This is making the rounds again so I just want to clarify my point.
1) First of all, I am an "actual" singer, despite what strangers who know literally nothing about me are saying on this post. I have over two decades of experience, started at four years old, and have been taught by a variety of mentors, including but not restricted to retired opera singers and world-recognised choral leaders.
I have performed primarily in choirs, but also in solo work, including on stage in professional settings that housed over 5,000 audience members. That was fun :)
I'll admit to being around many beautiful and enthusiastic amateur singers -- some of which I had the honour of mentoring myself. Though prev prev's example of the US National Anthem is fairly America centric and indeed doesn't apply to me.
2) Vocal ranges and voice parts (SATB or SMATBB if you want to get real specific) are absolutely used as crucial tools in the singing world?? Personal range and recognised voice parts/division do vary depending on who you are and who taught you and actually very rarely map one-to-one on each other. A singer can absolutely be trained/stretched to a certain extent but human limitation does exist. I'm not about to ask Tito Gobbi to sing The Queen of the Night Aria, because despite being one of the best opera singers in history, he is simply never going to reach that F6. That doesn't make him a bad or incompetent singer.
3) You'll notice I never actually mention EJAE?? Nor I fear did I disrespect her. To me, and to some others I've talked to, I find some of the high notes in Golden a little pitchy. That is actually my free opinion to hold as I may.
I talked about Rumi. The fictional character. I assumed it was a narrative choice. I do love singing, but my primary love has always been media analysis, and to me, given the symbolic and narrative purpose Golden holds (i.e. That it represents Huntrix chasing a goal -- the golden hunmoon -- that ultimately requires supression and distortion of Rumi's true self in order to achieve) that for the high note to be just on the edge of a true alto's range (again I want to reiterate that part division of the scale and personal range are two very different things) was a symbolic gesture written into the music. An easter egg if you will.
It's generally accepted that a written alto part shouldn't really go beyond D5 (using the New Harvard Dictionary of Music as a reference), to allow ease for singers and to ensure that your piece is sung well. Vocal division is primarily used as an organisational, logistical -- and in case of archiving, cataloguing -- tool. It is used to help singers find the right songs, roles, and parts to sing and perform, as well as help composers to write music that can be used universally, and historians and music academics a framework to work off of. There is no inherent moral value or skill judgement connected to it, even if singing culture can escalate to truly toxic levels, particularly for women, depending on whether you are seen as a soprano, an alto, somewhere in between, or indeed beyond (but that's another post entirely).
The first high point of Golden sung by Rumi -- "I'm done hiding, now I'm shining --" is E5, i.e. exactly one note higher than generally recommended range. (The highest part of Rumi's part is actually A6!)
This was just a fun little thought rumination I had about symbolically writing Rumi's journey of self acceptance into the music she's writing in universe.
What It Sounds Like, by contrast, is not only entirely lower register, the division of singing/lines is split more evenly across the three girls (symbolising Rumi's ability to let go of anxiety around needing to lead/being in charge/control) and actually closely mirrors the original Huntresses song from the opening, symbolising her reconnection to her heritage and the original mission/duty.
It is only when Rumi has started her healing journey (and sings lower) that they achieve the iridescent RAINBOW hunmoon, which is coded within the narrative -- though never explicitly stated -- to be an even higher, possibly more secure and sustainable state for the hunmoon to be in, and clearly very desirable and rewarded in narrative.
I understand that people have a lot of attachment to Golden, but in my personal opinion -- and considering my extensive experience in the both fields as a singer and performer, and as a media analyst with a particular focus on the interplay between fiction and reality -- it reads as a song that symbolises the idealistic but ultimately misguided goal typically found in the First Act of a story, only to be challenged, dismantled, and reconstructed to show growth, narrative escalation, and climax in the Third.
I don't think this is a particularly hot or novel take.
In the same way that I do not expect Emilia Clarke to actually be a Mother of Dragons, I don't hold or expect EJAE to be Rumi or share this fictional character's vocal range, or indeed anything else. She is an incredibly accomplished composer, singer, and actor, performing a role.
This was a speculative meta about narrative symbolism, not an indictment of EJAE's IRL capacity as a singer.
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