What are your top 3 favorite female singers?

Natalie Merchant 

Joni Mitchell

Sandy Denny

I'm pleasantly surprised to see Mary Stallings mentioned twice already! She is also one of my favorites, but I thought that she was a bit 'under the radar'.

Hard to confine it to three, of course, but I'll work around that with my three favorite lesser known singers:

Kristin Asbjornsen

Lisa Bassenge

Rokia Traore

Mary Stallings, Rene Marie, Shirley Horn and a 4th (but really 1st)  Eva Cassidy. 

Carley Simon

 Mary Stallings

Mama Cass Elliott

-Nico

-Jane Birkin

-Joni Mitchell/Laura Nyro

DeKay

Laura Nyro

Mirella Freni

Kate Bush

Janis Joplin

Joan Sutherland

Call the thread police! I've gone two steps too far!

Jenny Lewis.

Beth Gibbons (Portishead)

Regina Spektor

and many more that you may not know. 

Melody Gardot

Eva Cassidy

Sara Bareilles

Kristeen Young

Kate Bush

PJ Harvey

and lots of others of course..... 

Joni

Sandy Denny

Kate Bush

@jeffseight 

I can ;

* LSD ~ 1981

* 'schrooms ~ 1986

*  marijuana 1979

Alison Krause

Bonnie Raitt

Aretha

Many more...

BTW, It's "Who" not "What".

-Dame Shirley Bassey

-Ella

-Annie Lennox

Joni Mitchell

Kate Bush

Aimee Mann