I don't think it's fair to say, "There's more to being a great singer than just your range," as if that's the reason anyone considers her a great singer. If you've watched that video WestVoice uploaded, particularly this section, you'd see that she's got incredible versatility and artistry in the way she approaches songs. If she has any faults, it's a bit of tastelessness with adding in unnecessary high belts in some covered material, but that doesn't justify accusing her of being the vocal equivalent of a dishwasher.
And SoHyang has a fantastic lyric soprano voice. I know, I know. You don't like the tone. It sounds "amateur" to you. But speaking of her voice as an instrument, it is phenomenal - there's a handful of singers who can do the things she does, and I can't really think of another lyric soprano. This focus on tone and whether it is "amateur" is frankly a distraction from her abilities as a singer and a vocalist. She can only use the instrument that she has; it happens to have a lot of good qualities (size, range, connectedness), but whether you like the sound of the instrument isn't really important when talking about how she uses it. It's a bit of an odd instrument, actually. While she does have the full-lyric size, color, evenness in long vocal lines, etc., she also achieves a lot of size in her upper belt, and she's able to sustain those high belts and forte / fortissimo for a really long time. If you compare her to, say, Lara Fabian, another flawless lyric soprano, Lara doesn't stay at that super high tessitura with that intensity for that long. And it's not like SoHyang is spending her capital instead of her interest with her voice doing this; she's 35 and sounds better in recent years than in her earlier performances.
It is also a beautiful tone, with great clarity. It might be a bit too "white" in color, and lack some of the textured quality of a soprano with a voice with more color to it, but I think it's beautiful for what it is.
Not you shading world-class technique because you think the tone is amateur when you stan the opposite, sis
When I listened again, I paid more attention and noticed some of the uncomfortable melismatic moments. I think those are just caused by insufficient ease with pronouncing English words and trying to add vocal effects at the same time. As you've seen, she clearly has the vocal chops to sing those things.
As for the scooping, I'm thinking it might be the same thing? In many of those examples, I didn't even hear it as scooping (either scooping notes or doing crescendos; I think you're using those interchangeably?) but as minor difficulties with pronouncing the words.
Oh, I know it's subjective.It's like Regine Velasquez and Mariah. Regine clearly has mastery of her instrument, but when she does Mariah covers, I can't help but think that despite her hitting all the notes, there's a soulless, mechanical execution to the way it's all performed.
Time out.
Regine is mediocre. Period. She has a good-sized voice, and she's somehow not managed to destroy her voice, but that doesn't mean she's got mastery of her instrument. She occasionally does some things right, sure, but if you compare her with SoHyang you should hear how often she's not actually hitting a note properly - you'll hear this tension and thinness to her belts that disappears when you hear SoHyang.
She can have some harshness in the upper belt, maybe, but I don't think she ever loses a musical tones. I don't think she has these tonal issues as early as Eb5, though. In fact, that Fate performance has one of my most favorite Eb5-E5 transitions ever here - the vibrato on that E5 is so intense.
Wow at this. That B5! You're right, MHWGO is beneath her capabilities.
[Edit] OMG, THIS WAS LIVE?
I'm so using this song.
Yes, it was live. And she does that stuff in every live performance I've found of the song. Like this!
Stan a bit.
These are some of my favorite performances;
You Raise Me Up
The Prayer
Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
Jesus Loves Me
I Will Follow Him
There Is None Like Him (Korean)
O Holy Night
The Power of Love
Will You Be There
As I Live (Bad English subtitles)
Dream (")
The Only Thing (")
Someday
Ain't No Mountain High Enough
Never Ending Story (")
White Christmas (a cappella)
Over The Rainbow
Where Are You (Korean)
In The Flower Garden (Korean)
Upon This Rock
Don't Forget Me
A Goose's Dream
Mermaid (And this!)
whatever this song is called
A Love Until The End of Time
Beautiful Things
The Only Thing and Someday are probably the furthest from The Fate for something Korean and different from that.
