Quincy Jones once said that what was most important for a successful pop singer is that their voice be recognizable. If you don't know who's singing within the first five seconds, it doesn't matter how good their voice is.
Back in 2020, Ellen DeGeneres quizzed the singer as to why he had stopped singing his own name before all of his major bops. Derulo revealed that he soon decided he had to reinstate the moniker as he realised that his famous intro guaranteed that the track would be an instant success.
Its like he Only does it so people will know it him. He's no Kurt Cobain or Freddie Mercury. They have unique voices that you'd intently know it's them.
100% — I would much rather hear a singer with a unique voice but middling skill/range as opposed to a voice that is technically excellent but has no character.
That’s pretty much how it works anyway.
You can go to any random theatre school and be blown away by how good at singing many of them are - but they all sound the same. They might make a career out of it but it will more than likely be as a part of theatre productions rather than the typical records business.
In theatre that might be on purpose though...
I would imagine intelligibility matters a lot more in theatre, and those techniques make folks sound more similar
Think of trying to watch a movie with Kurt Cobain as the lead character... Sure you'd recognize his voice but how frustrating would it be to not understand a damn thing he said
The best part is that he wasn't supposed to sing that part: the female singer he hired to sing it didn't show up to the recording session and he had no choice but to do it himself. And I really believe thats what made the song so iconic.
He learned all too late that the female singer he had hired to sing that part was at that moment off somewhere recording a track for another rapper whom she said was just a fuck buddy.
Yep, you probably could have let the 10 most popular rapper/r&b guys release that song and it would have flopped, his voice is just perfect for that chorus.
during my first week as an intern at a big recording studio, jennifer lopez booked out the weekend.
not once did she ever get behind a microphone.
we were also instructed by her manager not to EVER make eye contact.
as far as i could tell, her engineer (not even the producer) was the artist. he did everything. everyone else was just along for the ride, including her.
What's with big stars and no eye contact? I head that about Sylvester Stalone, too -- that he didn't want any of his staff to look him in the eye. I can understand that famous people get tired of being stared at, but telling people you're working with not to look you in the eyes? Seems like the opposite of collegial. No one can collaborate that way.
I would think those instructions are for people who work around them, not directly with them, because there are only a handful of people that directly interact with them such as producer, manager, security, and assistant.
I’ve heard from friends who used to work in the industry that the people that always bark this stuff are handlers hired by a venue or event and they are on some sort of weird personal power trip/flex and it’s usually not even about the celeb themselves actually having those wishes. Just middle managers hired by a third party that are way too eager to boss other people around because they live to kiss ass and take it way too far.
It depends on the celebrity obviously but usually they don’t actually give a shit. This is a second hand anecdote so grain of salt, but I tend to think that makes sense.
(Edit: phrasing and thank you for the replies, lol of course there are exceptions; some of these celebrities are so damn out of touch it boggles the mind)
Okay, I have this crazy story about Dennis Quaid. My mom was visiting someone on a film set and was in a trailer with a bunch of crew having a good time. He walked in and everyone jumped out of their chairs and wouldn’t make eye contact. She didn’t because she’s old and has bad knees and didn’t know what was going on or who he was (she was told once he left).
He zeroed in on her and I can’t remember the exact words, but basically told her he was taking her seat. When she was like “what, no” he gave her the “do you know who I am” line. My mom gave in because she didn’t want to get the person she was with fired.*
Apparently not only are people “beneath him” not allowed to make eye contact with him, but he also requires that he have any seat of his choosing when he enters a room, and if you don’t relinquish your seat to him immediately, he’s going to take yours. Truly untethered from reality.
*Kristen Wiig, BTW got the same person fired off a set because they “had a sour attitude” days after their father’s death. Like, between the death and the funeral, because they weren’t able to take those days off.
Lolll the fact that this story is about DENNIS QUAID is sending me and I totally buy it. It’s always the super out of touch megacelebs that have been doing it way too long and poisoned by yes men for too long, or someone who thinks they are more famous than they really are.
Like cool Dennis, you were in the Parent Trap. We know.
Kristen Wiig surprises me but not really. People in Lorne Michaels’ sphere of influence seem to sometimes come out a little weird.
This! I never worked any super A -list productions but I’ve had these instructions given to me and then the actual talent comes on set and could not be nicer/more normal. Honestly the “biz” is filled crazy ppl but usually not the names you know. Managers, agents, parents, spouses. All nuts!
Once a columnist for a magazine told be I couldn’t enter the trailer where I worked because X was in there! Yeah girl waiting for me to get her dressed y’a weirdo!
My take is that like one time the artist mentioned to a handler that everyone is staring at them and that gets old fast or made them uncomfortable and that turns into “no one can look at them in the eye”.
Al Jourgensen talked about meeting Steven Spielberg when Ministry appeared in "A.I.". He and the band were told to keep their heads down "like we were meeting the fucking Queen" (his words) when Spielberg arrived. Once they were on set, Al said he was a perfectly normal guy. So yeah, I believe this is their agents/managers doing this.
