![\"Linda](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Linda-Ronstadt-1980s-Singer-Musician-Far-Out-Magazine-3-1140x855.jpg\")
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Credit: Far Out \/ Linda Ronstadt<\/p>\n
Fri 19 June 2026 19:00, UK <\/p>\n
Linda Ronstadt<\/a> tended to have a much higher standard for her music than most other pop singers. <\/p>\n Not everyone was looking to be the pop-flavoured answer to people like Rosemary Clooney and Frank Sinatra, but Ronstadt clearly had the same kind of talent and finesse <\/a>in her voice to compete with some of the greatest artists of any generation when she opened her mouth to sing. But she also felt that there were some artists who didn\u2019t really have what it took to be the same kind of showstopping voice that she had.<\/p>\n But no one could have managed to have the kind of diction that Ronstadt had whenever she sang. She may have been insanely critical of her own voice in the beginning, but the idea of someone being able to have that strong a voice, no matter what genre she was working in, was beyond anything that anyone could do. That was all well and good at the time, but that wasn\u2019t what the biggest names of the 1980s were focused on anymore.<\/p>\n The biggest draw to music at that point was MTV, and even though there were more than a few artists who had a few cheap videos and then disappeared, everyone had started using it as an art form. Ronstadt could do the same thing when she wanted to, but she never felt that she fit in with the television world, either. She liked the idea of playing her music to the people directly, and the last thing she wanted to do was lip-sync to one of her songs.<\/p>\n That\u2019s not to say that she couldn\u2019t see the beauty in what the next generation was doing. The best artists at the time were people like Michael Jackson, and since Ronstadt was at the 25th anniversary of Motown<\/a> when \u2018The King of Pop\u2019 busted out the moonwalk for the first time, it\u2019s not like she couldn\u2019t see one of the biggest stars in the making right there. But in a world dominated by people like Jackson and Prince, Ronstadt was a little less thrilled with what Madonna was doing.<\/p>\n Then again, how the hell could anyone have ignored what Madonna was singing about? She lived to be a little bit in-your-face whenever she sang one of her songs, and even though there were moments where she didn\u2019t have to have the cleanest voice in the world, it was enough to carry her through some of the greatest highs that any pop singer has ever reached. But Ronstadt did have a problem with that one word: singer.<\/p>\n As far as she could tell, Madonna was a fabulous performer, but she drew the line at calling her a good singer by any stretch, saying<\/a>, \u201cThe culture is giving a lot of support to people who are entertainers, but who are\u2026 entertainers more, like Madonna, she\u2019s more an entertainer than she\u2019s a singer. Madonna\u2019s not much of a singer but she\u2019s a stylist, and she does something that\u2019s evocative. I\u2019ve never had a record of hers in my house, but I have to say that she\u2019s evocative. I mean, she\u2019s talented, she has her own little art thing that she does. Whatever it is.\u201d<\/p>\n Further reading: From The Vault<\/p>\n But that can of stylist background was half the reason why Madonna worked so well. Visual imagery was never a bad thing for her, and whenever looking at her greatest works, it\u2019s as much about the way that she presents herself as it is about the music, whether that\u2019s the image of her performing \u2018Like A Virgin\u2019 at the VMAs, the religious imagery in \u2018Like a Prayer\u2019<\/a>, or the stuttering beats on \u2018Ray of Light\u2019.<\/p>\n Each of them adds to the kind of mystique that she was always going for, but that shouldn\u2019t turn people off from what she does as a singer. There may be a few times where her voice doesn\u2019t mesh with the traditional manner of singing or anything, but throughout her entire career, has there ever been a time when Madonna was trying to embrace the traditional side of popular music?<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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