Connery's Scots brogue takes the title as world's sexiest male voice

THE sound of a celebrity voice or a regional accent may soothe or irritate by turns, but yesterday, Kylie Minogue was voted as having the world’s sexiest female voice, along with former Bond star Sean Connery’s brogue in the male category.

Hollywood stars George Clooney and Catherine Zeta Jones were among those pipped at the post in the recent survey to find the sexiest voice.

Minogue was named top, just 24 hours after being voted the celebrity with the best body, beating James Bond star Halle Berry and Jennifer Lopez.

Minogue, 34, may be renowned for her singing voice, but she is not often recognised for the way she speaks. Her singing voice has established her as one of the UK’s most popular chart acts of all time, moving from 40th to 25th place in the Guinness Book of British Hit Singles.

In a recent poll of 1,050 people conducted by Taylor Nelson as part of a national survey investigating views on the sexiest and most annoying voices and regional accents, she easily beat competition from the likes of Joanna Lumley, Catherine Zeta Jones and Mariella Frostrup.

However, married men still voted Lumley’s voice the sexiest. She appeared in her debut role alongside Patrick Macnee and Gareth Hunt in The New Avengers in the Seventies and became an icon with her upper crust English accent.

The top regional accents voted for were Irish, followed by Scottish, then Geordie with the West Midlands, Birmingham and Liverpudlian accents voted as the least favourite.

Connery, 72, beat the likes of Barry White and Tom Jones in the male category.

Throughout his lengthy acting career Connery has made his accent part of his trademark. He rocketed to international fame in the Sixties as the suave secret agent 007 in six of Ian Fleming’s Bond movies.

Topping the lists of annoying voices are the television presenter Janet Street Porter and boxer Chris Eubank closely followed by Ruby Wax and Loyd Grossman.

Recently awarded the accolade of the UK’s most stylish man, David Beckham might be less pleased to find himself considered the fifth most annoying male voice, while Big Brother contestant Jade Goody is now remembered for little more than her irritating voice.

The survey was commissioned by mobile solutions specialist Kane, which has just launched an e-mail and car navigation system using voice technology allowing users to choose a range of voices or to record their own voice.

Robert Fedder, the managing director of Kane, said: "This survey backs up our belief that people have strong feelings about the voices they like and the voices they don’t.

"Our technology gives people the chance to choose which voice they want, as and when the mood takes them.

"So whether people would rather be given directions by Sean Connery or have their e-mails read to them by Jade Goody, they can choose the voice to suit them."

When surveyed on their favourite regional accents, unsurprisingly, most people favoured their own areas, with Scots voting for Scottish accents.

But to land big roles in Hollywood British actors such as Kate Winslet, Ralph Fiennes and Catherine Zeta Jones have found they have had to change their accents unlike stars such as Sean Connery and Michael Caine who used their dialects for major roles during their careers.

Scottish actor John Hannah attempts an upper-class English accent in The Mummy Returns and Moulin Rouge features Ewan McGregor with a refined English accent.

The voices we love

Top five females

1 Kylie Minogue

2 Joanna Lumley

3 Catherine Zeta Jones

4 Mariella Frostrup

5 Ulrika Jonsson

Top five males

1 Sean Connery

2 George Clooney

3 Barry White

4 Tom Jones

5 Vin Diesel