If Madonna weren’t an option, who would you declare the Queen of Pop?

Well according to official charts and sales stats, it would be Rihanna.

Whitney, her voice would blow all the others off the stage.

From Wikipedia:

With sales of over 250 million records worldwide, Rihanna is the second-best-selling female music artist of all time and the highest-certified female artist of all time on the RIAA's Top Artists (Digital Singles) ranking

Diana Ross.

Rihanna sells digital singles but not albums

Whitney had huge album and single sales AND she was a phenomenal singer (unlike Rihanna)

I'm always surprised that Rihanna is that big. I can only think of 2 songs - that horrid Umbrella song, and the awesome Don't Stop the Music.

Mylène Farmer

CHER

I’m not a fan and I barely know any of her songs, but Taylor Swift is pretty damn ubiquitous. Shouldn’t she be an option?

My heart says Britney, head says Diana.

It’s funny because even though Beyoncé Knowles Carter is the Queen of everything I would never call her the Queen of Pop. She is so much more than that; queen of pop title minimizes her. She is the Queen of Entertainment. That’s why those in the industry call her the First Lady of Music. I guess Whitney but she is mostly known for ballads so not broad enough. I don’t know maybe Rihanna or Taylor Swift.

Cher is the Goddess of Pop. I love me some Cher. I only know like 2 or 3 of her songs but that woman is fierce and was mad beautiful when young. Queen Bey sort of reminds me of Cher in that regard, though Cher is a much better dramatic actress. Don’t get me Hive.

I voted for Elton just cause. OP you cunt for putting him on this list 😂

R3 To me those lists are arbitrary. Because for the past 10 years they have formulated this new way of equating streams with traditional album sells. I don’t know how they do it exactly. Rihanna’s singles and iTunes downloads can’t fuck with when Whitney and Mariah and Madge were calling 9 and ten million copies of whole CDs priced at $19.99. Of course it’s all relative; because that’s how we consume music nowadays. But to me it just makes those lists arbitrary and there ever changing. As Queen Bey said:

My success cannot be quantified. She is like the Cleopatra of contemporary music.

I don't love it, but the answer is Taylor Swift.

As if there were any competition.

LOL @ Elton John.

As my dad would say white people love them some Whitney Houston. Because she sang them schmaltzy love ballads with no soul. She had soul in her voice but the construction of the songs didn’t. I think there might have been a brief stint in the late 80s when Whitney was more popular about white audiences than Michael or even Madge. So Imma go with Whitney.

Even Whitney uptempo songs lacked soul. Madge had more rhythmic soul in her Latin infused, club jams than Whitney.

How could I forget Sondra Prill? Goddess.

The answer is either Taylor Swift or Sondra Prill.