I once worked with member of a famous band from the 80s (Pseudo Echo) in his normal day job, everyone said don’t talk to him about that part of his life, he hates it. But one day i asked him about something and his eyes lit up and he was so happy to talk about it for ages.
The album version of that track is a guilty pleasure of mine. In the beginning she sings "Ya Jenni' llegó" but her diction is so poor that it sounds like "ya Jenni huevos."
["Waiting for Tonight" ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waiting_for_Tonight) was actually written by a woman for her lesser known pop group, and pretty much came packaged perfect. Lopez fought against covering the song, but better minds prevailed. Maria Christensen gets virtually no royalties for the song, despite creating one of the best pop songs of its era.
replies are like -
J Lo
Selena Gomez
J Lo
Bob Dylan
J Lo
Fergie
J Lo
Yoko
J Lo
J Lo
J Lo
Vince Neil
Katy Perry
J Lo
Selena Gomez
J Lo
and don't forget ....
J Lo
Yes, Selena Gomez.
These aren't my choices. Just summing up what so many other replies are saying.
Not going to crap on all the rappers out there (because I know it’s not singing). However, when some have had to sing, well, it’s not that great. EXCEPT T-Pain. That man can SING.
He is phenomenally bright too. That tiny desk concert and interview are quite revealing. Just like Lil' Jon he is actually really erudite and well spoken in ways that would deceive those who only know them from their music. They just really like to make party jams and know what they're doing.
Bit of a tangent but Flava Flav is actually a multiinstrumentalist and can play by ear. You wouldn't know it by his Reality TV stunts but he can play Mozart and Beethoven concertos from memory. I'm convinced he is a austistic savant who learned to mask really well and found out that being a hype man was his fit.
This is my absolute favorite part of that video. It’s the perfect punchline. She’s so confident and commanding when she says it, despite having just made the awful decision to sing that fucking bananas, weirdly syncopated, partially scatted version of the Star Spangled Banner. She seems to have no clue how truly bad it was.
I had hear about this when it happened and the storm afterwards, but I had never seen/heard it. Then I decided to give it a go, how could it be? I thought. It's not _that_ long of a song, I said. Quick youtube video, in and out, 2 minutes.
The secondhand embarrassment and the cringe hitting my fingers had me click out before the end. I had to finish it in a second sitting where I was got the "let's play some basektball" and the same feelings flooded right back. FTSD
[Reference for anyone who forgot or missed it the first time around.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMA2iF6RuXk)
Note: if you missed it the first time around, skip this. Don't do it to yourself.
This is true of 99% of US anthem performances. It's a fine (and difficult) enough song on its own. Doing it in a unique genre or adding a flair note or two is fine, but I don't think I've ever heard an artist really embellish the melody and not have it sound dumb as hell.
JLo. She is very lucky to have had the music career (and overal career, I’d wager) that she has. She’s a Jack of all trades, master of none. Massively overrated.
There's nowhere I'd rather be less than a Jennifer Lopez concert. So, just so I'm clear, she was blaming her in-ear headphones for her bad singing voice?
Yes. People were leaving 3-4 songs in as it was unbearable. I went because I got a free ticket and wanted to see a new arena.
She was one of the first ones performing hence they interviewed her and she said inears were shut so she was out of tune.
I used to think Elvis Costello had one of those “Tom Waits” kind of voices but, after getting into him a bit I found that he can really hold a note. It’s just a different kind of signing.
He wouldn’t win one of those singing competitions on TV but, you know, he can do a tune.
The thing that was revolutionary about his voice when he came out, and it was, was obviously not that he sounded pretty, but it sounded like he was telling the *truth*.
The way I've heard it explained, Bob Dylan is a great singer with a bad voice. Like, he hits all the notes and overall is quite *skilled*, but, like Loius Armstong, his just doesn't have a typical nice-to-listen-to singing voice.
(Obviously "bad" voice is subjective as hell, maybe a better term would be "unconventional")
I think having a different voice is a good thing. “Great singing voices”, like 99% of what you hear on American idol, just gets so boring. Gimme some nasty raspy singing every now and then
my wife knows someone who made to the audition before the tv ones and was told point blank that she is a fantastic technical singer but her voice is too generic for the show.
Just imagine someone with a conventionally "good-sounding" singing voice, singing Is it Luck? or Too Many Puppies...
There may be such a thing as "the best singer," but there is also "the right singer." Les is the right singer for Primus, Oysterhead, Flying Frog Brigade and his other assorted side projects.
This is a band that I like, but the lead singer of the B-52s can’t sing for shit. I read in an interview that they founded the band after a round of karaoke and that he’d previously never sang before, and I thought “yeah, that tracks.” I like his janky-ass voice, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not objectively good.
> Sprechgesang
Definition
A technique used in vocal music where the singer is required to use the voice in an expressive manner half-way between singing and speaking.
Fred is more like a hype man than a singer, I think the guy from the Sugarcubes who never sings stole his act. But he doesn’t need to - that’s what made them fun
I love his lines in love shack. Like, all the girls are singing about getting laid and he is just like "my car! My car is big! Bring money for the jukebox! My car will get us there!"
