Jun 21

Vitas meant to be heard, not sung

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20070620171911 IT’S Friday night and a famous pop star is singing on stage at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People. The performance is so inviting that fans are waving their hands and shouting. They’ve heard his songs hundreds of times.

But nobody’s singing along. No wonder: his voice is going far beyond the range of a normal person.

He’s Vitas, who has entered the Guiness Book of World Records because he has a vocal range that spans five octaves.

“This is the only pop concert I’ve attended where fans don’t sing along. It’s just for the ears. Vitas takes our ears on a roller coaster trip for an entire two hours,” said Fabien Blanc, 23, an international student in Beijing.

The performer’s unusually high register has long caused some people to think that his recordings have been altered and that his live performances are lip-synched.

“I’m convinced of his talent,” said Blanc. He said Vitas makes it pretty obvious that he is not lip-syncing by moving the microphone away and towards his mouth as he sings.
Vitas was born on February 19, 1981 in Latvia. He composed his first song at age six and had completed almost 1,000 by the time he was 12. In 2000, at the age of 19, he became the youngest person to give a concert at the Kremlin, in Moscow. In fact he destroyed a bulb on a chandelier when he hit a high note, according to one report.
But what attracts listeners to Vitas is the mystery surrounding him. Vitas seldom talks about his personal life. No one knows his real name or where he lives.

According to his agent, Sergey Pudovkin, he spends his days in a basement and comes up to compose after dusk. He is a composer, singer and fashion designer. He’s designed several of his own performance outfits.

“He’s put all his heart, passion and ideas into singing, which is the most effective way of expression,” Pudovkin said, explaining Vitas’ silence. “No one can truly understands his secretive inner world: he enjoys being alone.”

Pudovkin dismissed the rumors about Vitas’ talent. One suggested that a female singer was providing the voice for his live shows. The agent described Vitas as being “gifted” with a unique voice. “Honestly, he doesn’t need a microphone to sing.”

Vitas does spend about six hours a day working on his voice. He also gargles with a special medicine.

“At age seven, I wrote the song Opera 2 with high notes to symbolize my deep loneliness at heart. It was during the dark night when I sang it,” Vitas has remarked. “All my neighbors were awakened and came onto the street. They wondered if a fire had started.
“I composed my songs when the night had nearly ended and the dawn was coming. When I perform, I’m in an isolated, lonely and highly-concentrating state, so I can get in touch with every listener and communicate my energy.”

Vitas said he draws inspiration for his songs from his deceased mother, who was the most important person in his life. He almost had a breakdown after her death and went to Tibet to recover for a while. “If I could, I wish I could be by her side like in my childhood. But that will never happen.”

His China tour continues on to Shanghai, Chongqing, Chengdu, Guangzhou, and Taipei.
He does as well as dolphins

VITAS is one of the few male singers to regularly use the whistle register — the highest register of the human voice. The vocal sound was named such because it resembles the intensity and pitch of a whistle. Chinese audiences became acquainted with it when Super Girl Zhang Liangying used it while singing Lovin’ You in 2005. Chinese musicians refer to the whistle register as the “dolphin vocal sound” (haitun yin), because it sounds like the high pitch of the sea animal. In Western pop music, the whistle register is mostly used by females, such as Mariah Carey. Her teacher Minnie Riperton (1947 – 1979), an American soul singer, was noted for her ability to hit the whistle register in her 1975 single Lovin’ You.

How high is really high?

This is the highest note Taiwan singer Shin hits in Love Beyond Death. It’s a challenge many people like to try in Karaoke pubs.

This is the highest point in Vitas’ Opera 2, which is most popular among Chinese. He is said to be able to reach the second key from the right.

Australia’s Adam Lopez is currently a Guinness World Record holder for highest male vocal. Piano can’t keep up.

Brazilian pop singer Georgia Brown is the Guinness holder for the highest vocal note of women and the largest vocal range, which spans exactly 8 octaves.

This is about where Zhang Liangying surprised Chinese audiences in Lovin’ You. She got the name “Dolphin princess” after that.

This is the vocal range of a normal person like most of you.

This Article is from: Adventures of stevenlichen[http://stevenlichen.com]

URL: http://stevenlichen.com/2007/06/21/vitas-meant-to-be-heard-not-sung/

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