^ I love Gwen.
What about Justin Timberlake. MJ was a (obviously) a huge influence on him AND he has worked with Madonna. I think he's the one to watch.
I hope he's not the one. He seems to involve himself in a lot of projects (records, collaborations, movies etc.) while in the spotlight, which I guess is good for him, but well...i think he lacks character in some way...he seems so bleak in most of the stuff I've heard from him.
Both Madonna and especially Michael Jackson have developed some instant recognizable characteristics in their careers, such as Madonnas almost constant changing of musical direction and the small sounds (such as "aouh!","tchikitchaca", "uh") which Michael Jackson use in his songs, and also of course his voice.
Justin basically only has that falsetto kind of way to sing...and his singles aren't good enough to do it for me. Sure, all three of these artists have had filler tracks on their albums, but when the singles also often sound like filler material (to me!), he hasn't really got what it takes...that creativity which you can admire even though you're not that into the music the artist makes, which is kind of the case of Madonna for me.