I LOVE her voice! She's my favorite vocalist. I love the timbre and she knows how to portray emotion in her singing. Her pitch sucks though. To me, timbre is really the only criterion for me liking someone's voice. Barbra Streisand, for example, has great pitch, power, etc but I just hate the tone of her voice.

Her vibrato is underrated.

MidniteMagnet said:

I LOVE her voice! She's my favorite vocalist. I love the timbre and she knows how to portray emotion in her singing. Her pitch sucks though. To me, timbre is really the only criterion for me liking someone's voice. Barbra Streisand, for example, has great pitch, power, etc but I just hate the tone of her voice.

Her vibrato is underrated.

While I wouldn't rank Madonna as my favorite vocalist I completely agree with what your saying. BTW can't stand Streisand

scriptgirl said:

I say average

This probably should have had mulitple choice. I would describe her as an "okay" singer. Nothing spectacular or awe inspiring about her voice, but I think she can sing. Well enough to pass for a singer. She makes up for being an "okay" singer by being a much better performer and being associated with some kind of newsworthy celebrity story:)

aardvark15 said:

MidniteMagnet said:

I LOVE her voice! She's my favorite vocalist. I love the timbre and she knows how to portray emotion in her singing. Her pitch sucks though. To me, timbre is really the only criterion for me liking someone's voice. Barbra Streisand, for example, has great pitch, power, etc but I just hate the tone of her voice.

Her vibrato is underrated.

While I wouldn't rank Madonna as my favorite vocalist I completely agree with what your saying. BTW can't stand Streisand

aardvark15 said:

MidniteMagnet said:

I LOVE her voice! She's my favorite vocalist. I love the timbre and she knows how to portray emotion in her singing. Her pitch sucks though. To me, timbre is really the only criterion for me liking someone's voice. Barbra Streisand, for example, has great pitch, power, etc but I just hate the tone of her voice.

Her vibrato is underrated.

While I wouldn't rank Madonna as my favorite vocalist I completely agree with what your saying. BTW can't stand Streisand

At least she can sang

purplethunder3121 said:

Oooh, boy! This thread is asking for it.

whitechocolatebrotha said:

For a Pop star, she's got a good voice. It's instantly recognizable. I never really thought much of her voice until I heard "You Must Love Me," the first single from Evita. That's when I realized that she had been undergoing some vocal coaching which lent to her voice a tender quality.

On "Ray of Light," the same tenderness prevailed. After that, it was apparent that she had stopped with the vocal coaching and in her live shows, without musical accompaniment, she's very pitchy and mostly off-key. In spite of this, the voice is iconic, but average at best. She's no Chaka or Miss Patti.

below average she passes that's it

aardvark15 said:

mjscarousal said:

I thought she did pretty good on Sooner or Later. But Madonna is a mediocre singer. Her voice like someone mentioned above is not harsh, its light and pleasant to the ears which is why most people dont think about the technicality of her singing.

Also, on certain songs, her voice does well with the production but just on singing skills alone, vocal range and vocal talent, on a scale from 0-10 she gets a 0. I love alot of Madonna songs but she has absolutely 0 talent.

Songwriter, decent singer, fashion icon, awesome tour maker, dancer, amazing reinventor and she has no talent?

Madonna cant dance and she is mediocre vocalist and good on some songs. Her big productions on her tours is why they are entertaining.

She is good at marketing and being controversial and no that doesnt have nothing to do with having raw gifted talent... sorry.

She has a talent for knowing a hit record - this is no small thing. And she has the talent of knowing the right people to work with to give her what she wants. And she has worked her ass off and driven herself unbelievably. Those things are indisputable.

mynameisnotsusan said:

She has a talent for knowing a hit record - this is no small thing. And she has the talent of knowing the right people to work with to give her what she wants. And she has worked her ass off and driven herself unbelievably. Those things are indisputable.

No one is denying that but there is a difference between having a talent for something versus having RAW talent.

RAW talent = Talent that you are just naturally born with.

I am not knocking Madonna. I love alot of her songs and some performances and she is a marketing expert however none of what she does takes alot of natural talent.

The talent Madonna learned from marketing herself took the help of external factors and OTHERS around her not just her specifically alone did that and she wasnt born with it at birth.

mjscarousal said:

mynameisnotsusan said:

She has a talent for knowing a hit record - this is no small thing. And she has the talent of knowing the right people to work with to give her what she wants. And she has worked her ass off and driven herself unbelievably. Those things are indisputable.

No one is denying that but there is a difference between having a talent for something versus having RAW talent.

RAW talent = Talent that you are just naturally born with.

I am not knocking Madonna. I love alot of her songs and some performances and she is a marketing expert however none of what she does takes alot of natural talent.

The talent Madonna learned from marketing herself took the help of external factors and OTHERS around her not just her specifically alone did that and she wasnt born with it at birth.

Yeah, I've no doubt that there are probably literally millions of more naturally vocally talented humans walking on this Earth than her. She's living proof it doesn't matter - or I should say it's not a deal breaker. She gets by and the thing is she's never claimed any exceptional vocal or dance ability. She's had to rely on lot's of other things. Good producers, good video directors, creating controversy etc

nursev said:

below average she passes that's it

this. She has improved compared to when she first started but her live singing is usually horrible. She's also a very nasally singer and you can really hear that in first few albums. I remember reading a review of 1 of her mid 80s songs-it might have been "like a virgin" or "material world" and the critic said it sounded like she had inhaled helium

.

Shard said:

nursev said:

below average she passes that's it

this. She has improved compared to when she first started but her live singing is usually horrible. She's also a very nasally singer and you can really hear that in first few albums. I remember reading a review of 1 of her mid 80s songs-it might have been "like a virgin" or "material world" and the critic said it sounded like she had inhaled helium

.

Material World? How could anybody who's heard a Madonna song not know this song's name