Singer Quotations

I still sing, but completely for my own pleasure. I play a nightclub singer in 'Sparkle,' but I'd like to pursue it a bit more. I sang at a friend's 60th at Claridge's the other month; I did 'Baby It's Cold Outside' with the actor Hilton McRae, and 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow.'

My mom worked as a pharmacist, but she is one of the best storytellers I know. My sister is a gospel and opera singer and my brother, who passed away, was a writer.

I've always felt that to deliver a song successfully, you have to be an actress. A good actress becomes the part, just as a good singer becomes the song.

The important thing for any young singer or musician is to keep focused on becoming a better musician as opposed to becoming a bigger celebrity.

I still don't know what I'm going to be. I love acting. I would love to be an English teacher. I would love to be a housewife and have a chateau in the South of France, I would love to be a singer that travels to cafes around different towns.

I am a singer first and foremost. I was lucky enough to have a manager, when I was 15, who knew the heads of a lot of record labels at the time.

If I could ask for any life, I'd like to be the lead singer and guitarist for Willie Nelson & Family. That is to say, Willie.

Being a background singer is one thing, but being on stage as the star is something else again. When you walk out there with all those people staring at you, it's like you're naked to the world. And I hate being criticized.

The thing is: in order to reach an agreement, to reach that balance, sometimes it is sort of like that old Rhinestone Cowboy lyric, 'There'll be a load of compromisin' on the road to my horizon.' For those of you who were too young, or don't recall the song, made famous by country singer Glen Campbell, it is your loss.

I never step upon a stage without asking myself whether I will succeed in finishing the opera. The fact is that a conscientious singer is never sure of himself or of anything. He is ever in the hands of Destiny.

My sister, singer Jessie Ware, and I are always exchanging music. We brainstormed her wedding playlist for months.

I'm not a folk or jazz singer, more a hard-edged pop singer - with some rock, and song hooks.

'La Lupe' is my passion project. I've done it as a one-woman show, but I'm raising money to turn it into a film. It's a story of a Cuban singer who became the Queen of Latin Soul, the first woman on the N.Y. salsa scene.

My mom was a folk singer and Celtic harpist. My dad was in a barbershop quartet and my great grandma was an opera singer. As I grew up, I discovered pop music and Top 40 radio, but it was in the '90s, so music was very different then - it was really lyrical.

My grandma was actually a pretty well-known opera singer in Cuba, and then my mom was a ballerina. Two of my three sisters are dancers, so we grew up in the arts.

I'm the first has-been star singer ever to sing with the circus. I mean, Presley sang with the circus, but that was before he became a star.

When I was in Utah there, first learning the kind of music I love, my favorite singer was T. Texas Tyler. So my friend, Norman Ritchie, the traveling teenage sage, started calling me U. Utah Phillips.

It should be if you're a good singer and a good songwriter, you should have your spot. You get everybody trying to release the prettiest guy, but that doesn't mean they're the best artist. Most of the time the true artists are just normal old dudes.

I have always known that I wanted to be a singer and I knew that meant sacrificing some things for my dream. When I am home I hang out with my friends and go to dances, so I try and partake in some of the activities that I miss out on.

To become a singer requires work, work, and again, work! It need not be in any special corner of the earth; there is no one spot that will do more for you than other places. It doesn't matter so much where you are if you have intelligence and a good ear.

The quality of the writing, really. Simple as that. Beautiful words. It's very nice as a singer to do great songs, which have wonderful lyrics and strong feelings underneath the song.

I think I'm the only singer who doesn't have a temper. The only time I got angry was at a music studio when I was made to wait for three hours without being informed about the delay in the recording.

I actually enjoy Britney Spears. Not as a singer but as a performer. I just enjoy watching her. I think, 'You are so brave.'

The body cannot lie. You cannot be somebody else onstage, no matter how good of an actor or dancer or singer you are. When you open your arms, move your finger, the audience knows who you are, you know.

I was never attracted to being a very proficient singer or player. I suppose I was interested in creating a vision; in the same way I was very drawn to tension within cinema.

Until now, I've not done a project where the produce, rapper and singer has never worked together like this before, and I had a chance to try a variety of styles.

I'm a true singer who grew up singing in church, so I love singing my heart out.

