I suppose it would be difficult to tell, but I have wondered how Americans "hear" British/Irish singers who try to sing in an American accents. As a Brit, I hear them - most of the time - as dreadful and phoney. But, I wonder, do Americans hear them as slightly exotic? Take Van Morrison, from the word go, I heard him as trying to sing American and it coming out phoney. I could almost see him twisting his vocal cords in an attempt to produce "foreign" (i.e American) sounds.