Strong vocalists characteristics (with and without bands)

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I was thinking on the car ride home tonight on what really sells me on a good vocalist. Historically there haven't been many although I think generally speaking people are getting wiser in terms of what it takes so the stock and trade is getting more competitive.

For me:

- Candor, ie. you can tell what they're singing about, the melodic choices, and the beats are from their head, pretty close in a lot of ways to the impression having taken a complex of thoughts and emotions, lifting it, and putting it directly on audio.
- Knowing how to weave their particular voice and have it sit in the sonic biome they make well enough that it doesn't just fit but even sounds like the surrounds would be missing that element without it (admittedly though this is half the vocalist and half the band or producer).
- Not steering away from gritty topics or concepts.
- Willing to really dig deep into subconscious territory where you get a lot of powerful memory remnants or neighboring concepts joining at odd and interesting angles.
- Knowing how to weave sexual tension into what they do in really intelligent and subtle ways, ie. almost spinning a sort of guile out of it (or even doing that well above the radar).
- Knowing how to understate exact contact with the song topic but hint at the peaks of it vividly.

I'm used to just thinking people calling that combination command or authority but I'm not used to actually hearing it get broken down. The interesting thing about the sexual tension aspect is, if done right, if your straight listening to some of the same gender it seems to translate back into authenticity and respectability a lot of times.

Any other particular thoughts or ideas on this? What commands your interest or rapt attention and respect for a vocalist when you make ear-contact?