I think my most famous was 'Poco's Legend.' It's a white album with a simple line drawing of a horse. It almost has a Picasso feel to it. I remember that Rusty Young, the lead singer of the band, said, 'I want you to draw a horse for the song 'Legend,' which is about a phantom spirit horse. I want you to do it in several lines.'

I knew I wanted to be a singer from the age of five. I've been lucky to be so single-minded - some of my friends still don't know what they want to do, and they're finding it hard. There are home videos of me singing and taking centre stage at family parties when I'm about three.

I was a little boy singing sad songs, about 9 or 10 years old in the woods. I listened to my voice coming back to me. It was as high as you could go. I dreamed of being famous as a singer when I was on those cotton fields. I wanted to see the world and meet people.

I feel so lucky to have been in a group where it was a real band. This wasn't a singer and guitar player and some other guys.

If I wasn't doing candy, I'd want to create the best rescue animal-shelter organization. Otherwise, the Jackson 5 and Michael Jackson were so much a part of my childhood, and Janet and I have become friends. So my second dream job would be backup singer for Janet Jackson!

The lead singer for Deerhunter, Bradford Cox... I don't like saying people are geniuses or whatever, but I just think that dude is so good at every single thing he does. He stays within his genre, but I think he does so well experimenting with stuff.

'Let's Get Harry' was where I met Bob Singer and worked with him for the first time, and then 'Reasonable Doubts' was the second time, and there was a thing after that called 'Charlie Grace' that was the third time. I liked working with Bob. A nice man and a good partner.

My problem is: as a singer and a dancer, if I get it in my body one way, it is harder for me to be open to something new - to something else; to something that is really organically connected to the piece and not just to my perception of it.

I'm an old soul. I like the Nat King Cole; Sam Cooke is my favorite singer of all time. But I'm into neo-soul; I'm into R&B. Some of the modern stuff appeals to me, but most of it comes from an older time.

I would spend hours absorbing every intonation, every inflection - how the singer would convey a sentiment and how it would sound coming out of their head. All of those things I very carefully watched and absorbed, and so I guess I was studying my whole life, although not in any sort of conventional way.

I didn't know I wanted to act until it was around 21. I had just come back to Los Angeles after two and half years of traveling and working as a dancer and singer and was looking for a new performing art to study. I started taking acting classes and fell in love.

I guess I think like deep inside, I know that it's like, it's a different kind of performing, it's not really... You're not performing like a guitar player or a singer is performing, you know what I mean? So it's weird to be in the same type setup as one of those. 'Cause I'm not really doing much, you know, like technically it's not that hard.

The Animals were their own worst enemy. The Animals were a band that couldn't live up to their name. I was the singer in the band and as long as I was enjoying myself I would keep on working with the band. But it got to be rather nasty once the big money showed up - things started to turn toxic.

My mother was an opera singer and my grandmother a concert pianist, and they only liked classical music. If I put on a pop record, they would tell me to turn it off, so I only listen to classical.

I know I'm not Freddie Mercury or Ann Wilson, and that's okay. You don't have to be a great singer to sing rock and roll. That's not what it's about.

It's occurred to me I need to laugh at myself more, and that I don't need to be some sad folk singer all the time. I don't want to be the queen of pain.

What I treasure most at any moment is intimacy, surprise, a sense of mystery, wit, depth and love. A handful of cherished friends offer me this, and the occasional singer or film-maker or artist. But my most reliable sources of electricity are Henry David Thoreau, Shakespeare, Melville and Emily Dickinson.

The worst frustration for a singer is choosing a career in making music and then not being able to make music because you're always giving interviews.

My dad was a musician. He was a singer and he played the guitar, so music was always around.

I was really learning my craft as a jazz singer and working with some great players and all, really growing and feeling my wings.

My strength as a singer is my versatility. I find it really frustrating when I'm only expected to show off. The music industry is awash with female acrobats. What happens to the song, and treating it for its sake and not as an ego example?

I am still working on developing my voice. I am, I know, better as a coloratura singer than I was. It's a matter of strong breath control and yet making it sound as though it is the easiest thing in the world.

My dad has a lot of foresight and decided that I would not do any shows in Mumbai till I became a singer and got to sing my own songs. He knew that if I started earning money from shows, I would not have the time and aggression to rough it out to become a singer.

