I thought Mariah considered herself and Alto versus a Soprano? I've never actually heard herself say she was a Soprano. But then again, sometimes people say she can be a toss up between the two.
Mariah does call herself an alto, but it's not a good description of her vocal type. For one, "alto" is a choral music designation; it's not an operatic vocal category. Mariah is most assuredly not a contralto, which sounds
like this. Mariah has a
light, girlish voice (especially when singing in her head voice, as in that example), with a high extension, a lot of ease at the top of her range. The only possible argument for her not being a soprano is that she has an extensive lower register, but even though she has a very extensive lower register it has very little body to it until you get to the upper half of the third octave. She can't go
this low and have it audible without a mic and over the background noise, even from that distance. She just doesn't have the weight in her lower register.
And no, JHud is basically a badly trained dramatic soprano. She's what Patti Labelle would be if Patti Labelle
actually screamed like her clueless critics say she does.
About the Beyoncé comment, I'm saying that Beyoncé doesn't and very rarely belts out huge notes in alot of her songs in which she ops for more technique in these situations. Which I feel is why when we talk about her not having a power ballad such as I will Always love you and My heart will go on doesn't define her as a singer and or vocalist, makes no sense. The only ballads I know that are recognizable are Halo and Listen.
That's just it. Her songs are
full of those big notes. You couldn't see
comparison videos like this if that weren't the case. In trying to defend her, you're actually underselling her. She doesn't have a ballad equivalent to those, no, but that doesn't mean you need to concede the other point.
I disagree, what she was doing is way more impressive to me. Both notes sounded like vocal notes, unlike your example where it is creating a strange nasal/whistling harmonic note on top of a single vocal note. Her technique sounds genuinely like two normal vocal notes (albeit a bit breathy) at the same time. And she was creating chords in tune with the band, unlike your example which is unaccompanied and therefore has more flexibility in terms of being able to fish around for a tone where the harmonics work best.
Maybe you'd be more impressed by
it live? It's a very impressive form of vocalism, but it feels like a separate skill set from "normal" singing. I guess I'll just have to agree to disagree. My vocal preferences tends to run towards vocal technique that focuses on resonance and projection, and so things like that just feel a bit tepid to me, even if it is impressive that she's doing it in a musically coherent way.
