# Female singers with low voices **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 26, 2003, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-singers-with-low-voices/215429 "2003-11-26T18:01:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![bytheway](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/df705f/32.png) [@bytheway](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bytheway)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2003, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-singers-with-low-voices/215429/21 "2003-11-26T22:38:31Z")
Chrissie Hynde, Stevie Nicks, Aimee Mann ---
**Author:** ![medstar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f07891/32.png) [@medstar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/medstar)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2003, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-singers-with-low-voices/215429/22 "2003-11-26T23:46:04Z")
I’ve never quite understand the high esteem that a soprano voice is held in, to the detriment of lower female voices. Is it just because sopranos are rarer and harder to maintain? I hope I’m not offending anyone, but I much prefer to listen to female singers with low voices because I can understand what they’re singing–female singers singing soprano sometimes sound like screeching cats. ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2003, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-singers-with-low-voices/215429/23 "2003-11-27T00:06:46Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by gytalf2000 \* > \*\*We have had some threads about high falsetto male voices, so I guess turnabout is fair play— what female singers have good low voices? Cher immediately springs to mind, of course, but I can also think of Toni Braxton and one of the Pointer Sisters (remember the song “Automatic”?). Who else would make the list? \*\* Lower than just about any female singer I know, and one of the only female singers I know who could be named in this thread AND a “Female singers with very high voices” thread: **Happy Rhodes** Exclusively low song: [Beat It Out](http://vickie.teemingmillions.com/HappyRhodes_BeatItOut.mp3) Very low and very high song: ['Til the Dawn Breaks](http://vickie.teemingmillions.com/HappyRhodes_TilTheDawnBreaks.mp3) Several others, all showing her range: [Happy Rhodes song samples](http://vickie.teemingmillions.com/happy/samples/index.html) (She knows I share her music, and is ok with it. I’ve been doing it since 1988.) ---
**Author:** ![Eats\_Crayons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/278dde/32.png) [@Eats\_Crayons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eats_Crayons)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2003, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-singers-with-low-voices/215429/24 "2003-11-27T00:47:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by medstar \* > \*\*I’ve never quite understand the high esteem that a soprano voice is held in, to the detriment of lower female voices. Is it just because sopranos are rarer and harder to maintain? I hope I’m not offending anyone, but I much prefer to listen to female singers with low voices because I can understand what they’re singing–female singers singing soprano sometimes sound like screeching cats. \*\* Your opinion is actually shared by many. A _lot_ of people prefer voices that are closer to the normal speaking range of frequencies. I know a lot of people who even prefer musical arrangements that consist of instruments that also fall within the regular human vocal range (like a viola sounds “friendlier than a violin,” cellos are “sexy” because they are in the lower range). ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2003, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-singers-with-low-voices/215429/25 "2003-11-27T01:16:12Z")
**Joss Stone** ---
**Author:** ![threeorange](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@threeorange](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/threeorange)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2003, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-singers-with-low-voices/215429/26 "2003-11-27T01:21:06Z")
I’m surprised noone has yet mentioned Joan Armatrading. ---
**Author:** ![Why\_A\_Duck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/13edae/32.png) [@Why\_A\_Duck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Why_A_Duck)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2003, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-singers-with-low-voices/215429/27 "2003-11-27T01:23:13Z")
Diamanda Galas will scare your voice into submission. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2003, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-singers-with-low-voices/215429/28 "2003-11-27T01:36:13Z")
\*\*Marian Anderson \*\*was arguably the world’s greatest contralto. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2003, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-singers-with-low-voices/215429/29 "2003-11-27T01:38:24Z")
Alison Moyet. ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2003, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-singers-with-low-voices/215429/30 "2003-11-27T02:22:10Z")
The late, great Nina Simone. ---
**Author:** ![k.os](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e0b2c6/32.png) [@k.os](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k.os)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2003, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-singers-with-low-voices/215429/31 "2003-11-27T02:31:00Z")
Nina Hagen. She does both growling low and screeching highs, and has a _very_ distinctive style and voice. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2003, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-singers-with-low-voices/215429/32 "2003-11-27T02:45:59Z")