I had no choice but to work hard. I was a straight-A student, went to college, and I loved business. I never thought I was going to be a singer myself. It came accidentally.

I like to make music because it's fun to do and it makes me feel good, but I have no desire to be a huge pop singer or anything like that. I just like to make it.

I once wrote a short story called 'The Best Blues Singer in the World,' and it went like this: 'The streets that Balboa walked were his own private ocean, and Balboa was drowning.' End of story. That says it all. Nothing else to say. I've been rewriting that same story over and over again. All my plays are rewriting that same story.

Bob Dylan is quite a songwriter, and a great singer and musician. I won't bother with comparing myself to him, but I will say that I heard his records at a very young age and I still listen to all his records.

The challenge is how strange and different my voice sounds, so I have tried to sound like other people and tried to be something I wasn't. I have tried to be a soul singer because someone else thought that a good idea. Not because I did.

I thought everybody had falsetto. And since I wasn't a schooled singer who studied with anybody, I just thought anybody who had a voice could do anything they wanted with their voice.

My great-grandmother was born in London, the daughter of a Brixton coachman, and became the most famous singer in Australia. Her name was Marie Carandini, Madame Carandini.

Academic scientists aren't generally interested in books for the public. So when one comes out, the authors can't expect much praise from scientists. My goal both as a singer and an instructor is to educate through provocation and entertainment.

Bryan Adams might not be what I want to put on, but he's a pop singer with a great voice and great guitar tone. Plus, he's done more for Canada than Rush have, because he works all the time. I envy him for that.

Nashville, there's people that are ten times more talented than me, ten times better singer than me, song writer than me, but for some reason you get the ball, and now - and now you run with it. And you do the best you can.

Every good gospel singer you can hear is a scat singer; they're just using different syllables. There are a lot of jazz singers out there, and more coming out of the churches.

The only reason I became the singer in the band is because I sang the best. It wasn't out of some desire to be a star or be a famous singer. It's not like I love interviews.

When I was a vocalist, a lead singer in a rock band, I was a law student at the time. It wasn't a professional rock band, it was for fun. I was already way out of that by the time Phantom came along. Having to learn to sing, it was such duress, having to really try and get to such a quality.

I'm a country singer, and I'm comfortable with that. But why does a country singer have to play only on country radio or a rock singer only on a rock station? I still don't understand why it's that big a deal.

When I saw Adele, I thought: 'I'll give it an hour before people say I was her,' just because I was fat. When you watch 'X Factor,' you can bet your bottom dollar, every single fat singer sounds like me as far as the judges are concerned. Can you imagine if they did that with every black artist?

Being a dancer and a singer gave me some advantage with regards to having a stage presence. I always take my timing from the audience because they are half of my act.

I am neither such a great songwriter or such a great singer that the world must hear my album. There's just no point to make.

Who am I, if I'm not this singer with big high notes? I identify with my voice. But I'm more than just the acrobatics.

I'd been a wedding singer through college, but after a few years of doing my best renditions of jazz standards to clinking glasses and the sound of forks on salad, I thought, 'Oh God, if this is all I do, I'll never be able to live with myself.'

I was in bands, but they were punk bands, and you plug in the guitars, you turn them up really loud, you've got four or five other people on stage with you, you've got some protection from when they throw lighters. You can always hide behind the lead singer or the bass player.

We utilized the center channel to present the kick drum, snare and bass guitar tracks, as well as singer Greg Graffin's lead vocals, ... Unlike a lot of modern music mixes for 5.1, the center channel was our anchor. This mix is more akin to a 5.1 feature film mix. By mixing in the Rick Chace Theater we had the opportunity to experience the entire concert in a THX-certified dubbing stage and in a room we know, love and trust. To ensure final compatibility in a range of different environments, Brett reviewed the final mix in Mix One, our THX pm3-certified near-field room, and took a few songs on a DVD reference disc so he could also hear the final mix on the new Bose home theater system located at Epitaph's Los Angeles headquarters.

When you see a singer on stage who is 100% committed to the personality, character and temperament of the role being sung, it's truly awesome and very powerful.

When I'm up on stage, I'm thinking more about my fans and about myself as a singer and an artist. When I'm at home being a daddy, the last thing I'm thinking about is being an artist. It is two things that I never really put together.

