The greatest belter

Shirley Bassey comes to mind.

Well, she's not solid, but she can belt, and she's sweet, so she gets extra credit.

I miss this girl.

Freda Payne really belts out Band of Gold.

Zac Hanson, up one side and down the other with projection for miles. And I don't care who here knows it. Belting while sitting down (!) and drumming at the same time:

Neko Case can really shake the walls of the recording studio.

Listen to Cyndi Lauper sing "I'm Gonna Be Strong" from her Blue Angel period. Wow.

Whoops, sorry, lol

Cyndi Lauper? LOL

Seriously, this man. Those pipes. Just sitting, strumming a guitar and his voice is powerful enough to make the rafters shake.

Ethel Merman

I cannot stand belters.

Patti Labelle is the queen of annoying belters.

I don't know if this is belting, but I like it anyway, and she's got growling voice and big lungs.

Ronnie James Dio.

Whitney.

Yes, Cyndi Lauper, and not LOL.

Bruce Dickinson is the Ethel Merman of British Heavy Metal.

Meman. Of course. Undisputed.

Eydie Gorme

Champagne for Lulu!

What is all this love for belters? Most of them are very limited - they only yell lyrics. Belters are usually lousy singers because they have no subtlety.

Patti Lupone

Bernadette Peters

As stated, The GREAT ETHEL

ALL THIS TALK AND NO JUDY...NOW GURLS

Julie Andrews

CHER

Bette Midler

Mahalia Jackson

BABS

Martha Raye

Kate Smith

Jeanette McDonald

ETHEL [on the Judy Garland Show]: "So you're the new belter!"

BARBRA: [Looks at her, as if to say, don't group me with you, you obnoxious foghorn.]

Bette Midler? That's called whining, not belting.

flyyyyyy, flyyyyyyyyyy, FLYYYYYYYYYY higher than an eagle.

Seriously Cyndi Lauper, huh? Wow. Don't get me wrong, I love a lot of her stuff, but I'd hardly call her a belter.

Chaka Khan

R25 Fans!

Next, we'll have the Olivia Newton-John fan come in here and say she was a famous belter.

I'm shocked we made this far without mention of Jennifer Hudson, like this is even a competition. A lot of these singers could belt back in the day, but they can't now.

She is the current reigning world champion belter, whose vocals are guaranteed to destroy sound systems.

THREAD CLOSED

Liza with a Z, of course.

Big Maybelle

I am!

This is belting. Linda Ronstadt singing Desperado, especially at the end:

R21 And then you have Zac, whose voice is basically like the running soundtrack to ejaculation/orgasm: R5.

Andrea McArdle.

THE END.

Adam Lambert. Huge voice. Big range. Rarely hits an off note. Pure falsetto too. Unappreciated.

r9/r27, Why not actually listen to the youtube link I provided? Or this one for instance....

[quote]Vocal Pluses: Expressive, versatile voice, that can switch from sounding innocent and sweet like a child to coarse and throaty like a rock star to crystal clear and dramatic like a diva extraordinaire all within the space of a lyric. [bold]The voice sounds most impressive when belting clearly with her dramatic vibrato applied.[/bold]

Cyndi Lauper is not a great anything. Enough.

Underrated

I like this because it's just fun, over the top, but with talent.

[quote]Cyndi Lauper is not a great anything. Enough.

Janbot?

Jane Jackson was such an accomplished belter, she was able to do it while whispering and giggling.

The greatest belter? No one better than Ray Rice.

The inspiration for so many covers.

Shirley Bassey!

Lana Del Rey

R40 is so bereft of taste, I'll bet no one wants to be around him IRL.

Hanson troll, go away.

Like I said, it's fun and over the top, I enjoy that from time to time [R47]. Sometimes life is about screaming out in pleasure, sometimes it's about screaming out in pain. Both exist if you expand your mind.

Relevant is relevant R48. Don't ask questions you don't want to hear the answers to.

Judy Garland was a great belter. Streisand CAN be, but she uses her head voice so much. Eydie Gorme was pretty spectacular. Her version of "The Man I Love" is belted into the stratosphere and it's thrilling.

Merman is probably the gold standard. When I think belter, I think of her.

Liza was great, but I sometimes felt like she was screaming, which she probably was. Her voice went before a lot of the other great belters did. Although, that might have been due to drugs like Whitney.

Britney Spears owns this thread!

For R6, Neko out-Aretha-ing Aretha:

The poster who said "belters" are covering for lack of musicality is right about many of them, but not all of them:

Liza's belting at its best, when she was in splendid voice.

Steve Perry, Teena Marie

Bono:

Are we talking about singers who belt, or singers who can project without a microphone? I've seen Cyndi Lauper sing without amplification. Aside from classical singers, I think it's really hard to tell who can "really" sing these days.

One who has such a distinctive sound hes considered almost a novelty act, but within his own one-man genre actually has a very versatile voice with a lot more range and melody that he's given credit for:

How fast we forget....

....

