Who are your three favorite female singers?

davidm238  Only my sister would agree with you (collects all Streisand since she was a child).  

@ sondeknz  My mistake, you didn't mention Garland.  I heard Stacey Kent.  A small, thin sounding voice.  I prefer fuller sounding voices with a wider frequency range.  Judith Durham was okay, had pitch problems when she sang.   I might as well list June Christy, Jeri Southern, Dinah Washington, Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday as some of my jazz favorites.  Dorothy Kirsten, Rise Stevens and Conchita Supervia (Spanish songs) as great crossover opera - pop singers 

Claire Lynch!

These are my favorite female singers --
Ariana Grande
Selena Gomez
Rihanna

I’d like to think the OP question is which female voices give you goosebumps when you hear them.
so for me it rules out some previous poster’s choices where I find limitations in the singer’s abilities. For instance, Sade has a great voice but her range is so limited every time I hear her avoiding a high note by going subdued it just ruins it.
as far as Joni Mitchell and Joan Baez, they just do anything for me (great songwriting, I’m just focusing on the voice). Picking them is like picking Neil Young as great male singer.
for range and ability to sound golden, soft, harsh and use pitch nuance I find Barbra Streisand and KD Lang just have it.  to me KD Lang is a female Version of Bono’s voice.  
Third choice is rather hard, I’d have to say Diana Ross.
on a side note, nobody could argue that Cher is one the the greatest female singers....but nobody’s favorite!  Popularity -  yes.  Goosebumps - no.