[Vocal Profile] Katy Perry

Katy Perry

Vocal Type: Light-Lyric Soprano
Vocal Range: 3 Octave ( D3-D6)
Whistle Register: No
Vocal Pluses: As a whole, the voice is characterful and youthful with a soft and sweet upper-range and a punchy, attitude infused chest voice. Katy Perry has the ability to hold notes [The One That Got Away (live)] and sing melisma [Whip My Hair (Live)], but her material doesn't often call for such vocal skills to be employed. As such, she is moat likely to attempt these feats in a live setting.

The Diva's lower range is cloudy and of mid-weight, but solidifies, brightens and lightens significantly as she ascends the third octave. Recent years have seen gains in the confidence exhibited in these lower notes, with them becoming fuller in sound.

The Diva shows the most resonance when belting in the fourth octave, loosing weight, colour and taking on an incisive quality as she moves towards and up the fifth octave. Occasionally she employs a slight rasp to these top notes- particularly when singing live- but its not usually heard in her recorded work, where the notes remain clean, clear and bright. Perry is also able to sing melisma in this part of her range [Walking on Air] but it's not something she demonstrates often.

Vocal Negatives: Criticisms have been leveled at her vocal ability when live and recorded vocals are contrasted.

Alexandra Burke & Beyoncé duet on "Listen"

Alexandra Burke , Beyonce and Cheryl Cole

Alexandra Burkeduets withBeyoncéon the song "Listen". This performance was ultimately what sealed Alexandra's fate as the winner of the X-factor in 2008 and its not surprising considering she held her own against such a formidable singer.

Should Mariah Carey be worried about Rihanna stealing her Crown?

Mariah Carey has had the most number one singles on the American Billboard charts of any solo act, but with Rihanna scoring her tenth Number one with the Britney Spears featured S and M , should Carey be worried about the young upstart stealing her crown in the near future? Perhaps more worrying for Carey is that it took her till the age of 25 to score her 9th Number 1 with Fantasy where as the Barbadian singer had already scored the equivalent at the tender age of 22.

Do you think Mariah Carey needs to be worried about Rihanna?
Comment here and let the world know.

Mariah Carey's Number 1s:

1. "Vision Of Love" 1990
2. "Love Takes Time" 1991
3. "Someday " 1991
4. "I Don't Wanna Cry" 1991
5. "Emotions" 1992
6. "I'll Be There" 1993
7. "Hero" 1993
8. "Dream Lover" 1995
9. "Fantasy" 1995
10. "One Sweet Day" 1996
11. "Always Be My Baby" 1996
12. "Honey" 1997
13. "My All" 1998
14. "Heart breaker" 1999
15. "Thank God I Found You"2000
16. "We Belong Together" 2005
17. "Don't Forget About Us" 2005
18. "Touch My Body" 2008

Rihanna's Number 1s:

1. "SoS" 2006
2. "Umbrella" 2007
3. "Take A Bow" 2008
4. "Disturbia" 2008
5. "Live Your Life" 2008
6. "Rude Boy" 2010
7. "Love The Way You Lie"2010
8. "What's My Name" 2010
9. "Only Girl (in the world)" 2010
10. "S and M" 2011

Album review: Rihanna "Loud" (Bad)

Rihanna’s new album Loud is an eclectic mix of music; unfortunately its eclectic in a bad way. With so many competing styles crammed on to this one CD it unfortunately ends up being incredibly incoherent and distracting to a listener. There are good songs to be found too, but let's just say they are few and far between.

Loud swings from the extremes of the intentionally drunk/unintentionally terrible sounding Cheers to the piano ballad Fading so clumsily it painful. Not content with the throw-everything-at-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks style of song choice, the producers have Rihanna playing acting and imitating popular singers of the moment to try and second guess a hit song. The acoustic guitar, adult contemporary California King Bed is a song that you'd expect Taylor Swift to be singing, with the difference being she would have arranged and written it better. Whereas Raining Men will have Beyonce stans, who are usually Rihanna haters, going crazy as is it mimics Diva so unashamedly that its just embarrassing it got onto the album.

Its not all bad though, and where Rihanna really shines is where she sticks to music that doesn't try too hard  and instead embraces the fun, carefree spirit that the 21 year old seems to exude on songs like Only Girl and S and M.

Conclusion: Extremely disappointed. Who's that Chick-which is strangely omitted- and Only Girl had me so excited about this album, but its lack of focus and its desperation for hit singles was a total turn off.

Skip: Cheers (Drink To That), California King Bed, Raining Men (feat. Nicki Minaj)

Download: S and M, Only Girl (In The World), Skin

Rating: 2/5

Madonna Announces new album 2010!

Madonna has revealed on Ellen that she will be recording her new album after she finishes with her new movie. I can't wait to see what direction her next album will take. Will bring you more details as they come through

Lea Michele (Rachel from Glee) - Vocal Profile/ Range

Lea Michele

Vocal Type:Soprano

Vocal Range:2 Octaves 1 notes and a semitone F#3-A5

Vocal Pluses:Technical singer with a good grasp of her voice as a whole, thus the sound it produces is always supported well. Her chest voice is crystal clear and has great dynamics, with the higher belted notes being reached through the aid of mixing with the head voice. Her intonation and delivery is also brilliant meaning her voice can effectively communicate a song's emotion and sentiment without sacrificing the audibility of the lyrics.

Vocal Negatives:Her vocal styling means that the vast majority of her performances have a theatrical feel to them, suggesting a limitation to the genres she can sing. Also her chest register can sometimes sound overbearingly strong/piercing, especially when the notes aren't softened with vibrato.

[Vocal Profile] Sade

Sade

Vocal Type: Contralto
Vocal Range: 2 Octaves 3 notes D3-G#5
Vocal Pluses: A voice that is texturally united throughout the range. Warm and smooth, Sade’s strength comes from her tone and timbre [Lovers Rock]; skill emoting [Smooth Operator]; her musicality (e.g.building harmonies) [Slave Song]; and ability to alter dynamics [King of Sorrow]. This puts her in contrast to other “powerhouse” Divas who use more obvious skills- such as melisma and high octave belting- to impress, but it makes her no less a vocalist. Her voice has a “quiet storm” beauty.

As mentioned above, the Diva has excellent volume control and breath support, which she uses to create the requisite mood and ambience to compliment the production. Though often found to be singing with a low/medium volume- something which is often (wrongly) credited as the reason for the soothing quality of the voice- she can shift dynamics without any negative effect on the timbre of the voice [Pearls].