When I did it, I was a starving musician in London in a basement flat, but a simple tune with the right singer or the right situation can become very well liked and accepted. I'm only too pleased to say it happened with that one.

We used to have a singer but he didn't work out and we never replaced him. We all do vocals on the record, and live, we, me and Joel, split it up.

'Love Don't Let Me Down,' which is the original title of 'Country Strong,' was just as difficult emotionally as 'Tron' was physically. I play a country singer that basically gets on tour with Gwyneth Paltrow's character, who is one of the biggest country stars out there, and she's fallen down too many times and it's an intense emotional story.

She was actually flawless. Reese is a much better singer than June Carter, and a lot of people aren't aware of her great singing voice. She did all her own singing in the movie, and she was fantastic. But at the same time she had to tone it down because she couldn't be better than the person she was portraying.

She's the student choreographer for this coming show. She's a wonderful dancer, singer and actress.

She's got a real attitude for standing up for what she thinks. She plays a mean guitar, she's a great rock 'n' roll singer and we have a great relationship. She's kind of a little sister to me.

She's my best friend, a great singer and a great mommy.

She is a talker and a thinker more than a singer or performer. And she has an unusually strong sense of humor.

Miserere ... You know I don't want to be a talent scout, but sometimes when I find someone very talented and very unique and different, if it's possible to give him a chance, why not? I'm very happy and very proud to find someone young -- a great musician or singer that I can write a song for and help him in a way.

No one is turned away here. No matter how bad or good of a singer you are - everyone can put in.

Only a tiny portion of music history involves a singer and a lyric. Songs in music are generally thought to be a minor form.

My dad sung and played piano. But he was also a man of God. He was a minister. So when Sam Cooke would come in town, you know, with The Soul Stirrers at that time, he was singing gospel, they would end up at my dad's church, and it would always be a guest singer for Sunday morning.

One thing I don't do is, I don't listen to Sinatra before I record or before I go out live. Because if I did, I'd have to say, "What am I doing?" I couldn't listen to the greatest singer in the world and try to go out there and sing. I'd be too depressed.

One of the ideas I came up with was to do a worldwide search for a singer on TV. We discussed how we would do it there was no such thing as reality shows then.

I didn't ask Bono for advice, no, but I have been influenced by watching him and inspired as well. As a band, U2 has done quite a bit of work for different causes, but when we do it as a whole, it's Bono as the lead singer who naturally steps up to do a lot of the talking. And he is quite good at it.

I don't believe that recordings should sound radically better than the artist, I think that's dishonest. For example, I'm not a great singer but if I spent enough time tweaking my vocals, I could sound like one. But I don't, what you hear is pretty much what I sing.

I love being a mommy, and I love being an artist, and I love being a singer and an actress and making a movie - all that stuff I feel very passionate about, so I have a lot of energy for it.

I have spoken to a friend of mine. Actually, she was my background singer and she lives in New Orleans. I gave her a home today. I told her to move in with me because everything she ever thought of is gone.

If you are a singer and you lose your voice, you realize that you have other skill sets when that is taken out of the equation.

He was a singer and they were loud.

We make a point of seeing 'Hoosiers' at a certain point of every season. A lot of times -- unless you're talking about their boyfriend, a clothing designer or a country music singer -- what you say or do goes right over the heads. But for some reason, they get into that movie.

He is the best singer on the team. If he was in here, he would sing it for you along with some other stuff. I know it to a certain extent, but I'm not going to sing it for you.

I was a folk singer who became totally over the edge with country music. I found my voice and style working with Gram Parsons. I learned how to listen to George Jones records and the Louvin Brothers.

Jamie Dornan is one of those guys who has no idea how gorgeous he is. He's crazy in love with his girlfriend and a crazy talent and a great singer and a great actor; just a lovely, lovely human being. It kind of makes you want to throw up a bit, but in all the right ways!

I suppose it's OK that this show teaches people there was once a popular singer named Barry Manilow. They could do a lot more with it.

Isaac Singer always wrote in Yiddish. He was so unsure of his English at the beginning that he was easy to edit and he learned fast.

People are always reinventing music. We were an oddity when we formed, just a singer and a keyboard player.