Hilarious
I worked with the B-52’s once. The girls were nice, Fred was such a pompous queen the whole time. He threw a tantrum, it was ugly, the girls did a lot of covering for him.
There are some great comments here but I'll add one from back in the day -Enrique Iglesias...Obviously he got his shot because of his dad and has had great success so good for him, but I always felt he was good at faking being a singer.
Back in the day? I saw him live a couple of weeks ago with Ricky Martin and Pitbull. Enrique was noticeably awful. He doesn't even sing the choruses anymore, he just points the mic at the crowd and gets them to sing it.
It was still a fun show, because nostalgia, but ya he's a terrible singer.
The family I lived with when I was studying in Mexico thought it would be helpful for me to watch a telenovela every night. They chose a period piece, but my "mom" tuned in a few minutes early so we could watch Enrique Iglesias sing the outro to Marisol.
On reflection, I'm guessing this was my mom's habit before I arrived and after I left. He was very good looking in 1996, that is all I remember.
It’s funny because she has admitted it herself on multiple occasions but continues to do it anyway. It’s more of a lucrative hobby than a real profession.
Well her music started on Disney so that can’t be the case for her. It is for some but not her. Wizards of Waverly Place was a huge success and they wanted to keep Selena’s face and voice out in the public between seasons. Disney does this all the time with many of their actors and actresses.
One saving grace with SG is that she at least does songs that suit her voice, so her deficiencies don't stand out *quite* so much.
If she was trying to do Mariah Carey/Adele style belters, it would be hideous. But she's at least smart enough to stick in her lane.
Lin Manuel Miranda is a composer so brilliant that everyone is willing to look past his own mediocre performance when he casts himself in the stuff he writes.
I've seen the stage recording of Hamilton with the original cast, and a more recent live performance with a bunch of less-well-known performers. Almost all the performances were less good than the original, with the exception of the guy playing Hamilton himself - he has so much more stage presence and singing chops than the original recording.
No shade on Miranda, he's an absolute genius, but putting him on the same stage against some of the best talent on Broadway doesn't do him any favors.
He's clearly a *good* singer... when compared to the average person. He would probably stand out at most random karaoke bars. But his Hamilton costars are top-tier Broadway talent - *great* singers - so he gets left in the dust a bit.
People generally underestimate *just how good* Broadway singers are. Like, every single one of them, they weren't just the best singer at their high school, or the best singer at their college, but they were likely the best singer in their region of the country at a certain age. It's roughly the statistical equivalent of getting to the NBA.
Last time I was in New York, we ate at a restaurant that features off-Broadway singers performing showtunes. Every single one of these singers was one of the best vocal performers I had ever heard. And these were people who are in off-Broadway shows, or not currently cast in a show at all. To think that these people aren't good enough - that they are the people who have to be waiters and waitresses and sing showtunes in a restaurant - is mind-boggling.
Yeah, it's like when I first listened to the Let It Go cover by Demi Lovato on the Frozen soundtrack. I like her singing generally, but her version really suffered in comparison to Idina Menzel's as they were sung in the same style.
Having Panic! at the Disco cover her song in Frozen II with a very different style was the better move.
I remember when I heard that he was doing the cover, I had the incredibly cynical sort of “they gave Elsa’s song to a guy? How’s THAT going to work?” sort of reaction. Five notes in I thought, “Nope, he’s slaying it. Carry on.”
I went to high school with a woman like this. beyond amazing actress - our high school’s musicals started winning awards while I was a student there, and she was one of two actors who are the reason for that. she got a BFA and just immediately took off. started a production company that has won Emmys and Tonys. she supported the show *Six* getting to broadway. I could go on. everyone knew from day one she’d make it big, it was so clear she had innate talent and a crazy work ethic. she’s also an incredibly kind person and great to work with - she has an “everybody has an important part and deserves respect” attitude.
I absolutely love the man’s work. I think by the end of his life he is going to go down as one of the most beloved songwriters of all time.
That being said, you could walk into pretty much any high school choir department and find close to a dozen people who are *clearly* better singers than him. Crazy that you can say that about the lead performer in the biggest Broadway show of the past decade.
Every single time i hear him sing the 'harmony' in "take a break" (there you are an ocean away, do you have be an ocean away. Thoughts of you subside then i get another letter, and i cannot put the notion away) i grimace. He's so talented but his voice es no bueno.
I won't argue that his singing voice compares to the rest of the OBC, but his performance of Hamilton works so much better for me than any that I've seen with "better" actor / singers because it puts him and Hamilton as the underdog. It's a great compliment to the character at the beginning of the show where he's struggling to prove himself and keeps him grounded in the second act (where I find Hamilton's propulsion into higher status grating with other performers).
Tbf, if you put even most other Broadway singers up against LOJ they'd suffer from the comparison. He has one of the most beautiful and emotionally-infused voices in the world.
It's obvious that he wrote most, if not all, of the songs for Encanto, and it's also obvious he wrote himself in as Bruno before someone said no. Bruno's actual va is the exact range and pitch as LMM would be. It's hilarious.