Jennifer Holliday

Gospel singer Mahalia Jackson. In this clip, at 3:12, she turns away from the microphones, but you can still her hear loud and clear. At 3:38, she's walked off the stage, STILL projecting as strongly as when before the microphones. Amazing.

really, no Janis Joplin yet?

The great Kate Smith. She was 59 here and belted the shit out of the end of this song.

Nothing like a big girl with a big voice....

She was next, R64, but I didn't want to monopolize the thread

The one and the only Whitney Houston

Big Mama Thorton. She is basically yelling but I love it.

Simon Morin

Irma Thomas

Bessie Smith, known as the Empress of the Blues, is said to have had an extraordinarily powerful voice. Back in the days of travelling tent shows and Vaudeville you needed one.

I think special mention should be made for Judy Kuhn, who can flawlessly go from soprano to belt

Dolores Gray!

Gentlemen, Mr. Tom Jones:

Debbie Shapiro!

Axl, bless his heart, has one and only one mode: pedal to the metal:

Debbie belts Betty!

Wake up, DL!!! There is only one belter that counts. Judy loved her. Aretha loves her. Barbra hates her.

DAME SHIRLEY BASSEY

Sam Harris who set himself on fire on that Star Search stage all those years ago. Go to minute 1:40 to watch a man, with a thirst for vocal greatness not known before or since, reach for that brass ring.

Ethel Merman has been mentioned a few times. (Well, of course!)

Here's a cute clip of Merman trying to tone it down for a duet with Perry Como. It's quite sweet, actually.

Lord, the lyric... but she certainly belts it.

P!nk

Adele

Ella Fitzgerald

Areatha

Steve Perry from Journey

Whitney

A more lyrical side...

Ruthie Henshall

Dorothy Squires. And if you disagree, she will come through the screen and eat you.

I only first heard of Dorothy Squires about five years ago. Shirley Bassey owes a chunk of her style to Dot.

SO here is Whitney Houston just sort of fucking around with Opera and blowing Pavarotti and the others away.

No mention of moi?

Mike Patton!

Freddie Mercury

Annie Lennox

Mavis Staples

Celine Dion

Dinah Washington

Stephanie Mills

Phyllis Hyman

Angela Bofill

Nancy Wilson

Mike Patton

Jennifer Hudson sings everything like she's trying to use her voice to blast airplanes from the sky.

the incomparable Freddie Mercury

Sutton Foster

Aretha

Betty Buckley

R73 Ah, Dolores Gray -- apparently her voice was bigger than Merman's in the theater, and unlike Merman, Gray had a very creamy, subtle voice when she wanted to be more expressive. Have a Listen to "If" from "Two on the Aisle". She's brilliant.

Bowie could be a belter when the mood took him. I find this performance of Life On Mars (his last ever) very moving because I remember him effortlessly soaring over the lyrics but this version you can hear pain.

Liza

Janis belted the blues.

Ms Karen Young , case closed !! RIP honey Philly misses you :(

And for those of you who think belting is impossibly vulgar, may I present... Miss Irene Dunne!

A lot of what's posted in this thread is not "belting". A soprano head-voice is not a belt. Neither is heavy-metal power-screaming.

THIS (at 1:24) is a belt:

Cady Huffman:

Nah nah nah, none of these videos is belting.

THIS is belting!

Nell Carter can really belt a song

Can't believe in over a hundred replies there's only been one mention of the amazing Jennifer Holliday.

The best performance in the movie musical Hair. Cheryl Barnes.

Next favorite, who got her start on the Gong Show. Cheryl Lynn, keeping it real.

Another for R72 - love Judy Kuhn

Am I the only one whose teeth get set on edge during that Jennifer Holliday performance? It’s always played at gay (video) bars and it is so over the top...and not in a good way. J-Hud’s Is far superior.

R111, yes.

R95 Oh the memories of that performance! I get chill bumps every time I listen to the incredible Miss Franklin sing that aria.

My mother who was a stereotypical "greatest generation" big band singer who recorded with Tommy Dorsey, Les Brown as well as Glenn Miller. She was no fan of what she referred to as "colored music"(please forgive me for using her parlance.)

We watched the Grammys the night Aretha performed and I saw tears running down her face after witnessing her gift of voice. She said that it never even occurred to her that the singer of "Chain of Fools" and "Respect" possessed such a beautiful voice and such range. It was a moment to be sure. I like to think that it opened her mind just a tad.

R113 here again. I wanted to clarify something in my post: what she referred to as "colored music" is what the rest of the world called R&B and soul music, which to her was the only sort Aretha could sing. She had great love for Black artists of her era, Her favorite vocalists were Sarah Vaugh and Ella Fitzgerald. And naturally she played Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Nat King Cole and Billy Holliday records throughout my childhood.

I also want to add that Miss Aretha never looked as beautiful as she did that night of the Grammy's. She generally is not known for restraint when it comes to her stage clothing, but that evening suit was elegant and flattering, and her hair and makeup was perfect. She looked like a goddess.

