Beautiful singing voices
 

I'm looking for examples of exceptionally beautiful singing voices.

I'm not exactly sure of the criteria, since I'm clueless with music lingo/terminology. I guess it's like judging a good talking voice. I value clarity, enunciation, emotion, being equally good with high and low ends of the scale, can use long notes and use slow and fast tempo effectively and adaptively (within the same song). Add some depth and resonance, put that all into a song with good instrumentals and/or backup vocals and I suppose that qualifies that as a beautiful singing voice.

I figure it's best if I just give actual examples:








Others to consider, which are probably not ideal, but close and very pleasing:



Hitomi Shimatani - "Destiny ~Taiyou no Hana~"

Lia - "Tori no Uta"

High & Mighty Color - "Enrai Tooku ni Aru Agari", "Pride"

supercell - "Kimi no Shira nai Monogatari"

On; Off - "Futatsu no Kodou to Akai Tsumi" (despite sounding kind of gay, it fits the qualifications decently, except that they have a tongue being sucked back kind of sound throughout)

For some reason, no clue why, I like Tommy Heavenly6's vocals. I just rock my head to it, despite having a clear punk "tint" (what's the right word for this, accent?) in her voice.



For non-Japanese, English, examples (I'm sure there's better, but here's what I have experienced to go by and what my ears like):





Evanescence

Breaking Benjamin

Sevendust



I'm looking to expand my "favorites".



I also value good instrumentals with a preference to Rock/Metal/Symphonic/Neo-whatever sounds over Pop/R&B/Classical. Electric guitar, bass, drums, violins, piano, and I like industrial (NIN, Stabbing Westward), and specific symphonic sound (Vitalij Kuprij - Symphonic Force), but that's another thread (I'm a pretty big Kenji Kawai fan and like Yoko Kanno as well).

After reading the thread title, KOKIA sprang to mind instantaneously.



She's done the OP/ED tracks of two series from my Top 5 anime. Awesome.

I'm a big fan of beautiful voices, two songs that came up after reading this thread are my favorites, might post some more later:

"Theru no Uta (Theru's Song)" by Aoi Teshima
from the movie Gedo Senki (Tales from Earthsea)
2006

"Nothing Compares 2 U" by Sinéad O'Connor
from the album I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got
1990

Even after a couple of years, I still find Loop by Sakamoto Maaya to have the nicest vocals of any anime song I've heard. Youtube really does not do this song justice. I have to admit, I'm really impressed by her use of vibrato.



Also, I have to mention Naomile/Little Whisper, just because her voice has that strange effect to it. It really grew on me.

I'd nominate "Calling," the ED for Baccano! sung by Oda Kaori.



I guess I have a thing for airy Japanese voices because two of my other favorites include the opening ("Prism") and closing ("Sora no Kakera") from Dennou Coil, both sung by Ikeda Ayako.

3:32

@Sejisensei
Ha, I like 'Prism' also quite a bit, it's a good song.
@JRendell
I immediately thought of Kokia too, liked her 'Red Garden' songs.

Then there is also Kanon, with the ED of 'Guin Saga' e.g.

Not to forget Ayaka Hirahara

Mika Arisaka did a good job on her Twelwe Kingdoms songs too,

as did Houko Kuwashima.


These are the ones I remember atm. :)
EDIT: Forgot this one, sung in English.


EDIT2 (since we are not restricted to anime-related music): I absolutely adore her voice.

I agree :D My mom listens to this song :love:

The Kokia examples impress me the most so far. I dare to say that is exactly what I'm looking for and I would be flabbergasted if anyone posted anything that impressed me more.

Ikeda Ayako also impressed me, especially with Prism. A very good example.

Kanon... while I want to like her, it seems I might have a bias for bright, forward, and "high energy" voices. A good example though.

I notice something in her voice too. It's very catchy. I think it's the same feeling I get when I listen to Tommy Heavenly6. The song overall isn't very good, but it seems special due to that unique things she does with her singing. I like her voice, but the song just "isn't me" and I'd be embarrassed to be jamming to it. It's like listening to Disney Movie songs, very beautifully done, but...

Thanks for all the other suggestions. I just wanted to comment on which ones I liked most out of all the ones here (according to my personal taste).


I seemingly like Japanese singers better than English speaking ones. Typical divas popular in the US nowadays seem to be missing something that doesn't really hit me inside (ex. Beyonce, Mariah Carey, etc.) Some famous ones like Selena, Alicia Keys etc. seem to be a bit overrated to me and don't even seem to be in the same league. Music is dying in the US seemingly; I'm still listening to the stuff back from the 90s and early in this millennium.