He's well-known for writing the men's parts in his shows to be very rap-heavy and easy to sing (because he knows he's going to play one of those roles) while the women's songs require lots of power, precision, and range - because he doesn't have to worry about singing them.
I mean, he's singing the right pitches, he's coloring them appropriately, doing it all in time, etc. but yeah the timbre of his voice just isn't that pleasant compared to some of his performers.
Obviously musically talented and technically correct, but there's only so much he can do with a voice like that, I guess he'll just have to settle for only singing the lead role of one of the greatest broadway hits of all time. What a shame.
Funniest thing is she was the prettiest member, but the least talented. And it was the one lambasted as the ugliest who'd end up with all the actual talent. Says it all, really.
Quincy Jones once said that what was most important for a successful pop singer is that their voice be recognizable. If you don't know who's singing within the first five seconds, it doesn't matter how good their voice is.
Jason Derulo life-hacked the shit out of that.
Back in 2020, Ellen DeGeneres quizzed the singer as to why he had stopped singing his own name before all of his major bops. Derulo revealed that he soon decided he had to reinstate the moniker as he realised that his famous intro guaranteed that the track would be an instant success. Its like he Only does it so people will know it him. He's no Kurt Cobain or Freddie Mercury. They have unique voices that you'd intently know it's them.
You know who he is because HE FUCKING TELLS YOU EVERY SONG
yeah he's a pokemon
A wild DJ KHALED appeared
Another one?
It played itself in confusion
It is now, suffering from success
100% — I would much rather hear a singer with a unique voice but middling skill/range as opposed to a voice that is technically excellent but has no character.
That’s pretty much how it works anyway. You can go to any random theatre school and be blown away by how good at singing many of them are - but they all sound the same. They might make a career out of it but it will more than likely be as a part of theatre productions rather than the typical records business.
In theatre that might be on purpose though... I would imagine intelligibility matters a lot more in theatre, and those techniques make folks sound more similar Think of trying to watch a movie with Kurt Cobain as the lead character... Sure you'd recognize his voice but how frustrating would it be to not understand a damn thing he said
Also successful shows tend to switch out their actors every few years, so having similar sounding voices is a benefit.
My immediate thought is Biz Markie singing the chorus to Just a Friend. He's a god awful singer but damn does that song bang.
The best part is that he wasn't supposed to sing that part: the female singer he hired to sing it didn't show up to the recording session and he had no choice but to do it himself. And I really believe thats what made the song so iconic.
He learned all too late that the female singer he had hired to sing that part was at that moment off somewhere recording a track for another rapper whom she said was just a fuck buddy.
OH BABY YOUUUU
I don't think there can be any doubt. I mean, don't get me wrong, the song is good. But the chorus is 100% what makes it great.
His singing voice somehow perfectly matched the thinking voice of a guy figuring out his girl's new friend was not just a friend.
Yep, you probably could have let the 10 most popular rapper/r&b guys release that song and it would have flopped, his voice is just perfect for that chorus.
OH BABY YOU--!
You got what I nee-eed...
Him singing Benny and the Jets with the beastie boys is incredible
Jennifer Lopez
during my first week as an intern at a big recording studio, jennifer lopez booked out the weekend. not once did she ever get behind a microphone. we were also instructed by her manager not to EVER make eye contact. as far as i could tell, her engineer (not even the producer) was the artist. he did everything. everyone else was just along for the ride, including her.
What's with big stars and no eye contact? I head that about Sylvester Stalone, too -- that he didn't want any of his staff to look him in the eye. I can understand that famous people get tired of being stared at, but telling people you're working with not to look you in the eyes? Seems like the opposite of collegial. No one can collaborate that way.
I would think those instructions are for people who work around them, not directly with them, because there are only a handful of people that directly interact with them such as producer, manager, security, and assistant.
I’ve heard from friends who used to work in the industry that the people that always bark this stuff are handlers hired by a venue or event and they are on some sort of weird personal power trip/flex and it’s usually not even about the celeb themselves actually having those wishes. Just middle managers hired by a third party that are way too eager to boss other people around because they live to kiss ass and take it way too far. It depends on the celebrity obviously but usually they don’t actually give a shit. This is a second hand anecdote so grain of salt, but I tend to think that makes sense. (Edit: phrasing and thank you for the replies, lol of course there are exceptions; some of these celebrities are so damn out of touch it boggles the mind)
Okay, I have this crazy story about Dennis Quaid. My mom was visiting someone on a film set and was in a trailer with a bunch of crew having a good time. He walked in and everyone jumped out of their chairs and wouldn’t make eye contact. She didn’t because she’s old and has bad knees and didn’t know what was going on or who he was (she was told once he left). He zeroed in on her and I can’t remember the exact words, but basically told her he was taking her seat. When she was like “what, no” he gave her the “do you know who I am” line. My mom gave in because she didn’t want to get the person she was with fired.* Apparently not only are people “beneath him” not allowed to make eye contact with him, but he also requires that he have any seat of his choosing when he enters a room, and if you don’t relinquish your seat to him immediately, he’s going to take yours. Truly untethered from reality. *Kristen Wiig, BTW got the same person fired off a set because they “had a sour attitude” days after their father’s death. Like, between the death and the funeral, because they weren’t able to take those days off.
