Is the Teenage Dream a good singer in real life? Can she really sing?
Katy Perry can, of course, sing – the issue has always been whether she can sing well. Some critics and haters say she cannot sing at all, but she does well in the studio and has a decent vocal range. She seems to have trouble singing as well live though, but some fans say this is only because of her nerves and stage fright. She uses backup tracks when performing live, but they have malfunctioned in the past.
Read on to learn more about Katy’s vocal range and her live performances!
Katy Perry’s Vocal Strengths
Katy Perry is a California girl; she was born in Santa Barbara to religious parents Mary Christine and Maurice Keith Hudson. Since they were both pastors and born-again Christians, Katy’s education was primarily religious, and so was her initial exposure to music.
Growing up, she listened to gospel music and even sang at her parents’ church for a few years.
Her first album before she got famous, Katy Hudson, was her own gospel music. During her later years, she discovered more mainstream pop music once she began sneaking CDs from friends.
Katy’s first studio album was One of The Boys, and it was an immediate hit and also rocketed her to stardom. She soon became known for her other albums, like Teenage Dream. She has since been a judge on shows like American Idol as well.
Katy definitely has some plus points when it comes to her singing. For instance, she has a very instantly recognizable voice, and the slight rasp and airiness that it carries in the mid-range makes it rather unique.
Her lower notes have improved over time and her belts are solid and fairly resonant; especially in songs like Roar. She is good at using her voice to add emotional leverage to her music.
That being said, critics claim she could use some more vocal training where her live performances are concerned, even though she took vocal lessons as a teen.
Katy Perry’s Vocal Weaknesses
The reason Katy doesn’t do well live is that she has a tendency to become pitchy or off-key at times – making her voice sound nasal. This has especially been a problem in televised performances, which is why fans suggest that the problem could simply be nerves – especially since her vocals on tour have been significantly better.
Critics have also suggested that Katy’s voice sounds unpolished and sometimes “icy.”
An American Idol moment that quickly went viral showed Katy confessing that she sometimes has difficulty singing live. One contestant, Kenedee, said during her audition that she loved Firework and wanted to sing it for the judges, which included Katy herself.
That was when Katy made her confession. She said, “Sing Firework because I can barely sing Firework. Just sing the chorus, because that’s the hardest part.”
Criticism of Katy’s Singing and Vocal Range
In technical terms, when discussing vocal types, Katy Perry would be classified as a lyric soprano. A person with this vocal type usually has a warm and bright singing voice, which Katy Perry definitely does. However, as her popularity has increased, some people have begun to point out that she is not exactly a powerhouse singer, and she has trouble singing live.
There have been moments when Katy was using a backup track to perform live without disclosing it. Unfortunately for her, some of these moments then resulted in malfunctions that either exposed the backup track or forced her to sing live instead.
For instance, during a 2013 performance at the NRJ Music Awards, a backstage malfunction forced her to sing Roar live, and it did not go well.
Compilations of her live performances are all over the internet and make it clear that Katy only sings well if she stays strictly within her vocal range.