women like Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga and Britney Spears have come close, but Madonna remains undefeated.

(Okay, Taylor Swift has arguably uncrowned her by now with the absurdly successful Eras Tour, but I’m an old person and refuse to acknowledge that)

You can’t NOT love Madonna songs, at least not the first 15 years or so of them. She was an absolute icon who put out varied hits that ranged from the low-key and powerful to the evocative.

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2. Pink

Is Pink one of the most underrated singers of any era? It’s entirely possible. It never felt like she had the sheer name-value popularity of some of her contemporaries, but all she did was release hit after hit after hit after hit for, like, two decades.

She also puts on an incredible live show, though I’ve never been to see one in person. I almost went a few years ago, but my wife ultimately decided she wanted something else for a present.

But Pink has several top-shelf pop hits, and her raw honesty about who she is and what her life has been like make them all connect even harder.

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1. Kesha

I don’t want to hear it; I fucking LOVE Kesha.

Her music is fun and it makes me want to get up and dance. Her energy and her personality are infectious. Tik Tok came out, and I went from thinking it was the silliest, stupidest thing I’d ever heard to turning it up whenever it was on in just no time at all.

I love that she is apparently a certified genius who crafted this party girl persona for herself and her music, and she rode that persona to superstardom.

All of her songs rule. Every single one. I am taking no questions on this.

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YEAH. Kesha rocks. You can’t deny this.

Or maybe you can! As always, I WANT TO HEAR YOUR TOP TEN NOW! Who did I miss out on? I had a comprehensive cut down list of twenty-plus ladies I eventually had to whittle down to these ten, so I guarantee you will have a different list than I do. So let’s see it!

Until next time… take care!