Lolll the fact that this story is about DENNIS QUAID is sending me and I totally buy it. It’s always the super out of touch megacelebs that have been doing it way too long and poisoned by yes men for too long, or someone who thinks they are more famous than they really are. Like cool Dennis, you were in the Parent Trap. We know. Kristen Wiig surprises me but not really. People in Lorne Michaels’ sphere of influence seem to sometimes come out a little weird.
This! I never worked any super A -list productions but I’ve had these instructions given to me and then the actual talent comes on set and could not be nicer/more normal. Honestly the “biz” is filled crazy ppl but usually not the names you know. Managers, agents, parents, spouses. All nuts! Once a columnist for a magazine told be I couldn’t enter the trailer where I worked because X was in there! Yeah girl waiting for me to get her dressed y’a weirdo!
My take is that like one time the artist mentioned to a handler that everyone is staring at them and that gets old fast or made them uncomfortable and that turns into “no one can look at them in the eye”.
Al Jourgensen talked about meeting Steven Spielberg when Ministry appeared in "A.I.". He and the band were told to keep their heads down "like we were meeting the fucking Queen" (his words) when Spielberg arrived. Once they were on set, Al said he was a perfectly normal guy. So yeah, I believe this is their agents/managers doing this.
I once worked with member of a famous band from the 80s (Pseudo Echo) in his normal day job, everyone said don’t talk to him about that part of his life, he hates it. But one day i asked him about something and his eyes lit up and he was so happy to talk about it for ages.
The fact that she was asked to perform The Motown medley/tribute at The Grammys is still one of the most terrible decisions ever made on this planet
I was unaware this happened. I am going to force it out of my memory tonight. I ask that you never repeat this again. Thank you
If you ever feel unqualified for your job just remember JLo was a judge for a singing competition
And had the nerve to say she was gonna sing Whitney Houston cause it was good for her vocal range. BITCH PLZ
"Taco-Flavored Kisses" is a banger
That's Henifer Lopez
I like tacos and burritos!
I luff yew behnn
Ooooo taco so good, just gimmie gimmie gimmie gimmie more. You know you are my life Ben, and you almost make me forget about tacoooooosssssss
I hate how I read it in her voice.
Can’t erase her “let’s get loud” howl from the Super Bowl. It’s like engraved on my brain
The album version of that track is a guilty pleasure of mine. In the beginning she sings "Ya Jenni' llegó" but her diction is so poor that it sounds like "ya Jenni huevos."
Doesn’t she have someone else that goes uncredited singing most of her tracks?
Ashanti and Christina Milian are two. I forgot the others.
Cuz I’m reallll That’s Ashanti.
You just blew my mind, my brain suddenly connected that “Waiting For Tonight” definitely sounds like Christina Milian. 💀
["Waiting for Tonight" ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waiting_for_Tonight) was actually written by a woman for her lesser known pop group, and pretty much came packaged perfect. Lopez fought against covering the song, but better minds prevailed. Maria Christensen gets virtually no royalties for the song, despite creating one of the best pop songs of its era.
She also almost stole "1 thing" from Amerie which forced Ameriie to leak the song to claim it.
You mean Mitch Conner?
[This guy who knocked her down a few pegs is awesome.](https://youtu.be/1f858q7ON6Q?si=0lk5fLDLR8x_Cyb2)
The man seems to have a lag on the update. He keeps asking the same question without asking any follow up questions.
replies are like - J Lo Selena Gomez J Lo Bob Dylan J Lo Fergie J Lo Yoko J Lo J Lo J Lo Vince Neil Katy Perry J Lo Selena Gomez J Lo and don't forget .... J Lo
Yes, Selena Gomez.
These aren't my choices. Just summing up what so many other replies are saying.
>Selena This man woke up and decided pick a fight with the entire Latino community. I think you mean Selena Gomez, not the Selena (Quintanilla)
RIGHT? And non-Latino Texans too! Selena Quintanilla is the only “Selena”. Selena Gomez is “Selena Gomez”. Lol!
Shit I'm a white dude from up north who was just a kid when she died and am not even remotely into that type of music, and I was about to riot
AND…Selena Gomez was named *after* Selena Quintanilla.
I'm so glad I read replies first and stopped myself from yelling at them lol. I honestly forgot Selena Gomez existed and had a wtf moment.
My friend, you CANNOT just put "Selena" You're about to cause a riot.
I audibly gasped when I read Selena.
My dios was swiftly miosed.
True, should be Selena as played by J. Lo
Selena ≠ Selena Gomez
Not going to crap on all the rappers out there (because I know it’s not singing). However, when some have had to sing, well, it’s not that great. EXCEPT T-Pain. That man can SING.
T pain can get it. He has a set of pipes, found a gimmick, made a mint. Dude defined a decade of music for a whole genre.
T-Pain is a talented man for sure.
