rhythm and blues

Aretha Franklin (March 25, 1942) is a Memphis, Tennessee-born but Detroit, Michigan-raised American iconic gospel, soul, and R&B singer. Many have called her "The Queen Of Soul" and "Lady Soul". She is renowned for her soul and R&B recordings but is also adept at jazz, rock, blues, pop, and gospel. She is generally regarded as one of the best vocalists ever by such industry publications/media outlets as Rolling Stone and VH1, due to her phenomenal technical and interpretive talents.

The Weeknd is a Toronto-based R&B singer named Abel Tesfaye. Abel started uploading songs to YouTube in 2010 and in March of 2011 he dropped his first mixtape, House of Balloons. In August of 2011, he dropped his second mixtape, Thursday. His third mixtape, Echoes of Silence, was released on December 21 2011. The Weeknd takes his ambivalent emotional tenor and stretches it out, building a whole worldview from it. He has sampled artists such as Beach House and Siouxsie and the Banshees. http://the-weeknd.com/

The Four Tops are an American Motown musical quartet, whose repertoire has included doo-wop, jazz, soul music, rnb, disco, adult contemporary, showtunes, and even psychedelic rock. Founded in Detroit, Michigan as The Four Aims, lead singer Levi Stubbs and group mates Abdul "Duke" Fakir, Renaldo "Obie" Benson, and Lawrence Payton remained together for over four decades, finally forced to endure a lineup change when Payton died in 1997. At that time, Theo Peoples was added to the lineup; Peoples later replaced Stubbs, who fell ill from cancer, and Ronnie McNeir assumed Peoples' spot.