I love Usher's 'Confessions.'
My first concert was Boyz II Men and Mariah Carey.
My favorite artists always documented emotion. Marvin Gaye and Al Green and Sade and Aaliyah.
I can't ignore what I grew up listening to. My parents used to listen to Michael Jackson non-stop. They used to listen to Luther Vandross, Lionel Richie, Stevie Wonder.
I'm a huge fan of R. Kelly's. He's a musical genius and probably the most prolific artist of the generation before mine.
I started listening to old school R&B artists like Stevie Wonder, Luther Vandross, and Donny Hathaway when I was in 6th grade.
I love Lady Gaga and I love Katy Perry and R&B and rap music... I love big, American pop music.
I listened to a lot of Michael Jackson growing up. A lot of Boyz II Men. I loved Mariah Carey. Just big vocalists. I was always that kid who just wore whatever and did whatever.
I always loved James Brown, Diana Ross, Aretha Franklin, Sam Cooke.
I get a lot of my inspiration from the Jackson 5 and Luther Vandross.
I'm just real in-tune with music - I really listen to R&B more than I listen to rap.
I think Aaliyah has influenced artists like a Ciara.
When I started singing, I was covering Lauryn Hill, Brandy, and all the girl groups of the '90s. It's just what I would listen to and what I was singing when anybody asked me to sing for them.
I still listen to Ginuwine, man. I can still listen to Donell Jones.
I'd say I got into Marvin Gaye properly in college.
I grew up listening to Bob Marley, Jill Scott, Floetry, Nas, Jay-Z, Beyonce.
When we bemoan the lost golden age of music, it's worth remembering that mainstream radio listeners of the '60s and '70s, particularly in Canada, missed out on an outpouring of brilliant R&B music.
There are a lot of people, like myself, who love R&B and will always love R&B.
I love Alicia Keys, Chris Brown, Usher, Mariah Carey... all that stuff.
Usher is definitely somebody I came up listening to.
Since the beginning of my recording career in 1975, I have had a little difficulty because the pop stations think I'm a jazzer who doesn't have a feeling for pop, so it's hard to get my records played. Similarly, black urban radio doesn't understand that with my R&B roots, I am more than a jazz singer. So I get pigeonholed.
When I was younger, I would listen to Lauryn Hill, Destiny's Child, Justin Timberlake, Aaliyah: lots of '90s R&B.
I would actually like to play Bobby Brown. To me, he was just the King of R&B at one point.
I loved things like Destiny's Child, and Amy Winehouse's first record came out when I was 11 years old. But as a young, young child, I was just surrounded by Stevie Wonder, Whitney Houston, Chaka Khan - just massive, soulful voices.
Stevie Wonder and Diana Ross and the Jackson 5, that's what I grew up on.
