These singers can't carry a tune. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the worst singers and rappers of all time.
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00:00Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the worst singers and rappers
00:12of all time.
00:13For this list, we're strictly looking at vocal ability or lack thereof.
00:24Number 20.
00:25Ice J.J. Fish
00:27Think about a parody of bad singing and you may think of this American YouTube rapper.
00:39The hallmarks of bad singing are there.
00:42Speak singing, wobbly notes, no breath control, poor articulation, the works.
00:47The comedy of this poor technique is no doubt what made Ice J.J. Fish's first single,
00:53on the floor, into a viral hit.
01:02Perhaps it was even the point of it all.
01:05Still, bad singing is still bad singing.
01:08Once you get past the novelty of singing, which provokes laughter, Ice J.J. Fish gets
01:13very unpleasant and boring to listen to.
01:20We appreciate the efforts, or lack of though.
01:29Number 19.
01:31Jake Paul Another YouTube star, Jake Paul started on
01:41Vine before landing in a Disney Channel show in 2016.
01:46He has also gone into professional boxing.
01:48Multi-talented as Paul is, his rapping leaves much to be desired.
02:00Maybe that's why one of his videos, at one point, was number three on YouTube's most
02:05disliked list.
02:07His voice is shaky without autotune.
02:10He also has a dull, inexpressive style, as if he personally doesn't believe too much
02:15in the lyrics and is reading them by rote.
02:23At least Paul can articulate more or less clearly, which is no small feat, and required
02:29when it comes to rap.
02:31But you can still detect that ever-present autotune.
02:35Maybe he should just stick to boxing.
02:42Number 18.
02:44This Canadian singer and rapper is one of the world's best-selling artists.
02:54Drake is even tied with Michael Jackson for having the most number one hits by a male
02:59solo singer on the Billboard Hot 100.
03:01So why does he sound like he's just woke up at 5 a.m. and went into the recording studio
03:08as is?
03:15At least drink some water.
03:17Drake's flat foghorn voice would make for a good blend with another voice or instrument.
03:23By itself, it's not very inspiring.
03:33He has okay pitch control and diction, but otherwise, we don't see the greatness.
03:42Number 17.
03:43Jacob Sartorius Speaking of flat voices, check out this Vine
03:48creator turned singer.
03:50Sartorius began starring in musicals as a child before downgrading to lip-syncing videos.
04:01In 2016, he released his debut single, Sweatshirt, about a schoolyard crush.
04:14At best, his voice isn't any different from your standard boy band singer, with that same
04:20pop sound which effectively conveys wholesome young romance.
04:24But Sartorius has a nasal quality to his singing that gets grating after a while.
04:29Even with boatloads of autotune, at least his songs aren't demanding in range, which
04:39makes him seem like a better singer than he is.
04:46Number 16.
04:47Paula Abdul At least she can tap dance.
04:51Abdul's dancing and choreographic skills are clearly on point.
04:59In fact, she won a Primetime Emmy Award for her choreography work on The Tracy Ullman
05:03Show.
05:04Her singing, however, is a different matter entirely.
05:08Abdul's nasally high voice is serviceable with songs with undemanding range, like Straight
05:14Up.
05:21Weak and thin voices can be redeemed by their lyrical expressiveness, but Abdul sings lyrics
05:26with that smooth pop detachment.
05:35She could have benefited from a music teacher telling her to fake it till you feel it, because
05:39we're not feeling much.
05:45Number 15.
05:47Island Boys At least Ice J.J. Fish has a comically
05:51croaky voice and is almost deliberate in his bad style.
05:55There is nothing funny about the vocal prowess of these twin brothers.
05:59With their hit song, I Am An Island Boy, Fly Soulja and Kodiak Red turn their life around
06:11after a stint in jail.
06:12We love a good redemption story, but it would be so much better if they were actually good
06:17rappers.
06:23The Island Boys are more than just a little off pitch.
06:26They're almost unintelligible, both in terms of deciphering their lyrics and making
06:31a clear musical message, and they lack flow.
06:39I Am An Island Boy likely went viral not because it's catchy, but because of the bad singing.
06:46It's a pass.
06:51Number 14.
06:52Kanye West This Grammy award-winning and very controversial
07:02American hip-hop artist needs little introduction, and we're not here to do so.
07:07Put all of West's personal life baggage aside and what do we get, musically speaking?
07:13Without autotune?
07:20A very shaky singing voice.
07:22Even as a rapper, West's style is too straightforward, even cumbersome.
