I rediscovered Julia Fordham over the weekend. I haven't actually sat and listened to her CDs in years, but yesterday I rescued them from my wife's office. What a wonderful jazzy, R&B voice, and a nice songwriter (although God knows she needs a better arranger for some of them). She notes her range - four octaves! And much better control than (ick!) Mariah Carey (who has a similar range, but tries to hard to be all R&B-ey). Hers reaches from a low mezzo-soprano to a tenor, although she can do a falsetto soprano sometimes, too (do they count falsetto?).
This first video is a two-fer, containing "Tower Block" and "Your Lovely Face" and an annoying interview with BBC from 1998. Just skip through the interview.
I love her love songs. Her sad love songs. This is "Swept":
