7.2.18 QAL London 2 at the O2

What are the hardest rock or pop songs to sing? Many times it seems that the answer is songs with very high notes and songs with great power. But, honestly, a soft, tender song is often more difficult to sing than a big belter. It requires finesse, exactitude, fine control and support. The singer is very exposed and there is nowhere to hide. Other things that make a song difficult:

*  a wide range from bottom to top. If you start it in a key where you can strongly sing the low notes, you may crack and squawk trying to hit the top notes.

* melody that moves up and down thruout the range across the parts where the singer's voice naturally breaks. It is difficult to maintain a consistent sounding tone when going from low chest, to mid chest, to mixed, to head, and back and forth

*a melody that moves quickly from note to note, requiring rapid adjustment

* a melody that jumps back and forth from low to high, quickly. Again, it requires the singer to adjust from one part of their range to another and back while maintaining tone quality and volume

* a song that has an arc that goes from delicate and intimate to strong and powerful, and back. A song with great nuances of emotion

* a song with a quick melody, fast words to enunciate clearly

* a song with long sustained phrases or notes requiring superior breath control

* a song with unusual intervals or harmonies that require a very fine sense of pitch

If you review that list, you will notice that those features do not appear often in pop music. Pop music is often designed to be easy for most people to sing or sing along to. 

As to what genres or types of music would be the most challenging for Adam to sing, yes, I would think opera or classical art songs. Angelina has assured me many times that Adam has the voice and the technique to perform opera. His basic technique is masterful and can be applied to classical music as much or more so than Queen's catalog. That ain't never gonna happen. But it could. I don't know of any style of music Adam could not sing, provided it was in the tenor range. 

cassie many thanks for your insights. Much appreciated

I've noticed that he started singing the "why" a little differently than before in the recent shows, and wondered why he changed it up like that.  It was sounding great before when he sang it, and now it doesn't sound quite right to my ears either.. I'm trying to play catch up as I've been traveling, so I'm not exactly sure when he started singing it this way.. cassie any thoughts?