any recommendations, especially soulful (and female) voices.

Man, we listen to a lot of French soul and R&B in my French class. If you wouldn't mind waiting, I'll ask my French teacher for you.

You might wanna check out Luminescence by Anggun and Un Autre Univers by Tina Arena. They are excellent French-language albums.

Hehe, we listen to French songs in my French class too. I love them.

Axelle Red - Je Pense a Toi
Celine Dion - Je Chanterai
Francoise Hardy - Tous Les Garcons et Les Filles [old, old song. ]

I'm not sure if you'd call them soulful, but I like them a lot.

Hi everybody ! I'm french and this is another very good french artist : Lara Fabian. If you like Rap music, listen to Diam's, her songs are very funny.

You guys listen to Axelle Red? Did you have to listen to Je me fache? It's hilariously Avril Lavigne like.

Amel Bent
she sings so beautiful

can anyone recommend any classic french songs/singers besides Edith Piaf?

mmm...i don't know much about soulful singers...BUT if you happen to like bossa nova by any chance, you should try out Nouvelle Vague. They're a cover band, french, but mostly sing in english.

Camille & Melanie Pain are good too.

Leslie, K-Maro, Corneille, Dadoo, PLUME LATRAVERSE (lol)

If by classic you mean the ones everyone heard about and know:
Oldies, I would say Jacques Brel (he was belgium, but sang in french), Georges Brassens (but i would recommend you to find lyrics or translation, you loose a lot without the meaning), Henri Salvador, Charles Trenet, Charles Aznavour, Gainsbourg, Joe Dassin, Pierre Perret.

In the 90s (or still now), Jean-Jacques Goldman and Francis Cabrel. Burt i used to listen to songs with lyrics, so i guess it's better if you can understand what they sing. You can look for Florent Pagny too, he tried many different styles, even "opera".

Patricia Kass (sp?)
Vanessa Paradise
Patrick Bruel
Francois Hardy

I think they are all from 80's and 90's...

oldies: Mireille Mattheiu
new stuff: Julie Reins (she's like..rockish popish she's pretty good)

Anggun
Mylène Farmer
Emilie Simon, awesome songs ¤¤

ohh.. well.. i dont realy listen to french music.
but i like this one french artist, who raps.
MC SOLAR

try Les Nubians.

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CARLA BRUNI
she's got a soulful soothing voice. soo pretty.
if you want, i can send u the disc online, just pm me or something?

I dont really know soulful but.. some of my favs

anggun - my favorite french singer. pop & occasional rock mix.
mc solaar - la vie est belle
kmaro - histoire de luv

franck monnet if you can find anything on him. reminds me of like a french chris martin

Vanessa Paradis- Joe Le Taxi
that's a girl ^^ and you can get it the regular version and the remix version

Leslie - Et J'attends
Leslie - Cher Toi

I like those song. RnB orientated.

My favourite will be Elodie Frégé - "Viens jusqu'à moi"

I love the band "Kyo"
genre is kinda rock?
but its not like nirvana or somthing like dat
sink his voice is cool
maybe u'll like it =)

Personally I love Anais because her songs are so funny!
Especially "Mon coeur, mon amour"!

I like the song "Entre Nous" by Chimène Badi. ^^