Madonna is greatest woman

She has sold 140million records and has assumed iconic status around the world. Now Madonna has been voted the greatest woman in popular music history in a poll which will delight some fans and infuriate others.

Few would quarrel with Madonna's No1 ranking. The 44-year-old has been at the top for two decades and is the most successful female chart act of all time.

But Kylie Minogue in second place? The former soap star may have sold a few million records in recent years, but is hardly a match for giants of the music business such as Billie Holiday, Diana Ross, Roberta Flack and Barbra Streisand. And the singer many would rate as the greatest of all time, the incomparable "first lady of jazz" Ella Fitzgerald, is ignored completely.

More than 750,000 votes were cast in the poll carried out by music channel VH1, and Madonna was the clear winner with 17 per cent.

Canadian Celine Dion is third, followed by Whitney Houston, Aretha Franklin, Tina Turner, Mariah Carey and Janet Jackson. The highest placed UK singer, in 10th place, is Kate Bush, whose biggest hit was her caterwauling 1978 debut single, Wuthering Heights.

Other British stars feature further down the rankings, with Annie Lennox at 14, Dido at 21, Gabrielle at 41 and Sharleen Spiteri at 49.

Lulu, Dusty Springfield and Petula Clark are on the list, but not Cilla Black, who had a string of hits in the Sixties and Seventies before she became better known to a generation of TV viewers as the host of Blind Date. And John Lennon's former wife, Yoko Ono, scrapes in at No99, just above Erykah Badu.

The Spice Girls, Mel C and Geri Halliwell are in the top 100, but Emma Bunton, Mel B and Victoria Beckham, as individuals, are conspicuous by their absence.

New artists have a strong showing, with thousands of votes going to Britney Spears, Jennifer Lopez, Nelly Furtado, Pink and Sophie Ellis Bextor.

VH1 said: "Madonna's place in history is assured. She is one of the most extraordinary artists of our time and many of our viewers know her entire career."

The absence of some of the most respected jazz musicians, like Cleo Lane, Anita O'Day and Bessie Smith, may reflect the target audience of VH1 - a 24-hour music station aimed at 18 to 30-yearoldswho may not even have heard of such artists.

Having conquered the music world, Madonna is now trying to achieve similar status as a movie star. But her latest film, Swept Away, directed by her British husband Guy Ritchie, has failed to impress the critics. The couple live on a 1,200-acre estate in Wiltshire.