The most obvious selections should come from opera singers. Projecting is their world. Same with the Jazz genres. And choirs.

Ann Wilson stands out for rock music. I’ve read that she trains/trained with a men’s choir, always challenging herself I think. Much respect for her vocal work to this day.

That woman with the big nose is a belter and it's awful.

Does Pat Benatar count in this category?

R97 Makes me realize how derivative Liza Minnelli is.

I don't like singers who can belt who do it on every song. That is such an American Idol approach to singing.

Mahalia Jackson

Case closed

R115 you're thinking of the colloquial definition of belting- when someone who is not educated in vocal music says someone "belted it out," they mean (as you do) "sang loudly." What belting means in the vocal music world and for the purpose of this thread is "singing notes in chest voice (or a chest-dominant mix) that are higher than its usual limits." Opera singers are specifically taught NOT to belt. On topic, my favorite belters that I haven't seen mentioned yet are Celine Dion for pop and Stephanie J Block for musical theatre.

Jeanette MacDonald? Julie Andrews? Irene Dunne? REALLY?

Meanwhile, here's The Mini Merman, aka the young Alice Playten. Check it out.

Why Miss Beth Howland of course!

I loved the late Sharon King with the Dap Kings. She sang the Midnight Rider song for a Matthew McConnaugh car commercial. And she had so much more to give than that. Rest In Peace.

Dame Shirley Bassey...last week...at 81 years of age.

Judy Garland, The Man That Got Away......

Gene Pitney! How soon we forget.

Jennifer Hudson belts, but honestly her voice is harsh and grating. Patti LaBelle is a belter. Janis Joplin was a belter. Almost any blues singer or someone who has a church choir background is a belter.

Damn, R125. She's still got it!

I think Shirley Bassey is the winner. It doesn’t get beltier, both in good and bad ways, than “Goldfinger.”

Kelly Clarkson is a belter.

I would agree with r130 about Shirley Bassey, but it’s hard to argue against Judy after listening to r126. Jennifer Holliday is right up there with her “I’m No Going”...

Martha Wash

Stephanie Mills and Patti LaBelle!

Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Sippie Wallace

I vote Shirley and Ethel. Shirl could be stunningly effective and often out right awful (phrasing and over the top camp). Ethel was essentially just the loudest thing on the stage- fun in person, obnoxious recorded.

Surprising to see Freda Payne listed--I've always felt her voice was so thin on the song. Maybe it was the production on the track. Love the tune but it's underpowered.

Scherrie Payne was the belter in that family.

Ian McCulloch of Echo & the Bunnymen, before he smoked the top half of his voice away. Completely untrained and undisciplined--but the raw talent was there.

I OWN this thread.

r98, I last saw Bowie around 2002-3 and was pleasantly surprised and impressed by how good his voice was. He wised up and did away with the rock n' roll excesses and he was a great performer well into his 50's. Even a rock god like Bowie had to clean up--what chance did mere mortals like McCulloch have, continuing on with all the vices? You would think McCulloch would have learnt a lesson as he worshipped Bowie.

It took 142 posts before someone said six time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald ?!?

The best live version of Life on Mars. Bowie's voice sounds powerful here.

[quote] I would agree with [R130] about Shirley Bassey, but it’s hard to argue against Judy after listening to [R126]. Jennifer Holliday is right up there with her “I’m No Going”...

Clearly, Shirley Bassey is the winner. She's been belting since the 1950s and her longevity is staggering. She was already around 60 years old when I first saw her live and her voice was (is) astonishing. There are better singers but she is the best belter. Judy is fabulous but her voice gave out long before the end of her life. Jennifer Holliday doesn't belt so much as "holler." And she's not really good at that lately. It's different, Holliday is more church than Broadway.

[quote] It took 142 posts before someone said six time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald ?!?

Audra is not a belter! She has a glorious vocal talent that is way beyond the realm of belting. She is one of the great voices of our time.

Yes, it's strange how a thread about belters wouldn't heavily feature sopranos...

Patti

Roses

Timi Yuro, who famously told Burt Bacharach to go fuck himself when he tried to tell her how to sing "What the world needs now"

Betty Buckley

M E R M A N

Lets talk about ability to belt - using the entire musical scale: W H I T N E Y. H O U S T O N.

Whitney disqualifies herself by failing to sing the bridge to I'm Every Woman live.

Linda Ronstadt is on up there

Miss Eatie Gourmet belting [italic]en español[/italic]

"Now he's gonna play that damn Vikki Carr record, and when he comes to bed he won't touch me."

Sebastian Bierk

Señorita Rocio Jurado

Etta James

Reba McIntyre....she blows Bernadette Peters version out of the water......THIS is how you sing this song......and yet, BP won a Tony....and she sucked.

Bernadette Peters version.......the Antionette Perry Committee should be ashamed.......

Karen Morrow

Susan Johnson

Elsa Peretti

Ethel....

You know it: