The only exception was Kishore Kumar who carved out a niche for himself as a singing star.

BBC: Stars sing for success

Ms. HORN: (Singing) Shall I catch a shooting star?

NPR: Savoring Shirley Horn's Timeless Sound

He's a nice kid, and when he gets a singing tour with some other kids named Elvis and Jerry Lee and chats up a former child star named June Carter, he's shyness itself.

NPR: 'Walk the Line' Walks a Straight Line

The charity claims Shaikh has always maintained he went to China to start a career as a pop star, despite no history of public singing, having previously lived in Poland where he tried to set up an airline.

BBC: Briton faces execution in China

With the lights still, off the US star appeared on stage under a signal spotlight singing Hey You.

BBC: Snoop Dogg

Al Jolson, a blackface comedian, singing tap dancer and the show's star, recorded it the next year.

NPR: Blues Song Is a Decades-Long Music Lesson

For Ms. Watts, working at a store with a pop-star clientele could help kick-start her singing career.

WSJ: New Celebrity: the Clerk

Rita Yahan-Farouz is a 50-year-old pop star and one of the biggest singing sensations in both countries.

CNN: This month on Inside the Middle East

Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, "A Jazz New Year's Eve" features the Dizzy Gillespie All-Star Big Band with the singing quartet New York Voices.

NPR: Toast Of The Nation Swings Into 2009