Isabel Sanford. Surely she’s sung _something_ in her life. ---
**Author:** ![Eats\_Crayons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/278dde/32.png) [@Eats\_Crayons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eats_Crayons)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2003, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-singers-with-low-voices/215429/33 "2003-11-27T03:03:36Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by threeorange \* > \*\*I’m surprised noone has yet mentioned Joan Armatrading. \*\* _hangs head in shame_… Oh… Oh…, please, please don’t tell Sniffs\_Markers! She has been a Joan Armatrading fan for years and years. Armatrading is one of Markers’s greater musical influences. Don’t tell Markers I didn’t even think of Armatrading. She’ll beat me with a guitar string! **k.os** – Hagen can do some _astonishing_ things with her voice! Her mom was an opera singer and Nina got lotsa classical training too. The stuff she can do is truly amazing. ---
**Author:** ![yBeayf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/e274bd/32.png) [@yBeayf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yBeayf)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2003, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-singers-with-low-voices/215429/34 "2003-11-27T03:22:59Z")
Otep, though she screams a bit more than she sings. Joan Osborne. ---
**Author:** ![look\_ninjas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b2d939/32.png) [@look\_ninjas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/look_ninjas)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2003, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-singers-with-low-voices/215429/35 "2003-11-27T05:29:23Z")
Cassandra Wilson. Man, what an amazing voice. Nina Simone as well, of course. And Liz Phair, but she sort of talks more than she sings, or at least she used to. I’m not sure why soprano is the most desired female range, but I know that I wanted to be one when I was younger. It took a long time for me to get comfortable singing in my regular voice, which is a fairly low contralto. Even then, my voice teacher was always pressuring me to sing up in soprano range. I think it’s just because low voices are not seen as being feminine. I will say, though, that I don’t think sopranos are rarer than altos. I think the ability to sing at the extreme end of the vocal range, be it low or high, is rare. ---
**Author:** ![doctordoowop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecc23a/32.png) [@doctordoowop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doctordoowop)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2003, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-singers-with-low-voices/215429/36 "2003-11-27T05:45:43Z")
Earl Jean McCree of the Cookies. Sang background for Little Eva-“The Locomotion”- & on Turkey Trot(1962) sang BASS. Deepest female voice I ever heard. BTW, the Cookies did the original “Chains”-done later by the Beatles. The Cookies made the Beatles sound like rank amateurs. ---
**Author:** ![jovan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/0ea827/32.png) [@jovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jovan)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2003, 9:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-singers-with-low-voices/215429/37 "2003-11-27T09:18:41Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by look!ninjas \* > \*\*Cassandra Wilson. \*\* That’s the first person I thought of. She _defines_ “low female voice”. **Mercedes Sosa** has a huge, beautiful voice. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2003, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-singers-with-low-voices/215429/38 "2003-11-27T13:41:27Z")
Nina Simone’s “I Put A Spell On You,” is a great example. And no one’s mentioned Judy Henske? “'Til The Real Thing Comes Along,” really moves MY lower register, if you know what I mean, and I think you do. ---
**Author:** ![Second\_Guest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/87869e/32.png) [@Second\_Guest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Second_Guest)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2003, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-singers-with-low-voices/215429/39 "2003-11-27T19:14:06Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by stpauler \* > \*\ ***Ferron** ’s got a great low voice and if you’ve never heard _Ain’t Life A Brook_ you haven’t heard a great breakup song. \*\* I would characterize Ferron’s voice as gravelly and quiet more than “low”, but I agree completely about _Ain’t Life a Brook_. I think I like the second version on _Still Riot_ more than the original, even though it’s not quite as gut-wrenchingly depressing. ---
**Author:** ![gentle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/eb8c5e/32.png) [@gentle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gentle)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2003, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-singers-with-low-voices/215429/40 "2003-11-28T18:29:59Z")
Hope Sandoval of Mazzy Star has a quiet, sultry voice. Lisa Germano has a deeper, occasionally more unearthly voice. Both great. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-singers-with-low-voices/215429.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-singers-with-low-voices/215429.md?page=3)