OK time to throw in my :2cents:
It takes talent to mimic another singer. It takes courage, knowledge and experience to stray from the exact copy of what someone else has done. What I've read so far indicates that we have a fair number of singers here that have that knowledge and experience.
I was taught, back during the age of 'square wheels', that a musician (I played trumpet) must learn the basics and be able to provide the exact notes and phrasing of the written sheet music and when they had done so could be called a musician. There is plenty of room in this world for musicians (or as was originally posted 'mimics') ... let them be.
Musicians who can take a piece of music and impart something of themselves and make it pleasurable and different, and yet the same, are artists. They too have their place for without them we would have nothing new or different. How drab life would be without artists.
Then there are those who get up and make us all wish we were somewhere else. These persons are called many things but I prefer to call them 'enhancers'. For without them musicians and artists would not be appreciated.
Whoops I think I just put in 5 cents!