Vocal Classification: Light-Lyric Soprano
Vocal Range: Eb3 ~ B5 ~ E7
Low Register: Although Ariana is known for her high-lying and light voice, her lows are able to maintain consistent support down to G3, such as in Don’t Dream It’s Over. Ariana is able to keep a consistent tone down to E3, but she has issues with airiness here that sometimes blocks her support from happening, as she’s inconsistently had support as low as F#3. All in all, this a nice register.
Mixed Register: Ariana is able to consistently support her voice well up to B4 here, shown in Dangerous Woman. She’s been able to keep resonance as high as C5 before, shown in The Wizard And I, and support has been retained as high as Eb5 before inconsistently. However, nowadays above B4, she has issues with glottal, tongue and jaw tension, as well as throatiness being apparent in her mixed voice. Around D5/Eb5, Ariana’s larynx starts raising, and thinning out her voice. Alongside this tension is a larynx-produced vibrato that can become laggy at points in her voice. However, she has been able to lessen the strain on her voice by using a head-dominant mix, allowing for a brighter, lighter sound in upper belts, as well as letting her being able to go very high in her mixed register, as high as B5.
Upper Register: For stylistic purposes, Ariana mainly uses falsetto. She has gone as high as E7 in her upper register, and her sound in falsetto is usually relaxed up until about G5. Above that, her voice becomes shrill and tight, such as the E6 in Right There. However, she has shown the ability to use head voice before, and her head voice has shown connection as high as B5. However, her head voice is unsupported and lacking in development, causing it to be a weak spot in her vocal range.
Agility: One of the weaker areas of Ariana’s voice. Although Ariana has the lightness and flexibility in her voice that does enable her to execute challenging runs, she’s shown that she has to use her jaw in order to execute runs, and they tend to be more slide-like and somewhat sloppy when she does execute complex vocal runs. However, she’s able to properly sing through slow to mid-tempo vocalizations consistently.
Musicianship/Musicality: One of the strongest parts of Ariana’s voice, Ariana has a good sense of musicianship that allows her to add flair into songs, by adding embellishments, such as airiness and vocal runs that although sometimes can be a bit off, she shows a good sense of thought whenever she plans out what she’s going to do when she covers a song, however these plans do tend to have her sing outside of her supported range often. However, Ariana has also shown a great amount of skill with harmonizing by herself, shown in the harmonies of One Last Time.
Overall: With one of the brightest and lightest voices in today’s music industry, Ariana’s voice is immediately identifiable, thanks to the nasal and airy character of her voice, as well as the light, girly tone present in her singing. If she were to pursue a career in classical singing, she would most likely be classified as a Light-Lyric Soprano, no doubt. Ariana has shown already that she’s willing to improve her singing, by being able to improve very much since 2013, and showing signs of wanting to continue her improvement, as she has a large amount of potential. Ariana should learn to eliminate the nasality present in her voice, as well as learning to not move her jaw while executing vocal runs and improving more on her upper register, as well as eliminating the larynx vibrato that she has been used to using in the 5th octave.
