Top 10 Most Famous Singers from Baltimore

Toni Braxton press photo from 2015. photo by Umusic Wikimedia

Top 10 Most Famous Singers from Baltimore

Baltimore has been the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. It is the fourth most populous city in the Mild Atlantic.  And also the 30th most populous city in the united state. 

Baltimore has a long history of producing jazz legends such as Billie Holiday, Cab Calloway, Chick Webb, and Eubie Blake. This historical thread has also been a major component of the city’s music tourism sector.It includes the Eubie Blake Cultural Center.

Baltimore’s jazz scene has recently expanded to a wide range of venues throughout the city, with a number of notable players lauded for their versatility and avant-garde approaches. This movement has also been led by key groups such as the Baltimore Jazz Collective and the recently reestablished Keystone Korner.

Here are the Top 10 Most Famous Singers from Baltimore

1. Toni Braxton

Braxton who was born in 1967, is an American R&B singer.  She is one of the best-selling female artists in history, having sold over 70 million records worldwide. Braxton has received seven Grammys, nine Billboard Music Awards, seven American Music Awards, and numerous other honors.

Braxton was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in 2011. At the Soul Train Music Awards in 2017, she received the Legend Award. Braxton is also an executive producer and television personality. She competed in the seventh season of the reality show Dancing with the Stars.

2. Philip Glass

Philip Glass in the WNYC studios on December 12, 2007. photo by WNYC New York Public Radio Wikimedia

Glass is an American composer and pianist. He has been widely regarded as one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century.  Philip Glass was born in 1937 in Baltimore, Maryland.

Glass established the Philip Glass Ensemble, with which he continues to perform on keyboards. He has composed fifteen operas, numerous chamber operas, and musical theater work. Including the fourteen symphonies, twelve concertos, nine string quartets, and other chamber music, as well as several film scores. Three of his film scores have received Academy Award nominations.

3. Sisqo

Mark Althavan Andrews who is a professional as Sisqo. He has been an American singer, songwriter, record producer, dancer, and actor. Sisqo is best known for “Thong Song,” but he has also released solo material and is a member of Dru Hill. Unleash the Dragon (1999), Sisqo’s successful debut solo album, featured the hit singles “Thong Song” and “Incomplete.”

4. Frank Zappa

Frank Zappa, © 1977 Mark Estabrook. 1977 Frank Zappa press conference and Armadillo World Headquarters performance photographs photo by Mark Estabrook Wikimedia

Zappa was a well-known composer and guitarist during the 1960s and 1970s. And was well-known for his anti-war and counterculture ideologies. His musical journey began as a teenager when he began playing guitar and drums. With influences ranging from classical composer Stravinsky to doo-wop bands and R&B, he quickly learned to compose and conduct.

His combination of styles and avant-garde recording techniques made him a significant influence on musicians at the time. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame posthumously in 1995, and he received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997.

5.6lack

6lack in 2018 photo by Icebox Wikimedia

Ricardo Valdez Valentine Jr who is known professionally as 6lack. He is an American singer and rapper. 6lack was born in 1992 in Baltimore, Maryland. He rose to prominence after the release of his single “Prblms,” which was taken from his debut album, Free 6lack, which was released in 2016.

East Atlanta Love Letter, his second album, debuted at number three on the Billboard 200 chart in 2018. He is also a member of EarthGang and JID’s Atlanta-Baltimore music collective Spillage Village. 6lack has three Grammy Award nominations and one MTV Video Music Award.

6. Mario

Mario Dewar Barrett who was in 1986, is also known as Mario. He is an American R&B singer and songwriter. Mario  appeared alongside Elton John on the Gorillaz track “The Pink Phantom.” In 2021, his single “Calling My Phone” (with Lil Tjay) topped the charts.

At the age of fourteen, he signed a record deal with J Records and recorded his self-titled debut album, which was released in 2002. It features the top ten single “Just a Friend 2002.” Turning Point, his second album, was released in 2004 and produced the number-one single “Let Me Love You,” which earned him two Billboard Music Awards.

7. Billie Holiday

Billie Holiday at the Downbeat club, a jazz club in New York City. photo by William P. Gottlieb Wikimedia

She was an American Jazz and swing music singer. She was nicknamed ‘Lady Day. Billie Holiday had a groundbreaking impact on jazz and pop singing. Her vocal style, which was heavily influenced by jazz instrumentalists, pioneered a new approach to phrasing and tempo manipulation. Her vocal delivery and improvisational abilities were well-known.

She has received four Grammy Awards for Best Historical Album, all of which were given posthumously. Billie was inducted into both the Grammy and National Rhythm and Blues Halls of Fame. She was also inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, though not in that category; according to the website, “Billie Holiday changed jazz forever.” Several films have been made about her life, the most recent being The United States vs. Billie Holiday (2021).

8. Cab Calloway

 Calloway was an American singer, songwriter, bandleader, conductor, and dancer. He was a regular performer at the Cotton Club in Harlem, where he rose to prominence as a swing vocalist. During his 65-year career, his unique blend of jazz and vaudeville earned him acclaim.

Calloway had several hit records in the 1930s and 1940s. That made him earn the nickname “Hi-de-ho” man of jazz for his most famous song, “Minnie the Moocher,” which was first recorded in 1931. He was on the Billboard charts for five decades in a row (1930s–1970s). From the early 1930s to the late 1940s, Calloway was a master of energetic scat singing and led one of the most popular dance bands in the United States.

9. Eubie Blake

Blake was an American pianist and composer of Ragtime jazz and popular music. In 1921, he and his long-time collaborator Noble Sissle wrote Shuffle Along, one of the first Broadway musicals written and directed by African Americans. Blake’s compositions included hits like “Bandana Days,” “Charleston Rag,” “Love Will Find a Way,” “Memories of You,” and “I’m Just Wild About Harry.” His works were featured in the 1978 Broadway musical Eubie.

10. Tori Amos

Tori Amos at the Theatre at Ace Hotel photo by Justin Higuchi Wikimedia

Amos is an American singer-songwriter and pianist. She is a trained musician with a mezzo-soprano vocal range. Tori Amos was the lead singer of the short-lived 1980s pop group Y Kant Tori read. This was before achieving her breakthrough as a solo artist in the 1990s.

Amos has been nominated for five MTV VMAs and eight Grammy Awards, and she won an Echo Klassik award for her Night of Hunters classical crossover album. She is ranked 71 on VH1’s “100 Greatest Women of Rock and Roll” list from 1999.

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