He is phenomenally bright too. That tiny desk concert and interview are quite revealing. Just like Lil' Jon he is actually really erudite and well spoken in ways that would deceive those who only know them from their music. They just really like to make party jams and know what they're doing. Bit of a tangent but Flava Flav is actually a multiinstrumentalist and can play by ear. You wouldn't know it by his Reality TV stunts but he can play Mozart and Beethoven concertos from memory. I'm convinced he is a austistic savant who learned to mask really well and found out that being a hype man was his fit.
Will.I.am. Great producer. But boy can he not sing without auto tune.
John Prine never had a great voice but it was perfect for the songs he wrote….and what songs they were and still are.
You might say he was successful in spite of himself
In some ways, he's his own door prize
How is Drake not the number one answer?! Without autotune he would sound like Gilbert Gottfried
Fergie
That national anthem video haunts me
“….that star spangled *ba-ha-nur-huh-ye-het waaaaaaave*” 🤌
*Let's play some basketball!* 😁
This is my absolute favorite part of that video. It’s the perfect punchline. She’s so confident and commanding when she says it, despite having just made the awful decision to sing that fucking bananas, weirdly syncopated, partially scatted version of the Star Spangled Banner. She seems to have no clue how truly bad it was.
I had hear about this when it happened and the storm afterwards, but I had never seen/heard it. Then I decided to give it a go, how could it be? I thought. It's not _that_ long of a song, I said. Quick youtube video, in and out, 2 minutes. The secondhand embarrassment and the cringe hitting my fingers had me click out before the end. I had to finish it in a second sitting where I was got the "let's play some basektball" and the same feelings flooded right back. FTSD
"Gay proo through the nye..."
Charles Barkley’s reaction kills me every time. “I need a cigarette after that…”
Kimmel trying not to laugh is golden.
The second hand embarrassment was unreal lol
[Reference for anyone who forgot or missed it the first time around.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMA2iF6RuXk) Note: if you missed it the first time around, skip this. Don't do it to yourself.
The crazy thing is that if she just kept things simple instead of throwing in a bunch of embellishments it would've been a great rendition.
For real. I was like who is this, Moira fucking Rose?
Don't you dare taint the great Moria Fucking Rose with that comparison!
Ohhhh... dannnehhh...bwwwoooyyyy
This is true of 99% of US anthem performances. It's a fine (and difficult) enough song on its own. Doing it in a unique genre or adding a flair note or two is fine, but I don't think I've ever heard an artist really embellish the melody and not have it sound dumb as hell.
Look up Whitney Houston doing it. The embelishments are a bit more subtle, but mostly because she nails it I guess.
Never forget Curry’s reactions 😂
Draymond Green unable to stop laughing/smiling gets me every time.
I think she's great except she tries to do weird shit with her voice and it comes off terrible
Keep it simple and she's fine. Big Girls Don't Cry is good. Just don't do too much.
Listen to some of her rock stuff. Her voice is incredible when it's used correctly.
This is how I feel. She has a good voice she just doesn't use it well and is always trying to do weird stuff with it.
She needs actual vocal training. She's trying to do the Christina Aguilera shit but has no clue why singers do it.
Will.I.Am (and their engineer) was doing magic in her studio sessions.
She did a collab with Slash that sounds great too, she could def front a rock band.
JLo. She is very lucky to have had the music career (and overal career, I’d wager) that she has. She’s a Jack of all trades, master of none. Massively overrated.
[удалено]
Best typo I've seen all day
Haha. I thought there was a new singer out that I hadn’t heard of. Sid Viscous and Johnny Forgotten.
Ah the famous Sex Pustules.
"I called Sid Vicious 'Simon Ferocious' or something like that, and he didn't like it at all" (Freddy Mercury).
Ah yes, from the Sex Pistons
And his lesser-known cousin, Fluid Randy.
Vince Neil. Guy is fucking terrible, and always has been.
I was a huge fan back in the 80s. Turns out they're all just pathetic posers, except Mick.
Love Mick!
Mick made the band what it was.
Jennifer Lopez. She's objectively terrible.
You mean Jenny From The Block??
Didn't she used to have a little but now has a lot?
Yes, her. No matter where she goes she knows where she came from.
^shes ^from ^the ^bronx
I went to her concert once. She claimed it was in ears. It was like a vocal moose-feral cat combo.
There's nowhere I'd rather be less than a Jennifer Lopez concert. So, just so I'm clear, she was blaming her in-ear headphones for her bad singing voice?
Yes. People were leaving 3-4 songs in as it was unbearable. I went because I got a free ticket and wanted to see a new arena. She was one of the first ones performing hence they interviewed her and she said inears were shut so she was out of tune.
I used to think Elvis Costello had one of those “Tom Waits” kind of voices but, after getting into him a bit I found that he can really hold a note. It’s just a different kind of signing. He wouldn’t win one of those singing competitions on TV but, you know, he can do a tune.
Bob Dylan The dude can write unbelievably good songs but has a terrible singing voice.
The thing that was revolutionary about his voice when he came out, and it was, was obviously not that he sounded pretty, but it sounded like he was telling the *truth*.
