I LOVE his voice!
It's soulful, colorful, unique, warm.
People who come close: Freddie Mercury, Marvin Gaye.
I agree that Michael tends to be underrated as a vocalist. I love it when someone has passion in his voice and he sings with so much passion! His voice alone is so expressive.
I prefer his adult voice and I never understood people who said he was a better singer as a child. IMO those are people who are stuck with the "cute, little Michael" image (it's more about the image IMO than really about the voice). Although he was a great singer as a child - but his voice as a child is just that: a child's voice. People even mistook him for Donny Osmond on One Bad Apple. It's after growing up when it became so soulful and warm and unique and colorful. There's no chance of mistaking him with Donny as an adult.
It also frustrates me when i see people (mainly white rock critics) rank rock singers with average vocal skills above Michael as a vocalist.
I agree. IMO there are very few really great singers in the rock genre. The excuse for that is usually that the rock genre is not about great vocals. That's fine, but then when it comes to ranking singers do not rank rock singers above truly great soul singers. But I think rock criticts just can't help but always push their genre above everything else on every list.
One of the few exceptions in the rock genre was Freddie Mercury. He really was a great singer, but then he was despised by rock critics. Now, of course, he's rated as a great vocalist and he's constantly named as one of the greatest vocalists, but when he was alive he and Queen were constantly bashed by critics.
BTW, I realized that in my country, at least (which is a white European country) people usually consider "shouters" with a rough, brazen voice like Springsteen, Joe Cocker etc. the greatest singers, which I always thought is a joke (just like most people's music taste is in this country, LOL), because being a shouter isn't equal to being a great vocalist.
BTW, this is a great article about Michael as a vocalist:
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/cultur...o-great-singing-is-about-more-than-the-notes/