Oversinging - Critique

Critique

Many complain that contestants in shows such as Idol tend to oversing, and blame some of the most prominent American female singers for inspiring them. Some say it has been a rising trend following the many singing contests that started appearing in the early 2000, especially in the United States.

Mariah Carey, Christina Aguilera, Céline Dion, Beyoncé Knowles and Whitney Houston are well known for their heavy use of melisma and belting, and they have all been criticized for oversinging. This criticism is mainly focused on too much "vocal gymnastics" which some feel degrades the artistic merits of the song, and not necessarily that they strain their voices too much.

While Burnley believes all of those divas to be oversingers in their own right, Page argues the opposite. "They don't oversing, but some young hopefuls, trying to sound exactly like those artists, consistently do it because they haven't yet found their own voice and style," she said.

When amateurs on shows like Idol are criticized for oversinging it can be both because they do too much "vocal gymnastics" and that they strain their voice beyond their vocal capability when trying to mimic famous singers with far greater voices and training.

Professional opera singer Sarah-Jane Dale on Whitney Houston's use of melisma: "You can't do it without proper breath control, and that's the one thing that Whitney Houston had bags of. Let's face it, singers like that do not come along every week."