Afrobeat legend Fela Kuti and singer Burna Boy have made Rolling Stone’s ‘Greatest Singers List’, which began in 2008.

Rollingstone, one of the world’s leading music publications platforms, released a list of 200 who they claim to be the greatest of all time.

The publishers claim that the singers were judged on originality, influence, catalogue depth, and the breadth of their musical legacy.

Published on New Year’s Day, several notable American singers, from Aretha Franklin to Kelly Clarkson and Toni Braxton, were included in the list.

They wrote, “In all cases, what mattered most to us was originality, influence, the depth of an artist’s catalogue, and the breadth of their musical legacy.”

The platform says the list differs from the Greatest Voices List. “Talent is impressive; genius is transcendent. Many people here were born with massive pipes, perfect pitch, and boundless range. Others have rougher, stranger, or more delicate instruments.”

Burna Boy is placed at number 197 position as Rolling Stone described him as an “ambassador of Afrobeats as a global movement”.

“He is the ambassador of Afrobeats as a global movement that can feel equally at home climbing the European charts and maintaining a subtle emotional connection with past African genres,” they wrote.

Fela Kuti, on the other hand, ranked 188 on the list. The publication described the late icon as an Innovator for the high life, “Fela Kuti’s iconic songs of the 1970s and 1980s are sprawling orchestral instrumentals, an innovative swirl of African highlife, American soul, and Jazz.”

Describing his political influence through his music, they wrote, “Through his music, he shared an anti-colonialist, Pan-African vision and challenged Nigeria’s corrupt military government, which routinely subjected him and those around him to immense harm.”

“Yet it wasn’t just Fela’s lyrical rebellion that makes him so important- it’s the way his voice carried his vision; the way he sang, his tone commanding and direct, plain and firm,” they added