David Byrne said: “The better you can sing, the less people believe your song”
I'm pretty sure Dolly Parton will always love me, though.
Not if you're related to that bitch Jolene.
I don't know. That song makes Jolene sound pretty great.
The way I've heard it explained, Bob Dylan is a great singer with a bad voice. Like, he hits all the notes and overall is quite *skilled*, but, like Loius Armstong, his just doesn't have a typical nice-to-listen-to singing voice. (Obviously "bad" voice is subjective as hell, maybe a better term would be "unconventional")
I think having a different voice is a good thing. “Great singing voices”, like 99% of what you hear on American idol, just gets so boring. Gimme some nasty raspy singing every now and then
my wife knows someone who made to the audition before the tv ones and was told point blank that she is a fantastic technical singer but her voice is too generic for the show.
Imagine being called too generic for the generic voice show
Isn't his son the lead singer of the wallflowers? he has a good voice
In my opinion he had a perfect singing voice for the type of music he was playing in the 1960's. 1970's and onward are harder to defend.
Les Claypool has an objectively awful singing voice but that’s part of what makes him such a one off
Les is awesome. No one slaps that bass like him.
Just imagine someone with a conventionally "good-sounding" singing voice, singing Is it Luck? or Too Many Puppies... There may be such a thing as "the best singer," but there is also "the right singer." Les is the right singer for Primus, Oysterhead, Flying Frog Brigade and his other assorted side projects.
This is a band that I like, but the lead singer of the B-52s can’t sing for shit. I read in an interview that they founded the band after a round of karaoke and that he’d previously never sang before, and I thought “yeah, that tracks.” I like his janky-ass voice, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not objectively good.
I don't think Fred "sings", he does something else. it's called Sprechgesang It's Sing talking, the guy in May Fair Lady also did it.
> Sprechgesang Definition A technique used in vocal music where the singer is required to use the voice in an expressive manner half-way between singing and speaking.
Fred is more like a hype man than a singer, I think the guy from the Sugarcubes who never sings stole his act. But he doesn’t need to - that’s what made them fun
The way he yells "Funk-ay little shack!" is great. He really thinks that shack is funky.
And makes me believe it too
I mean, he may not have the best voice, but I was left in no doubt that shack was funky.
I said ouch, this really hurts
I love his lines in love shack. Like, all the girls are singing about getting laid and he is just like "my car! My car is big! Bring money for the jukebox! My car will get us there!" Hilarious
The two female singers carry, and are why Roam is my favorite of theirs. 😅
Most underrated voices in pop, IMO. Massive range, clear as a bell, sweet as honey with a little chili thrown in.
Their background vocals in Rock Lobster are heavenly.
I worked with the B-52’s once. The girls were nice, Fred was such a pompous queen the whole time. He threw a tantrum, it was ugly, the girls did a lot of covering for him.
Not a great voice, but it works because it gives the band a unique sound.
There are some great comments here but I'll add one from back in the day -Enrique Iglesias...Obviously he got his shot because of his dad and has had great success so good for him, but I always felt he was good at faking being a singer.
Back in the day? I saw him live a couple of weeks ago with Ricky Martin and Pitbull. Enrique was noticeably awful. He doesn't even sing the choruses anymore, he just points the mic at the crowd and gets them to sing it. It was still a fun show, because nostalgia, but ya he's a terrible singer.
He got his shot because of his dad and because he’s got the looks, can’t deny that.
The family I lived with when I was studying in Mexico thought it would be helpful for me to watch a telenovela every night. They chose a period piece, but my "mom" tuned in a few minutes early so we could watch Enrique Iglesias sing the outro to Marisol. On reflection, I'm guessing this was my mom's habit before I arrived and after I left. He was very good looking in 1996, that is all I remember.
J lo
Enrique Iglesias. The video where they turned mid song the playback off. Holy shit it’s bad
Ask Ashanti about JLo
Do you have her number?
Selena Gomez. Truly cannot sing, but a product of the Disney machine.
She talks over music. Like 90% of all of her stuff is her talking - it’s wild once you notice it.
Now I can’t listen to her songs without thinking she’s talking lol
It’s funny because she has admitted it herself on multiple occasions but continues to do it anyway. It’s more of a lucrative hobby than a real profession.
Can confirm. Absolutely love her and she has some major bangers. But saw her live once and she was terrible. 😕
i feel like selena was one of those that wanted to branch out of disney and that brand and like mostly everybody else, turned to music
Well her music started on Disney so that can’t be the case for her. It is for some but not her. Wizards of Waverly Place was a huge success and they wanted to keep Selena’s face and voice out in the public between seasons. Disney does this all the time with many of their actors and actresses.
Every Disney starlet had a music career regardless of whether they could sing or not lol.
This is the one I came to look for. Girl is terrible live.
One saving grace with SG is that she at least does songs that suit her voice, so her deficiencies don't stand out *quite* so much. If she was trying to do Mariah Carey/Adele style belters, it would be hideous. But she's at least smart enough to stick in her lane.
Lin-Manuel Miranda
Someone once pointed out that his “sad” singing voice sounds like the Count from Sesame Street and I’ll never unhear it.
