Since there is so much incredible female vocal talent that deserves to be recognized individually within dance music, Round 2 of Turning The Tables was formulated. After taking suggestions via fellow writers and reader comments from the first round, I honestly feel that there is even enough talent left to justify a third round eventually. Let’s cross that bridge when we get to it, though. For now, let’s shift this spotlight onto this rounds’ choices for Top Female EDM Vocalists:
Tania Zygar:
Hailing from France and currently calling Ottawa, Canada her home, vocalist Tania Zygar has been active in the electronic music scene since 2010. Breaking into the scene under tyDi’s wing with the tracks “Half Light” and “Vanilla”, Tania’s distinctive vocal delivery has been in demand ever since. Appearing in tracks with Arty (“The Wall”), Space Rockerz (“Puzzle Piece”), Estiva (“Death Of Me”) and most recently with Shogun (“Find Me”), Tania has solidified her place as one of EDM’s top go-to voices.
Shogun feat. Tania Zygar – “Find Me”
The half British-half Spanish singer/songwriter Ana Criado should be no stranger to any self-respecting electronic music fan. Appearing on many productions since becoming active in 2009 with Ronski Speed (“The Deep Divine”), she has since grown to collaborate with a multitude of top tier producers including Beat Service (“Whispers”), Dennis Sheperd (“Fallen Angel”), W&W (“Three O’Clock”), Armin van Buuren (“Suddenly Summer”, “I’ll Listen”), 4 Strings (“Breathe Life In”) and a quite a few others. Ana’s silky smooth and angelic vocals will surely continue to be in high demand among electronic music producers for the foreseeable future.
Armin van Buuren feat. Ana Criado – “I’ll Listen”
Grammy-nominated Greta Svabo Bech of the Faroe Islands has not had too many electronic music collaborations under her belt, but the ones she has have been absolutely top notch, as evidenced by her Grammy nomination for her involvement with Deadmau5’s “Raise Your Weapon” in 2011. Greta since went on to sing for The Bloody Beetroots track “Chronicles Of A Fallen Love” and has branched off into a few solo releases. One can only hope that she makes a triumphant return to dance music in the (very) near future.
The Bloody Beetroots & Greta Svabo Bech – “Chronicles Of A Fallen Love”
Kirsty Hawkshaw. That is all the introduction the British songstress should need. The definition of staple within electronic music vocals, Kristy has been active since a mind-blowing 1991 (however, not all dance music-related). Laying claim to one of the most extensive vocalist discographies, some of her larger collabs include tracks with BT (“Dreaming”, “A Million Stars”), Tiesto (“Urban Train”, “Just Be”), Lange (“Sincere For You”), Fragma (”Radio Waves”), Loverush UK! (“Loverush”) and most recently with John B (“Connected”). Kirsty is one of the first EDM vocalists to make an impression on me with “Just Be”…and her style is quintessentially: ethereal bliss.
Mr. Sam feat. Kirsty Hawkshaw – “Insight”
Another veteran of electronic music, Justine Suissa broke into the Euro trance scene in the late 90’s, fronting for Chicane’s track “Autumn Tactics” and subsequently toured with him in 2000. Once available, Above & Beyond expeditiously stepped in and formed the collective Oceanlab with Justine that went on to massive things in the scene. With hits like “Clear Blue Water”, “Sky Falls Down” and “Beautiful Together” with Oceanlab and later collabs with Armin (“Burned With Desire”), Robbie Rivera (“Float Away”), Markus Schulz (“Perception”) and Boom Jinx (“Phoenix From The Flames”), Justine has forged an immortal spot within electronic music for herself. As fans, we can only hope we hear her breathy and atmospheric vocals on an upcoming release sometime soon.
Above & Beyond pres. Oceanlab – “Clear Blue Water”
British vocalist extraordinaire Amanda Wilson is another staple in electronic/house music of the last decade or so. Breaking onto the scene as part of the UK house music act The Freemasons in the mid 2000’s, Amanda’s 4 octave vocal range and Mariah Carey-esque vocal deliveries has made her a hot commodity and given her an impressive discography to boot. A couple of her Freemasons’ tracks include “Watchin” and “Love On My Mind”, and she has also performed with Soulcatcher (“Falling For You”), Thomas Gold (“Something’s Gotta Give”, “Just Because”), Aurora (“Love Resurrection”), RedRoche (“Not Over You”), Chrizzo & Maxim (“Runaway”), Chuckie & Promise Land (“Breaking Up”) and most recently Paul Rudd (“Trust In Me”).
