Charice's Vocal Profile

Enter 16-year-old Charice Pempengco. Now, I’ve heard a lot of good young singers who were considered great because they sounded like adults (Bianca Ryan and a young Christina Aguilera for instance). Charice Pempengco goes beyond this classification, as she is the best female vocalist in the world right now regardless of age. Her low register is powerful, steady and clear while her chest voice is full and lush and has the greatest range of any chest voice I have ever heard. Combine this with an equally great head voice and an incredibly full falsetto and you have the best vocalist I think I’ll hear in my lifetime.

Charice’s vocal range can be considered mezzo soprano though her upper register can be classified as dramatic soprano. The highest note I’ve heard her sing live is a G#5 in One Moment in Time.

I did see one hiccup as far as vocal performances go, though, and that was Charice’s rendition of Against All Odds (she was following the Mariah Carey version). Given, it was an improvised performance that was not planned, but it does sound like Charice does not have the same range in her head voice as Mariah Carey does, though really no one but Mariah has had the range (Charice does beat Mariah in the range of her chest voice though).

Charice Pempengco has now been signed and is working on an album produced by David Foster, which should help correct her one flaw (if you can call it that), which is finding her musical identity. Fortunately for Charice, though, there are two ways to prove yourself, either find your own style or outdo the masters at their own styles. Sometimes finding individual style is important because you don’t want to come off as a second-rate Whitney Houston when singing her songs, but when you can actually destroy the original version with your vocals alone, perhaps originality isn’t all that necessary. David Foster has produced a couple of arrangements specifically for a couple of Charice’s performances, and I look forward to hearing more arrangements that can take advantage of her unique vocal strengths.