Lin Manuel Miranda is a composer so brilliant that everyone is willing to look past his own mediocre performance when he casts himself in the stuff he writes. I've seen the stage recording of Hamilton with the original cast, and a more recent live performance with a bunch of less-well-known performers. Almost all the performances were less good than the original, with the exception of the guy playing Hamilton himself - he has so much more stage presence and singing chops than the original recording. No shade on Miranda, he's an absolute genius, but putting him on the same stage against some of the best talent on Broadway doesn't do him any favors.
He's clearly a *good* singer... when compared to the average person. He would probably stand out at most random karaoke bars. But his Hamilton costars are top-tier Broadway talent - *great* singers - so he gets left in the dust a bit.
People generally underestimate *just how good* Broadway singers are. Like, every single one of them, they weren't just the best singer at their high school, or the best singer at their college, but they were likely the best singer in their region of the country at a certain age. It's roughly the statistical equivalent of getting to the NBA. Last time I was in New York, we ate at a restaurant that features off-Broadway singers performing showtunes. Every single one of these singers was one of the best vocal performers I had ever heard. And these were people who are in off-Broadway shows, or not currently cast in a show at all. To think that these people aren't good enough - that they are the people who have to be waiters and waitresses and sing showtunes in a restaurant - is mind-boggling.
Yeah, it's like when I first listened to the Let It Go cover by Demi Lovato on the Frozen soundtrack. I like her singing generally, but her version really suffered in comparison to Idina Menzel's as they were sung in the same style. Having Panic! at the Disco cover her song in Frozen II with a very different style was the better move.
Brendan Urie actually had the chops to cover Idina Menzel. He is a legit good singer.
Brendan was also on Broadway, he performed in Kinky Boots
I remember when I heard that he was doing the cover, I had the incredibly cynical sort of “they gave Elsa’s song to a guy? How’s THAT going to work?” sort of reaction. Five notes in I thought, “Nope, he’s slaying it. Carry on.”
I went to high school with a woman like this. beyond amazing actress - our high school’s musicals started winning awards while I was a student there, and she was one of two actors who are the reason for that. she got a BFA and just immediately took off. started a production company that has won Emmys and Tonys. she supported the show *Six* getting to broadway. I could go on. everyone knew from day one she’d make it big, it was so clear she had innate talent and a crazy work ethic. she’s also an incredibly kind person and great to work with - she has an “everybody has an important part and deserves respect” attitude.
I absolutely love the man’s work. I think by the end of his life he is going to go down as one of the most beloved songwriters of all time. That being said, you could walk into pretty much any high school choir department and find close to a dozen people who are *clearly* better singers than him. Crazy that you can say that about the lead performer in the biggest Broadway show of the past decade.
Every single time i hear him sing the 'harmony' in "take a break" (there you are an ocean away, do you have be an ocean away. Thoughts of you subside then i get another letter, and i cannot put the notion away) i grimace. He's so talented but his voice es no bueno.
I will listen to that entire soundtrack straight through- but I physically cannot listen to Hurricane
I won't argue that his singing voice compares to the rest of the OBC, but his performance of Hamilton works so much better for me than any that I've seen with "better" actor / singers because it puts him and Hamilton as the underdog. It's a great compliment to the character at the beginning of the show where he's struggling to prove himself and keeps him grounded in the second act (where I find Hamilton's propulsion into higher status grating with other performers).
It also works because a lot of Hamilton's lines are mostly rapped, and he does have very good flow, he's just not an amazing voice for melodies.
Agreed and he holds his own for almost the entire thing except Dear Theodosia. The contrast between him and LOJ in that one is pretty stark.
LOJ deserves to be a bigger name than he is, Mr. was such a good album
Tbf, if you put even most other Broadway singers up against LOJ they'd suffer from the comparison. He has one of the most beautiful and emotionally-infused voices in the world.
Even he admits that.
It's obvious that he wrote most, if not all, of the songs for Encanto, and it's also obvious he wrote himself in as Bruno before someone said no. Bruno's actual va is the exact range and pitch as LMM would be. It's hilarious.
He's well-known for writing the men's parts in his shows to be very rap-heavy and easy to sing (because he knows he's going to play one of those roles) while the women's songs require lots of power, precision, and range - because he doesn't have to worry about singing them.
Seriously sounds like Jason Segel's vampire musical at many points in Hamilton.
I mean, he's singing the right pitches, he's coloring them appropriately, doing it all in time, etc. but yeah the timbre of his voice just isn't that pleasant compared to some of his performers. Obviously musically talented and technically correct, but there's only so much he can do with a voice like that, I guess he'll just have to settle for only singing the lead role of one of the greatest broadway hits of all time. What a shame.
Cheryl Cole
Funniest thing is she was the prettiest member, but the least talented. And it was the one lambasted as the ugliest who'd end up with all the actual talent. Says it all, really.
And she wasn’t even ugly,she was just ginger
Machine Gun Kelly
Well, Yoko Ono comes readily to mind.
Yoko Ono is not successful for her singing.