Don’t call Susan Boyle ‘pitchy’!

Voice coaches, critics say ‘Talent’ contestant really is a talented singer

By Dan Richman

msnbc.com contributor

She's an Internet sensation, with nearly 70 million YouTube views of her TV debut. Susan Boyle, a frumpy, unemployed, self-confessedly virginal 47-year-old Scots singer, has been acclaimed as a singing wonder since her April 11 audition for the U.K. show “Britain's Got Talent.”

Boyle has a compelling story. Unmarried, living in a small village with her cat Pebbles, volunteering at her church and caring for her sick mother, she still dreamed a dream: singing before a large audience. She did, and the world was wowed.

But come on. Does she really have such a great voice, or is just the improbability of that sound coming from that person that's so captivating the public?

I asked a number of professional singers, critics, vocal coaches and singing teachers for their thoughts. The consensus: She really does have an exceptional voice.

“Her pitch was right on, her quality was clear and she had volume when she belted,” said Rachel York, a Los Angeles singer and actress who performed Boyle's audition piece — “I Dreamed a Dream,” from “Les Misérables” — when playing Fantine on Broadway in 1992.

Referring to another YouTube clip by Boyle, York added, “I was actually amazed listening to ‘Cry Me a River’ — she has a really nice sultry sound.”

Allen Henderson, director of the 6,700-member National Association of Teachers of Singing, ticked off some of the qualities used to judge a singing voice. They include vibrato vs. straight, in tune vs. out of tune, strong vs. weak, breathy vs. clear, warm vs. cool, free vs. forced, and stylistically correct for the genre vs. incorrect.

Based on those criteria, he termed Boyle's voice “good.”

He said, “As a professional, her performance didn't blow me away, but I thought it was very good. She handled the piece very well.” He declined to offer any pointers, saying he'd need to hear more material sung in lower-pressure situations before making a further assessment.

London vocal coach Tona de Brett, who said she has worked with singers including Dido, Linda McCartney and Johnny Rotten, was more enthusiastic.

“Her breathing sounds good, her tuning is perfect, and she puts in real emotion without being overdone, which is a tremendously good thing, because so often in the pop business, the emotions are superimposed,” de Brett said. “I must say, she's got a knockout gift, a real natural gift.”

Gene Stout, editor of a blog about popular music and until March the pop critic for the now-shuttered Seattle Post-Intelligencer, called Boyle's voice “stunning — assuming her performance wasn't technically enhanced, which I think it wasn't.”

New York-based vocal teacher and therapist Joan Lader, who has worked with Madonna and Patti LuPone (LuPone played Fantine on Broadway in 1987), described Boyle's voice as “very free, unaffected and pure, with lots of clarity and range. A piece like ‘I Dreamed A Dream’ climbs, and she hit the mark. People have very specific expectations when they hear that song. She met them.”

Boyle hasn't spoken much about what vocal training she's received, and her publicist didn't respond to inquiries on that topic. But her apparent lack of formal training is appealing to Eric Vetro, a Los Angeles vocal coach who said he's worked with Meatloaf, Bette Midler and The Goo Goo Dolls.

“What surprised me most was her naturalness. It wasn't that overly manufactured Broadway sound,” Vetro said. “It was a Broadway sound but with a natural feeling to it and a beautiful tone.”

OK, so Boyle has a good voice. Maybe even a great voice.

But then there's her age and appearance. She's a long way from being a young, toned, skimpily clad pop star. Hell, even opera divas are shedding their Viking helmets and looking foxy these days.

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