The Freemasons feat. Amanda Wilson – “Love On My Mind”
Yet another historic electronic music powerhouse, NYC-native Jes Brieden (more famously known as JES) has been making aural waves throughout EDM since the early 2000’s. Her formation of the collective Motorcycle with Josh Gabriel and Dave Dresden (Gabriel & Dresden) was the initial fuel for the fire that still burns to this day. Her hits with Motorcycle include the smashes “As The Rush Comes”, “Around You”, “Imagination” and “Deep, Breath, Love”. Eventually detouring off to colllabs with other electronic producers such as Deepsky (“Ghost”), Solarstone (“Like A Waterfall”), Tiesto (“Everything”), BT (“Every Other Way”, “The Light In Things”, “Letting Go”, “Tonight”), Cosmic Gate (“Flying Blind”) and Roger Shah (“Higher Than The Sun”) plus a multitude of others. JES has also gone on to record many original electronic music tracks as well as pilot her own PODcast Unleash The Beat. If there was an EDM Vocalist Hall Of Fame, JES would surely be one of its first inductions.
JES – “Lovesong”
Much like Inger Hansen of the Male Vocalist Clan, Texas native Cristina Soto has had an almost-exclusive relationship with the electronic music producers she has performed with. In this case, it’s the boys of Tritonal that Cristina has shacked up with. After discovering her in their home state of Texas in 2008, Tritonal began featuring her mesmerizing vocal abilities on their vocal tracks, the first being “Walk With Me”. Since her unveiling, she has appeared on many Tritonal releases including “Piercing Quiet”, “Hands To Hold Me”, “Still With Me” and “Everafter”. Notably, the other non-Tritonal EDM tracks she sang on have been Matt Lange’s “The Other Shore” and ATB‘s “Twisted Love“. Here’s hoping that we hear her beautiful pipes on a slew of different producers’ upcoming releases.
Tritonal feat. Cristina Soto – “Piercing Quiet”
(no music videos located featuring Cristina)
Lucy Pullin:
The singer/songwriter from the Isle Of Man has only made a couple contributions to the electronic music genre, but they have been such top-notch productions that I felt she definitely deserved a callout. As another artist working exclusively with a singular producer, Lucy Pullin has paired both of her EDM releases with Irishman Simon Patterson. Acting as a perfect catalyst of dreamy feels to Simon’s intensely driving psy-trance inspired production style; Lucy and Simon have shown quite the synergy through their releases “Keep Quiet” and “The One”. Once more, here’s hoping we get to hear much more of her…soon.
Simon Patterson feat. Lucy Pullin – “Keep Quiet”
(no music videos located featuring Lucy)
Mavie Marcos (Andain):
When a San Franciscan classically trained vocalist named Mavie Marcos teamed up with a fellow Franciscan producer named Josh Gabriel, the synergistic infusion named Andain was born. Another powerhouse producer/vocalist collective, Andain has been active since 2001. Pretty much again staying exclusive to Andain, Mavie’s ethereal vocals were only heard on productions with Josh Gabriel (within electronic music, that is). Mavie’s debut was “Summer Calling” followed by the classic this “Beautiful Things”, “Promises”, “Much Too Much”, “What It’s Like” and most recently “Turn Up The Sound”.
Andain – “Promises”
Wow. So after writing this piece it’s kind of surprising to me how many pseudo-exclusive vocalist/producer collective collaborations there are throughout electronic music. Given that we may not know what else is going on in vocalists professional careers, and they only may have time to collab with one specific producer that they’ve developed a good working synergy with, however I want to take this opportunity to say: I would love to see collabs like Lucy Pullin/Markus Schulz, Mavie Marcos/Above & Beyond, Cristina Soto/Gareth Emery…et cetera. But until then, let’s give our Round 2 Female Vocalists a hand (or an ear?)