Unprofessional singing that works

Matt Damon in The Talented Mr. Ripley.

Annie McEnroe's "Dream Operator" in True Stories would not have worked had she not sounded so breathy and wistful. You just want to give her a hug at the end.

Somewhat off topic, but David Bryne in this clip was cute as two buttons.

And the whole scene is amazing. It's like a David Lynch Saturday morning cartoon sequence.

This scene in Twin Peaks.

I listened to this for the first time in years and it sounds much better than I remembered it. Evidently it is Bacall singing - I would argue that there is still an impromptu, slightly uneven quality to this that couldn't be faked and ads to the character's overall glamour.

AARGH "Duvall".

Anything featuring Carol Channing.

I know this is a weird take, but I thought Miss Piggy always delivered even though the joke was that she was largely talentless.

Her desperate need to put the act over always seemed to work for the persona.

This Academy Award nominated performance fits perfectly into this category. Also: Madeline Kahn FOREVER.

R8, great example!!!

Cigs kill, R4. Kill.

I don't know what the DL consensus on Divine's talent is, but I love this song.

Her voice was the auditory equivalent of used kitty litter, but this is one of the great Utopian Disco anthems.

Madeline Kahn was a trained opera singer.

Gwen Welles in Altman's "Nashville" owns this thread.

Shy Sarah T gets confidence to sing when she's had some booze.

Nashville!

Speaking of Miss Piggy, Kermit was that times 1,000 on the rare moments he put himself out there.

Paul Jabara doesn't have much of what one could call a voice, but this is one of the few times in a film where I wished the characters would shut up so I could hear the act.

Joaquin Phoenix was amazing singing as Johnny Cash in Walk the Line. He should have won the Oscar.

Claire Trevor doing "Moanin' Low" in Key Largo

Focus on the thread R18–focus!

the Honey Bees

Soprano

Madeline Kahn is a complete FAIL as an example of unprofessional singing.

R14 - that was far out.

Hearts, Not Diamonds

Sandy & Jerry

Both Lauren and Sandra are professional singers.

Words have very fluid meanings on DL, these days.

R27, Lauren Bacall, a professional singer? A professional who sang, perhaps.

Thank you R27 I was just about to ask the definition n of 'professional singer' Raquel Welch followed Bacall in Woman of the Year and also starred in the Broadway musical Victor/Victoria yet would anyone call her a professional singer.

I won 2 Tonys for Musicals, dammit.

This woman...this untrained...non-professional....woman.

[Quote] I won 2 Tonys for Musicals, dammit.

—Betty

Dear Betty, I hate to imagine what the competition was like?

Karaoke

R32 and this?

This scene

R36 she's a professional whose bad singing is deliberate.

Is Diaz's singing supposed to be funny or annoying? I feel it's the latter.

Paul Giamatti in Duets.

Sueleen Gay in Nashville: "I Never Get Enough."

LA LOHAN!

Not from a movie, but I had to put this because it's the perfect answer; Sally Bowles should not sound like Liza:

Audrey Hepburn's "Moon River".

[quote] "Madeline Kahn was a trained opera singer."

I genuinely had no idea. Thanks, R12. I don't know how I missed that.

She studied with my voice teacher R44. She was quite vocally talented. She did a run of Musetta’s in La boheme at Santa Fe Opera, and there’s a recording of her doing Cungeonde from Bernstein’s Candide in a concert performance on YouTube I believe. She quit professional singing because, as she told my teacher, “I can make more in one movie than ten years of singing.” My teacher said she was lovely and funny, and she studied occasionally with her until she died from cancer in the nineties.

Audrey Hepburn on the entire Funny Face album. It’s one of my favorite soundtracks.

Our Tori

This same thread was on MLOP's talking Broadway

News to me, R48.

What is “MLOP's talking Broadway”, [R48]?

OP, thank you for the Shelley song, it made my heart sing. So sweet.

Michelle Pfeiffer in The Fabulous Baker Boys.

R8, Kahn's singing is a vicious send-up of Marlene Dietrich.

Perhaps Judy Garland can explain.

Gee thanks for that—no one seemed to have noticed that before.

…said no one, ever

R54, simply pointing out that her "bad singing" was an act.

Kahn could sing beautifully.

We all know that. We’ve seen her movies —duh.