the queen of prog?

 

Absolutely and to that I would add her phrasing and dynamism.  I really think she got stuck in the wrong kind of music thanks to her being some sort of classical purist (she once professed to not like Vultures Fly High as it was too pop).    Her rendition of If I Loved You beats the accomplished Barbara Streisand's own take so comprehensively it can be stunning the first time you hear both versions.  Her style is way too refined and 'proper' for a genre that thrives on at least some semblance of weirdness even in its most square representations.  Had more of the kind of vocal pyrotechnics she demonstrated live been included in the studio albums, this problem may have been overcome but this wasn't done for whatever reason.  With all that said, I would have hardly cared to listen to such a staid outfit as Renaissance (with few exceptions like Trip to the fair) if they had never had a singer like her.  Not that the musicians couldn't play but too much of what they ultimately put together was, well, boring.  
 

While not a Annie Haslam fan myself, I've always preferred Jane Relf in Renaissance, the special thing with Haslam's voice is not so much its range (which she does use in Renaissance thou more in live performances than on studio albums) but its quality - her tone, clarity, diction, control, power and projection are without equal in the Prog world - what it lacks for me is character (something that Madan and I discussed earlier in this thread) and in a genre of music that is all about character and characters that's more of a stumbling block than not being a composer IMO.