I was just listening to an interview he did in the 80's,and the interviewer comments on how he sing in falsetto,and he says "out of necessity".

Interviewer- You sing in a falsetto

Prince- Out of necessity

Interviewer- Out of necessity?

Prince- It hurts to sing in a low voice. My natural singing voice is a falsetto.


Interesting..

he recently said on the tavis interview that he prefers the female
singing voice and that's why he records many songs in a falsetto.

i doubt the normal singing voice would really hurt him. his speaking
voice is very deep and warm so one would assume that singing in that
tone would come natural to him.

anyway, i prefer it when he uses a warmer vocal than when he uses
his trademark falsetto. it's cool for phrasing and the occasional
song but overall i'm growing rather bored with it. well, with the
real high parts like bits on "somewhere here on earth".

i'm sure 100,000 people will instantly disagree with me tho

EmeraldSkies said:

I can understand that, I'm a female but my natural singing voice is higher than my speaking voice. Never thought about it until now.

That's an ooooold interview. His voice has changed and developed over the years, and more of this songs are in his normal voice than a falsetto.

A few years later Prince hated those early interviews that were bootlegged on vinyl. He said he didn't want the sound of his speaking voice 'out there' like that and those interviews were 'a kid telling stories'.

IstenSzek said:

That's what he said,but since his speaking voice is deep,I don't really understand that. It could be like JordanRose said,he just was "telling stories",but then again,what the hell would be the point of making up stuff about why you sing in the higher register?

EmeraldSkies said:

I believe what he said on the Tavis Smiley Show....if you noticed Tavis did not ask him, Prince volunteered the info on "why he sings in a higher register".

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[Edited 4/9/10 17:16pm]

I know people who have a deep speaking voice and sound terrible when they try to sing low register...and u can see they're struggling...
but when they sing in a higher tone than their speaking voice, they sound beautiful and smooth.

Frankly, I think Prince has now over-trained his voice. It's obvious he's been under the tutelage of high-quality vocal teachers for some time now, and his voice has gotten too precise.

Examples would be "All the Midnights in the World" and "The Morning After".

I like the rawer singing style. He still uses it, but not as much any more.

That is interesting...I have only met a few people who have had nodes on their vocal chords due to extension...

I do wonder how singers protect themselves from this happening.