Brilliant Minds Behind the Mic: The 9 World’s Smartest Singers
Intelligence can be measured. Since around 1905, researchers have repeatedly developed tests that can find out how clever people really are. Anyone with an IQ score of 85 to 115 is considered to be of average intelligence. This is because 75% of all people have intelligence scores in this range. Those whose score is above this range are considered to be highly gifted or even geniuses. Only two percent of all people can claim to have an IQ above 130.
And that doesn't just include Nobel Prize winners! Some successful musicians are also real brainiacs:
John Legend
John Legend (born 1978) has sold over 10.3 million copies of his single “All of Me”. The singer with the soulful voice has his keen intellect to thank for his success in the tough world of business.
John Legend's intelligence was so striking even as a schoolboy that he was offered scholarships to several Ivy League universities in the US, including Georgetown, Morehouse College and Harvard. He ultimately chose the University of Pennsylvania because Donald Trump had also studied there. He majored in the liberal arts subjects of African American and English literature.
In 1999, the musician graduated with honors and then joined the renowned Boston Consulting Group as a business consultant before releasing his successful debut album “Get Lifted” in 2004. Legend says of his time as a businessman: “I learned how to make good decisions as a team back then. I think these things helped me in my career as a musician.”
Alicia Keys
The fact that early musical education does influence intelligence is suggested by the example of Alicia Keys. At the age of just seven, Alicia learned to play the piano using the Suzuki method and just a few years later began studying jazz at the Professional Performing Arts School in Manhattan. By the age of 14, the musician was already writing her own songs. She was one of the brightest students in high school and graduated with such outstanding grades that she had the honor of giving the valedictorian speech.
It was almost a matter of course that the 16-year-old was offered a scholarship at Columbia University. However, she had recently decided on a different path in life and signed her first record deal with Columbia Records, which would pave the way to her subsequent worldwide fame as a singer. The singer of “No One” and “Fallin” is one of the most intelligent and successful artists in the world.
Shakira
Shakira (born 1977) is also one of the most intelligent singers around. Even the clever Gloria Estefan realized that she had brains as well as hips, and so she and her husband Emilio produced the albums “Grandes Éxitos” and the live album MTV Unplugged for the belly-dancing singer.
Shakira speaks Spanish, Portuguese and English, plus a little Italian, French, Catalan and Arabic. Her IQ was determined by the Mensa score and is an enormous 140.
The singer of “Hips Don't Lie” also impressed the lecturer at UCLA, where she attended a course in “History of Western Civilization to the Year 843” incognito. Her professor didn't know that a world star was listening and asking questions in row 3 of his seminar room. He only noticed how intelligent the student, who was previously unknown to him, was.
Lady Gaga
Since she turned 17, Lady Gaga (born Stefani J. Angelina Germanotta in 1986) has been a member of the illustrious Mensa club. Only people who have been proven to be extremely smart are accepted into this club if they perform successfully in an intelligence test.
The singer of “Just Dance” and “Poker Face”, who later worked as artistic director for Polaroid, studied art at New York University. She learned to play the piano at the age of four and has been composing her own songs since she was 13. Lady Gaga herself attributes her success to the fact that she is very clever and can therefore visualize her music impressively. After all, many people work hard, but hard work alone is no guarantee of such great success.
Kesha
Other US teenagers can only dream of achieving the kind of grades that Kesha got in the All-American university entrance test: Kesha (born 1987) scored an incredible 1500 out of 1600 in her SAT tests.
With an IQ of 140, Kesha is definitely one of the brightest singers around.
Kesha, who during her childhood and youth in Los Angeles was sometimes dependent on food stamps and certainly didn't always have it easy, received a scholarship offer from Barnard College, affiliated with Columbia University, to study psychology. Well-deserved, says the singer of “Tik Tok” and “Take it Off”, who says that she was very hardworking at school and really liked physics and mathematics. But Kesha turned down the scholarship because she wanted to become a pop star instead. In view of her later success, it was a very wise decision!
Madonna
Madonna (*1958) is said to have an IQ of 140. While attending West Middle School and Rochester Adams High School, she consistently achieved top grades, which, combined with her talent for dancing, later earned her a scholarship.
From an early age, the Queen of Pop learned to play the piano and took ballet lessons. Since then, she has not stopped taking on new physical and intellectual challenges. In addition to her daily workout, she is also intensively involved with the Jewish secret doctrine of Kabbalah.
It is therefore not surprising that the highly sensitive and delicate singer is absolutely at peace with herself, both with her body and her mind: “I have never wished I had a different life. I am lucky to be in the powerful position I am in and to be intelligent.” At the same time, she says of herself, ‘I have the most perfect belly button. When I put my fingers in it, I feel a nerve in the center of my body shoot up my spine.’ It is this unique combination of body awareness, intuition and mind that makes Madonna one of the most successful and intelligent singers of all time.
Art Garfunkel
Art Garfunkel (born 1941), one half of the legendary New York folk duo Simon and Garfunkel, is so clever that he could have been successful in almost any field.
First, the singer began studying architecture at Columbia University, then he changed his major and earned a bachelor's degree in art history. At the end of his studies, he completed his master's in the demanding subject of mathematics, for which he also received a teaching qualification at the same time.
The singer who released the platinum album “Bridge Over Troubled Water” together with Paul Simon in 1970 still believes that he would have been best working at a school: “I'm a really good teacher and I really enjoyed teaching and I was also very good at it.”
Lana Del Rey
After overcoming her own problems with drugs and the meaning of her own life, Lana de Rey (born 1985) began studying philosophy, specializing in metaphysics, at Fordham University in New York.
The singer was particularly interested in the connection between theology and philosophy in the thinking of the Jesuits. “Why do we exist? How did something become reality? Why do we do what we do? And how do you not become a butcher, a baker, and a middle-class guardian – that's what really interested me. I loved being around people who wondered why we were here.”
After graduating, she worked as a social worker in urban problem areas and on Indian reservations, where she had the opportunity to experience many stories that she would later incorporate into her songs. The singer of “Summertime Sadness” obviously has depth and is one of the most intelligent singers in the world.
Gloria Estefan
The highly talented daughter of Cuban refugees (born 1957) could have made a career for herself as a psychologist or translator. Estefan graduated from the University of Miami in 1979 with a degree in psychology and French and could easily have continued her studies at the elite French university Sorbonne, because she was one of the brightest students. Allegedly, the exceptional singer even received a job offer from the CIA.
But Gloria Estefan decided that what she really wanted to do was the US number 1 hit “Anything for You” and an international career as a musician. Today, the artist is once again proving herself to be a savvy businesswoman. She holds shares in the Miami Dolphins and runs several Cuban restaurants in Florida.