[MY VOCAL ANALYSIS] — The Korean Beyoncé, Ailee

Amy Lee, better known as Ailee, debuted in 2012 with her single “Heaven” which instantly found success and catched the k-pop’s community attention because of her strong vocals, vocals that led her to become one of the most prestigious vocalists in the korean music industry. Although starting as a YouTube singer, Ailee gained the recognition from her friends when they commended her vocal skills, and later she was praised by many artists such as Big Mama King, again due to her voice.



VOCAL RANGE: D3 — G6 (3 Octaves and 3 notes)

Ailee is usually what people calls a “powerhouse” singer, due to her strong and agressive timbre. Over the few years she has been an idol, Ailee has shown a dramatic improvement accompanied by an overwhelmingly good technique (for pop standards), fixing her minor issues as the time passes, and also expanding her supported range.

Her flawless control of her pitch or intonation, her good development of all the three registers (see below), her consistency with resonance, placement and agility, among other things, allow her to take the crown as the Best Female Vocalist of K-POP.

Vocal positives: Ailee does considerably good in every register of her voice, and shows a good support and placement in most part of her range. Her agility has become great due to a proper connection and transition in between her registers. Intonation is barely ever lost, even when dancing the singer has proven to be quite efficient in this field. As a smart musician, she tends to not go outside her supported zone, which represents more than a half of her actual range. Although I tend to ignore musicality, it is important to point out that the singer has a good sense of musicality, being able to modify a song’s tempo or structure in order to fit her vocals or showcase her abilities in a better way (see her cover of Taeyeon’s part in Shake That Brass). Her legato is on point.

Vocal negatives: Her lower register can produce disconnected and non audible notes around G3, F#3 and below. She lacks a true control of her voice in the sixth octave (C6 – F6). Her vocal runs might become less accurate when dancing.

• LOWER REGISTER
  Although this can be considered her weakest zone, it is not a weak register. Ailee has issues with projection and placement in lower notes (generally below G3) as shown in her performance of Halo (2011), where she demonstrated she is more of a belter oriented singer than a lower-mid one. However, through the years she has shown occassional improvement in this zone, although the gap in between this register’s development and the other registers’ is getting wider, due to a preference of the singer to stay in a higher part of her voice. Her connection has getting better below the G3 zone, but projection is still lacking.
  
  Ailee performing If I Ain’t Got You, showing a slight improvement since her pre-debut years in her lower zone.
  
• MIXED REGISTER
  Probably the best known register by fans and non-fans of the singer, Ailee’s mixed register is her most developed one and, arguably, the best mixed register of a female in K-POP. As a belter kind of singer, Ailee portrays strong belts with a proper resonance until E5 and support is always present until E5 and F5. The singer never becomes nasal in this register, and although her placement is correct, notes can sound yelled at times due to a preference of the singer to sound “louder” at times (see Love On Top). Agility becomes almost flawless when performed in this register (see Hey, Hui).
  
  Ailee performing I Have Nothing, showing a proper projection in her mixed register.
  
• HIGHER REGISTER
  Ailee’s higher register shows a proper development until B5. Although this register presents very little flaws, Agility here is still an issue for the singer, as she is lacking controlling her runs when she is not in a good condition (see again the Bb5s of Love On Top). The production of Ailee’s head voice is always present with a proper placement and resonance is achieved more than 90% of the time within her supported range (that expands up to B5), however, above this her head voice becomes tense and flat.
  
  Ailee showing a lacking ability in Love On Top while producing a head voice. Support is present .
  

Ailee is a vocalist to take in consideration when talking about a good voice with a proper vocal technique, and although she might still present many flaws in order to become an excellent vocalist, her progression is shown each time she performs, being able to sing and dance at the same time without losing a lot of her singing skills, a feature that has led her to be named as the Korean Beyoncé among the K-POP community. Ailee is nowdays one of K-POP’s best vocalists and the best female vocalist of the genre.

Recommended performance(s): “Hey, Hui”, “Everyone”, “I Will Always Love You”, “Ambiguous”.




My vocal analysis series:
1.Tiffany, the Christina Aguilera of KPOP
2. Minzy, an emerging voice
3. Ryeowook, the main vocalist
4. SISTAR’s Hyorin
5. Park Bom, a quirky talent
6. SUPER JUNIOR VOCAL RANKING
7. JUNSU, an appealing voice
8. BIGBANG’s Daesung
9. RED VELVET’s Wendy, the next Ariana Grande of K-POP?
10. SeoHyun, the harmonizing voice of Girls’ Generation
11. KyuHyun
12. Super Junior’s Donghae
13. Kim TaeYeon from Girls' Generation
14. Taeyang from BIG BANG
15. 2NE1’s VOCAL RANKING
16. Jessica, ex-member of Girls’ Generation
17. CL, The Baddest Female
18. Sunny, no longer a hidden gem
19. Girls’ Generation: Vocal progress and vocal ranking
20. Sandara Park
21. Jonghyun from SHINee
22. 2NE1 Vocal Ranking, vocal progress and information
23. Yesung, the darkest tenor
24. SeungRi “V.I” from BIG BANG
25. Super Junior K.R.Y “The Strongest Vocal Line of K-POP”
26. The Korean Beyoncé, Ailee

If you are interested in looking at any of these analysis, just type "My Vocal Analysis" in the allkpop browser Search allkpop.