07:27Usually rappers are keen to show off their fast flow and clever rhyme schemes.
07:36West's simplicity in melody and delivery no doubt is what led to his success.
07:41But we have heard Broadway performers with better patter song skills and better diction.
07:52Number 13.
07:53Will.i.am From a lead singer of the Black Eyed Peas to a formidable record producer,
07:58this multi-faceted American performer and songwriter has gained massive acclaim.
08:03But as a singer and rapper, he's woefully mediocre.
08:11Often in that career, he has stuck with performing with other artists
08:17after Black Eyed Peas, as if knowing he can't carry a solo act well.
08:28When he tries to sing, even hitting a high note in the hardest ever, it's inevitably autotuned.
08:35No doubt his fans are there for his clever songwriting and his
08:38rapping is much more interesting when in tandem with other artists.
08:49Number 12.
08:51Justin Bieber Is there anything we can say about this
08:54award-winning and highly influential Canadian singer that hasn't been said already?
09:05Granted, most of the backlash has been due to the Beatles and Frank Sinatra-esque mania he
09:15inspired among his pre-teen girl fans. People were also unfairly critical of his earnest teen love
09:22songs. Still, as a singer, Bieber is unfortunately no Sinatra.
09:34Buried as he is beneath layers of autotune and an attraction to undemanding lyrics,
09:46his part in the Luis Fonsi hit Despacito was clearly out of his comfort zone,
09:51with indifferent vocals and clumsy, if intelligible, Spanish.
09:56Even superstars have their limits and Bieber's are particularly disappointing.
10:08Number 11.
10:10Soulja Boy One of the biggest hit singles of the late
10:132000s, Crank That catapulted its artists to the top of the charts and into stardom.
10:19But as even the mildest critics will tell you, Soulja Boy is no great artiste. He has a generic
10:31voice and vague lyrical delivery, as if his mouth were stuffed full of marbles. In his most popular
10:45song, redeemable only by the novelty of the steel drum, he sounds flat and indifferent.
10:57When he does sing, it is with the inevitable aid of autotune. Soulja Boy has stuck around
11:03making new music but with obvious diminishing returns. One-hit wonders are generally rough
11:09to listen to. Number 10.
11:18Nicki Minaj Getting crowned the queen of rap and hip-hop
11:22is no easy feat. This Trinidadian-born rapper has the advantage of a smooth and fast rap flow,
11:35with crystal-clear diction. Her success in that sense is understandable. What is
11:40not impressive or as successful is her nasal singing. Listen to it for more than a minute
11:50and it begins to grate pretty quickly. It even seems more heavily autotuned than most artists.
11:56Minaj's chew-toy squeakiness and vocal fry are also glaring. Critics have been more impressed
12:09by her lyric writing, particularly her verse in Kanye West's Monster. Perhaps she should
12:15go into songwriting more and leave the singing to others. Number 9.
12:27Ashley Simpson The younger sister of Jessica Simpson,
12:37Ashley's singing career came to a halt when she was caught lip-syncing on Saturday Night Live.
12:42Our take? Her career should have ended because of her bad singing rather than
12:47because of lip-syncing on a live broadcast. The generic sound of her songs does her no favours,
13:00but Simpson just displays many vocal faults, singing some notes unexpectedly sharp and others
13:06flat. Her singing has a blunt quality to it, attacking the lyrics rather than embodying them.
13:19The fact that she tends to cut her notes short at the end of phrases doesn't help to lessen
13:23that impression. Number 8.
13:30Pitbull Reggaeton rappers, much like American ones,
13:33can naturally vary in ability. But Pitbull may just signal a new low in rap quality.
13:45His smoker-rough voice makes Louis Armstrong sound like Andy Williams.
13:49When he does sound even remotely tolerable, it's largely due to studio pitch correction.
13:55He doesn't improve in his Spanish-language rap either,
14:02and in any language exhibits a lack of flow. Daddy Yankee comes off much better as his fellow
14:13rapper. This is a shame as Pitbull has had tremendous success, selling 100 million singles
14:19worldwide. And his activism during Hurricane Maria is nothing less than inspiring and worthy
14:25of acclaim. Number 7.
14:31Britney Spears. Do we really need to tell you who Britney Spears is?
14:42The princess of pop has had her share of personal drama. But one controversy that
14:47has long dogged her has been her singing ability. When her creaky non-autotune vocals for Alien
14:53were leaked out, it seemed to confirm a lot of haters in their belief of Spears' terrible singing.
