(Credits: Far Out / Allan Warren)

Thu 27 November 2025 9:00, UK

The work that Rod Stewart has done to preserve his voice over the years is nothing short of miraculous.

Most people who have been in the game as long as he has would be happy to have a few songs left in their catalogue that they can still perform, but Stewart always took care of his voice to get that signature rasp out whenever he could. There were definitely some peaks and valleys, but even in his prime, Stewart was always looking for what the new vocalists were bringing to the table.

Stewart never thought he was the be-all-end-all for vocalists, and even when working with The Jeff Beck Group, he already had some stiff competition. His friends, like Elton John, hadn’t quite made waves yet, but when looking at the kind of acrobatics that Robert Plant could do with his voice whenever he sang, it wasn’t like Stewart was going to be crowned the almighty king of vocalists by any stretch.

But even if he didn’t have those acrobatics, he made up for it through the pure passion in his voice. Whether he was singing a boozy rocker with The Faces or getting more introspective in his solo career, it’s easy to believe every word that comes out of his mouth whenever he sings. And yes, that does include ‘Do Ya Think I’m Sexy’ as well.

The tone of his voice worked fine back in the day, but MTV was bound to throw everyone for a loop when it first came out. No one had really felt the need to be seen whenever they made their classics, but if ‘Young Turks’ was anything to go on, Stewart was a natural when it came time to translate his music from the record to the TV screen. But if he saw it as another flashy piece of advertising, Madonna knew there was power in the visual medium.

Whereas most rockstars would pretend like they didn’t care about image, Madonna used her public persona like an instrument on its own. Her first songs had a lot of leftover soundscapes from the era of disco, but when she made records like Like A Virgin and True Blue, she was setting the template for what pop music could sound like right alongside acts like Michael Jackson and Prince.

And while Stewart could definitely see the craftsmanship on display, that didn’t mean that he had to like every single thing she sang, saying, “I’m not a great lover of Madonna’s voice. She’s done very well with what she’s got, and I’m sure my voice turns her right off, but she’s not my favourite singer. Good luck to [her]. She’s made a bloody fortune with a minimal voice. You can’t knock it – any girl who can make that sort of dough has to be admired. But give me Adele any day.”

Then again, comparing Madonna to Adele is like trying to judge two Olympian athletes that are competing in different sports. Both of them might excel at what they do, but compared to the raw power that Adele has with her voice, Madonna always knew how to use whatever instruments she was working with to her advantage, whether that was bringing in someone like Prince to work on Like a Prayer or when she immersed herself in dance textures when working on Ray of Light.

There might have been a lot more material going on with her approach to music, but that shouldn’t really be a knock against her by any stretch. She was bending the music world to her will, and no one was going to get in the way of her becoming one of the biggest pop stars that anyone had ever seen.

Related Topics