Here's one I overlooked. I had forgotten her name, but remembered there was a movie and that Kevin Costner was in it, The Bodyguard:

Whitney Houston - "I Will Always Love You"



Those who like Kokia, please post more of what you think is in the same league or better please. :)

Here's a few very beautiful voices. Here is Delta Goodrem:



And then Nami Miyahara

Does it have to be anime-related?

If not, as a long time listener to J-pop songs, I can name a few from the top of my head (at work at the moment , no browsing powers for media):

Beni Arashiro
Thelma Aoyama
Olivia Lufkin (I like her song 'Dream Catcher' the most)
Miliyah Kato (I like her song 'Last Love' the most)
Rie Tanaka (Fields of Hope from gundam - she has good vocals here)
I'm a fan of Utada Hikaru as well. She has her own style.

Like the above poster said, Kokia has really good songs if you really want a wide variety of vocals.
Here are some of her songs that I like :

Il Mare dei suoni
Anshin no Naka
Mou Ai Senai
Daiji na mono wa mabuta no ura
Ai No Melody (very popular due to it being an anime movie's song)

I'll leave it at those just to name a few. Let me know if you like any of them ;)

If you noticed, I gave you all female singers lol.

If you're interested in the RnB side of things as well, let me know :)

I hope you like this distinct type of a singing technique, I do... :)
A male singer in this one!

2 songs by Chitose Hajime


This one just to scare you... lol (it's used in Samurai Champloo)

Seriously, I like this song very much.

KOKIA and Maaya Sakamoto are among my favourite singers with beautiful voices. And we must not leave out Hitomi Kuroishi too, who performed several songs for Code Geass. Her voice always has a calming and soothing effect.


Maaya Sakamoto has a very wide vocal range. I'm always impressed by how she can sing well in both high-pitched and low-pitched voices.

Oh I forgot one of my favorites, Kana Nishino!
Some of her good ones I can name:
Kimi no Koe Wo
Best Friend
Dear...


She has awesome vocals.

Fukuyama Masaharu's selling point is his deep, resonant voice. I had trouble choosing a song, but I think this one, Phantom, is one of his bests.

Shibakun, I really like your taste. Everything you suggested was impressive. I like the ones at the top of your first list best. I wish I could give you +rep for both of your posts. I want to listen to all of them; I'm considering a new favorite coming from that list and a few songs to that would fit between that and my prior favorite.



Delta Goodrem's performance in that video starting at :45 is simply amazing. I love how she hits some of the higher notes.

Fukuyama Masaharu's performance was very good, it grabbed me for the first 3 minutes, but then sort of lost me and got me back around 3:45 and lost me again. He hits some of those notes extremely well, but doesn't show that quality across the scale.

Maaya Sakamoto is good too. Not much remarkable to say about her; I've heard many of her songs before (not all of them, she has a huge discography of over unique 100 songs) and I think they're not quite in the same league as some of the others here. Above average I admit. From all the songs I've heard, I think her performance in Unison brings out the best in her voice.



Awesome thread so far. Passing out a lot of rep for awesome examples. Keep them coming.

Glad you like the ones I mentioned :)

Here are few of Beni Arashiro's live performances & vids:

"Beautiful World"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVkNp...eature=related

"Nice and Slow"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgKVz...eature=related

^Yes, she is gorgeous as well! lol

"Zutto Futari De" - Here is one of her most popular songs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60JXc...eature=related

"Mou Ni Do To: - Most popular song she's known for
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PF0WQ...eature=related

Some of her English songs ----

"Time After Time" - Too bad we only get a minute :(
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yztz_adEgM

"Sakurazaka"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjT2o...eature=related

There is a Japanese version of Sakurazaka sung by Fukuyama Masaharu if you're interested and want to compare it to her version.

Oh I forgot one more epic song from Kokia. Look for her song called "Arigatou". Studio or live version, it doesn't matter just look for it lol.

edit: here I found a link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5etmWdtgQk

God, the vocals she uses on the bridge are AMAZING.

Best 'Thank You' song in my library :)

edit: found another live performance. It's 'I Believe' , another one of my faves from her:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQ1Ed...eature=related

^ The beauty of this song will make you believe you can do anything in life! lol

Yes, I am a guy, but there is no denial in the beauty of Roy Khan's voice.


Sharon Den Adel is also worth mentioning: