Lots of throat lozenges, lots of lemon and honey, now work those vocal chords, lady! Here is a section on the full-voiced women of the world of R&B. High notes and hissy fits abound. OK, you don’t hear too much of this stuff on 6 Music, but you need to know your history . . .
Answers: here
1 What was Janet Jackson’s 2015 comeback album? What is the nickname of James Harris III, who, along with Trevor Lewis, helped to write most of the album (and many of her previous hits)?
2 Which BRIT School graduate singer shaved her head for Red Nose Day 2012? How did her 2011 debut single suggest we should ‘do it’?
3 Anita, Bonnie, June, Ruth and extended family members Issa and Sadako have all been in which singing group? Which Bruce Springsteen song gave them their first US Top 10 single in 1979?
4 What’s the 411? Whose debut album was that – and what was her album in 1997, five years later, which was a US number one?
5 Who recorded a number of jazz and swing standards for the 1999 film Swing, in which she starred? What was her sole UK number one single (1989)?
6 Who sang with Rip, Rig + Panic in the early eighties? What was the title of her 1989 debut solo album?
7 Which are the only three singles to spend more than seven weeks at number one in Britain since the millennium?
8 On which two US number one singles has Rihanna collaborated with Eminem?
9 What was Gabrielle’s number one debut single of 1993? Which boy band sang with her on the 1996 hit ‘If You Ever’?
10 LaTavia Roberson, LeToya Luckett and Farrah Franklin were all early members of which band? Which other former member has sold over 100 million records as a solo artist?
11 Who was the world’s best-selling artist in the 1990s? With whom did she collaborate on ‘One Sweet Day’, which spent a record 16 weeks at number one in the US?
12 Whose 2013 debut album Sing to the Moon (2013) earned her a Mercury nomination? What variation on the same album was released the following year?
13 Natalie Renee McIntyre’s debut album was 1999’s On How Life Is; what is her stage name? And what 2001 follow-up topped the UK chart?
14 Who is the second biggest-selling X Factor alumnus after One Direction? What was the title of her 2007 debut album?
15 Whose video for her ‘Window Seat’ single showed the singer stripping naked on the empty streets of Dallas? What titles were her ‘state of America’ albums of 2008 and 2010 released under?
16 Whose The Breakthrough album of 2005 featured tracks recorded with 50 Cent, will.i.am, U2 and Jay-Z? What was the U2 song, which became her biggest UK single?
17 What are Beyoncé’s two UK number one singles on which Jay-Z appears as a guest vocalist?
18 Which group’s original line-up was Terry Ellis, Cindy Herron, Maxine Jones and Dawn Robinson? What did they call their hugely successful second album?
19 What train gave Gladys Knight and the Pips their first UK Top 10 single in 1973? Which Bond movie gave Gladys her first solo UK Top 20 single, 16 years later?
20 Which singer and pianist’s 1990 album Circle of One topped the UK chart? Which British band ‘discovered’ her and showcased her talent on their Seeds of Love album?
21 Born Michelle Wallen, which UK singer’s most successful album was her 1988 debut, So Good? Which BBC makeover and fashion show did she present in 2006 and 2007?
22 What was Diana Ross’s 1985 UK number one single? Which tremulous superstars wrote it and sang backing vocals?
23 Whose self-named 1993 album and 1996 follow-up Secrets both went eight-times platinum in the US? Which single then became the second-biggest selling of all time by a female artist?
24 What were the sole UK Top 10 hits for soul singers Anita Ward (1979) and Stacy Lattislaw (1980)?
25 Which soul singer sang soprano on Stevie Wonder’s Fulfillingness’ First Finale album then had a 1976 solo hit with ‘Free’? Two years later, she sang ‘Too Much, Too Little, Too Late’ with which crooner?
26 Como Ama una Mujer was the fifth (and first Spanish language) album by which US superstar in 2007? Her breakthrough film role came in 1997: which late Latin singer was it a biopic of?
27 Who sang ‘Street Life’ in 1979, the sole crossover chart hit for US jazz band the Crusaders? Which 1997 Tarantino movie featured a faster version of the song by the same singer?
28 Which 1993 album was the only UK number one for Janet Jackson? (Write down the answer – for two points, the idiosyncratic styling needs to be perfect).
29 Under what name does Helen Folasade Adu perform? What was the title of her 1984 debut album?
30 T-Boz Watkins & Chilli Thomas are the two remaining members of which hip hop trio? Which third member died in a 2002 car crash, aged 30?