Ai Shinozaki 'Best Pop Singer' in 2012's First Half

Ai Shinozaki is the Best Pop Singer of the First Half of 2012. This was very close as to who was best, and the other three singers, Ne-Yo, Kelly Clarkson, and Rihanna, were also great. The difference was something that may have gone unnoticed by some reviewers and music lovers. Shinozaki was best of the four singers at or near the end of the song. I thought she had the most difficult song to make interesting because the lyrics could have been better. She hit high notes and held those notes wonderfully while putting in a lot of feeling which is important to have a successful song.

Note: I had left out the word Pop so I added that in.

Best Pop Singer for the first half of 2012

There's more below on how I'm making my decision.

Four Singers

Four singers:

Rihanna
Ne-Yo
Kelly Clarkson
Ai Shinozaki

Second songs:
Ai Shinozaki in singing group AeLL 『ありがとうサヨナラ。』
"Goodbye Thank you."
note: I see another translation of this that is: Sayonara "Thank you. "
Kelly Clarkson "Dark Side"
Ne-Yo "Let's Go" - Calvin Harris "Let's Go" featuring Ne-Yo
Rihanna "Where Have You Been"

I listened to these songs to know more about their singing but not for the final decision about who was the best singer for the first half of 2012. My decision is about four singers and four songs (below).

For the decision
First songs:
Kelly Clarkson "Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)"
Rihanna "Take Care" -  Drake "Take Care" featuring Rihanna
Ai Shinozaki  "Play for Free"
Ne-Yo "Leave You Alone" - Young Jeezy "Leave You Alone"
featuring Ne-Yo

Note: I changed the order of appearance of the four singers on purpose because the order doesn't matter and has nothing to do with my decision.

Also, I listened to a some Live performances but couldn't find Ai Shinozaki "Play for Free" Live version so I watched and listened to the video on YouTube for "JOY" by AeLL. I tried to find a good version of "Take Care" Live and while Drake sounded good, I couldn't find a good one with Rihanna singing so I listened and watched a video of her Live performance of "Where Have You Been". I did find good Live versions of "Stronger" and "Leave You Alone".

Tied Now but there won't be a Tie

After listening to those songs, the four singers are tied.

I thought this would be easy or at least not too difficult. But they are all tied in singing/vocals and basically how much their singing voices were important to the sound of those songs.

More on my decision about Best Pop Singer/Vocalist of the First Half of 2012

This is about four singers, four songs, and just one song for each singer.

However, I'm going to listen and think about the singing/vocals on a second song by each artist if I feel it's necessary to make a good decision.

I'm listening to some of these songs again this morning and I've been listening to these songs for the past few days. It's a really tough decision because they are all great singers.