15:03Was it a genuine attempt or simply a vocal warm-up? Regardless, Spears is not that great
15:09a singer even with polished production. In her first major hit, she has shaky breath control
15:14and thin voice, with bouts of creakiness. In the end, Spears' talent has been in her
15:24performance skills, especially that of the Max Martin songs.
15:31Number 6. Lil Wayne. This wildly successful and influential hip-hop artist also has been involved
15:39in feuds and legal actions, but has also attracted some negativity for his rapping ability.
15:44And we must concur. Lil Wayne's voice is atrocious, rough and craggy but also paradoxically
15:57high-pitched. He has little to no flow, not that the raps themselves lend themselves to it. As for
16:10his songs, he admitted in 2023 that his poor memory makes it hard for him to remember them.
16:22We sympathize with Wayne's health struggles, but it is perhaps a blessing that he doesn't
16:27remember his own songs. We wish we could say the same.
16:31Number 5. Paris Hilton. One of the most famous for being famous personalities,
16:41Hilton's singing endeavors were always a feature, not the star of her persona.
16:53Regardless, her singing voice is indeed generically mediocre at best.
16:58Like many other singers, she has the breathiness and vocal fry,
17:01but with less breath control and little lyrical expressiveness.
17:10In 2024, she made something of a comeback with ADHD and BBA, the latter with Megan Thee Stallion.
17:18But her vocal prowess hasn't improved much. In fact, it's even more superficial.
17:28The good news is that the limited range of her songs suits her ability just fine.
17:35Her persona and other non-musical projects have far eclipsed her singing career for good reason.
17:42Number 4. Rebecca Black.
17:56It's not at all fair to label a singer bad based on one terrible song.
18:01That's why we feel comfortable labeling YouTube star Rebecca Black a bad singer based on three.
18:12Her 2011 hit Friday was panned by both critics and audiences alike,
18:17not just for the inanity of its lyrics, but for Black's broad vowels and nasal singing.
18:22But since then, Black has made other songs, such as Crumbs and Trust.
18:27The good news is there is definite improvement from her 13-year-old self.
18:31Unfortunately, it also put her squarely in the generic pop singer category.
18:42It's not that she sounds particularly terrible.
18:45It's that she sounds like any other performer, if much more polished than her debut.
18:53Number 3. Florence Foster Jenkins.
18:57Of course, no list of bad singers would be complete without this OG.
19:08This 20th century socialite's ambitions as a pianist
19:11and then later an opera singer were always far greater than her abilities.
19:16But while many pop stars of today get by because they're singing
19:19undemanding material, you can't fake your way through Mozart, Gounaud, and Deleuze.
19:30Jenkins' screechy pitch and poor diction made her a cult favorite,
19:34drawing delighted laughter from her audiences.
19:37Jenkins' atrocious singing was most likely due to her health difficulties,
19:41including nerve damage.
19:43It's a much better excuse for terrible singing than most singers, unfortunately.
19:50Number 2. Bob Dylan.
20:01As a songwriter, Bob Dylan is without a doubt one of the greatest.
20:06His lyrical songs became powerful social anthems for an entire generation.
20:11He even won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016, albeit not without major controversy.
20:20As a singer, however, Dylan is one of the worst.
20:26With his shaky nails-on-chalkboard pitch,
20:29this folk performer has been bested vocally by many others of his genre.
20:33Even his fans freely admit this, ignoring the musical aspect of his work altogether.
20:39But the cold and brutal fact is, Dylan did not write poetry or even verse,
20:51but music and lyrics.
20:53Thus, his vocal performance does matter.
20:56And it just ain't pretty.
20:58Number 1. Yoko Ono.
21:24All the singers on this list so far have had at least one redeeming quality,
21:29even if it doesn't involve their singing.
21:31Unfortunately, many would say there are no redeeming musical qualities about this one.
21:42Famous as John Lennon's second wife,
21:44Yoko Ono is an avant-garde artist whose art often includes musical elements.
21:50As such, her art can be very much an acquired taste.
21:54And when it comes to her singing, it's a taste few acquire.
21:58Ono's singing is often a melody-free caterwaul with incomprehensible lyrics.
22:09She also has a penchant for random screaming and shrieks,
22:12giving her songs an animals-are-being-skinned-alive sound.
22:17To many, she wages war against the very idea of music, including her husband's.
22:27We think we know who won that battle.
22:33Which other singers do you feel are no great songbirds?
22:37Let us know in the comments down below.
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