Do fat ladies just sing better?

Except that people with very strong abdominal muscles (core), sing better.

And what’s up with Whitney Houston, Pat Benatar, Celine Dion & Sarah Brightman?

Skinny chicks sing VERY well, too.

Alison Moyet was way better when she was fat

You think so, R2?

Hmmm.

Sam Smith currently contradicts the premises of this post.

I sure do, R3. You don't?

Hmmm

Aretha Franklin didn't gain weight until later middle age, long after her vocal ascendency.

Hey OP, I'm going to haunt you from beyond the grave

OOOOH BLACK MONEY YAH!

I thought opera singers were heavy because of something to do with their lung capacity. Maybe that had more to do with their breath control than pitch.

sam is nb but likely id as a fat lady r4

Yes, OP, I always thought that my Karen was on the porky side.

Everyone knew that trans woman in Black Box was lip syncing Martha Wash's voice because no skinny (wo)man is going to sound like Martha Wash.

I don't know, OP. You tell me:

It ain't over 'til the fat lady sings!

There is a noticeable change in the voice when your weight changes significantly; on balance, I think it's harder to have a full voice if you don't have a large diaphragm. Here's a quote from Deborah Voigt about singing after bariatric surgery:

"Every 20lbs I lost, I felt less rounded and less able to support the sound; well, that was because my support system" - she gestures at empty space around her now slim hips - "was vanishing. At 150lbs heavier, you take a breath and those muscles are already engaged, you don't have to think about it. Now, I have to think about it, about how things line up." She pauses. "In terms of the timbre, the size? I don't think the size of my voice has changed. Maybe it's a little brighter, more silvery rather than gold."

She also mentioned elswhere that she had to start paying much closer attention to her technique after losing 100+ pounds.

Of course, the biggest factor in how well you sing is simply how good your voice and technique are to begin with.

Don't rain on Beanie's parade.

Maria Callas started this, she went from plump to fashionably slim, and her voice lost power and focus around the same time.

I don't know if the weight loss caused the problems, or if she was just so popular she was overusing her voice at that time.

R12 I didn’t know that was a tranny. Wow, trans people just can’t stop stealing from women, can they?

Katrin Quinol (the model who pretended to be Martha Wash) was NOT trans.

I have a pet theory about very fat singers.

When you sing, you use your diaphragm. The diaphragm is below the chest--the stomach area. Lots of singing practice will lead to soreness in that area.

Could it be that singer misinterpret the diaphragm soreness for hunger? I mean, if it happens regulary, then it would explain being a great (well-practiced) and obese singer.

Yes darling, we certainly do.

Nah, I sound like shit.

The lungs have nothing to do with singing. Good singing involves breathing from the diaphram and achieving optimal breathing for singing. One must have been born with notable vocal ability, and from there it's all in the breathing. Marvelous things happen when breathing is mastered.

I saw Deborah Voigt both when she was fat and skinny and at neither time was her voice that huge. The hype that she was some great Wagnerian singer is still baffling to me. I could barely hear her

Caballe and Nilsson were both known for their amazing breathing and they only became fat in their later years

It ain't over until the fat lady sings!

Now, now. 90% of Sarah Brightman's vocal support came from schtupping Andrew Lloyd Weber.

Some people seem to think so... 🙄

With opera going in the direction of “looks come first,” perhaps that’s why opera stars are so fucking boring nowadays. We need to bring the fatties back!

Jennifer Hudson sounded better fat also.

Wynona Judd and Trisha Yearwood sounded better before weight loss. Maybe that's why they put the pounds back on.

This is a little bit off topic, but this thread, especially R13's clip (thank you, R13!), has got me thinking:

Montserrat Caballe is one of my favourite singers. I've been asking myself whether I would trade my kind of scrawny, nothing-special body for Montserrat Caballe's body if it meant I also gained her miraculous voice, technique and artistry. (In this scenario, saying you'd trade and then simply lose the extra weight is out, because it makes the choice too easy.)

I imagine that being heavy would make me uncomfortable, both physically and emotionally. It's not only harder to move around, find clothes and maintain good health, but you're also not supposed to care what people think of you or be wounded by their mocking comments. I know that, in reality, it would hurt an awful lot. Weight can be a burden in more ways than just the literal one, that's for sure.

On the other hand, those objections seem really shallow. Possessing a talent that moves people down to their souls with that "rightness", that purity- you can't explain how you know that you just experienced greatness, and it happens rarely, but you recognize it as if a bell just rang deep inside you- how would it feel to be someone who can do that for others?

I hope I would have the courage to trade, but that's easy to say in a hypothetical.

Do you think you'd trade for a great talent if you had to accept some condition that you would consider a serious drawback (like living with an extra150 pounds or something more serious -maybe losing one of your senses or ability to walk) as part of the deal? How far would you be willing to go and for what ability or talent in return?

To answer the OP, Montserrat Caballe and Mama Cass and even Judy Garland and Barbra Streisand, no matter their actual weight at a given moment, had a similar build around the diaphragm area,. You could call it barrel-shaped. Even Ethel Merman had that kind of ring-of-rounded-steel look from the inverted "v" of the sternum to just below the navel. I guess it's to do with a very muscular diaphragm and maybe it's genetic (?). Even when Judy Garland was pitifully thin everywhere else, that area still looked strong and somewhat rounded..

Beyonce, Whitney, and Celine Dion are all beautiful women who sing great. So no OP.

Maybe girth helps with projection. Opera singers have to project into auditoriums without amplification.

Beyoncé, Whitney, and Celine have gorgeous voice but don’t need to project—they sing into microphones

bump

Why does Janet Jackson's voice get tinier as she balloons?

Jessye Norman said it's not about bulk, it's about cavity.

No, OP, you fookin' cunt. I sound fookin' amazing at any weight.

Maria Callas begs to differ.

It ain’t over till the FAT lady sings.

Of Course!!!

Judy Garland ((who was fat at times, but mostly thin), Barbra Streisand, Celine, Rene Fleming, thin or normal weight. So…

Baseline, weight has nothing to do with it. A large singer will lose vocal power if she loses weight--they have to retrain their bodies, build up core strength, to make up for it.

In my day, Kate Smith was very popular on the radio and was considered quite heavy for that era.

But compared with the heifers these days, her size doesn't even register.

Mais non!

"Judy Garland ((who was fat at times, but mostly thin),"

Judy Garland was never FAT fat, she was always a small woman who had the misfortune to only photograph well when she was starving herself. She was never really overweight in her life, she just looked overweigh on film.

Fat [italic]people[/italic], OP. Get woke, for fuck sake.

R18 her latest “single” has a man’s voice and an adam’s apple

R46, nope- she became very overweight in the 1950s- you don’t know your history- turn in your gay card.