Billie Eilish: Voice Profile and Vocal Range (2021)

Vocal Range: D3 – E5 – A5 (2 octaves and a perfect fifth)^[1]https://therangeplanet.proboards.com/thread/357/billie-eilish

Vocal Fach: Light Lyric Soprano/Soubrette

Vocal Rating: Singer-Songwriter

Analysis: A soft, light, and airy voice that has become synonymous with an entire style of singing. As Eilish has risen to incredible career heights, she has likewise inspired many aspiring musicians and singers to mimic her artistry. She is well-known for her sensitive and emotive deliveries on songs like “When The Party’s Over,” she has also committed to colorful character deliveries like on her signature hit “Bad Guy.” While she has come under criticism for her “whispery” vocals, Eilish demonstrates considerable control of her instrument.

When Eilish sings low notes below G3 at a soft volume, she’ll drop her breath support to phonate, but when singing at a louder or medium volume, she can carry a fuller tone down to E3. This shows that while Eilish has the capability to sing with “better” technique, she may purposefully opt not to in order to further her emotional deliveries.

This raises the point that as Eilish often sings at very soft volumes, it has led some to take digs at her vocals for being simply “whispers,” with a converse preference for louder vocalists. Eilish proves, however, that singing softly can be every bit as valuable as singing loudly, as she demonstrates not only exceptional phrasing and musicianship in these passages but also great technical control to articulate words and phrases with the sound rarely cutting out. Even when exceptionally soft, she can relax her body enough to allow her natural, wispy vibrato to shine through.

Her head voice is perhaps the highlight of her voice, being incredibly bright, clear, and piercing, most notably on her early single “Ocean Eyes.” Her head voice is quite nimble and is where Eilish sounds most comfortable; in live performances, she will execute simple descending runs in this register with great accuracy. One potential criticism is that she will choose to sing long, flowing legato passages while eschewing staccato ones.

Overall, while her currently displayed vocal range is relatively small at just over two octaves, what she does within these two octaves is enough to create moving pieces of music. Additionally, she knows how to create suspense in her songs that makes her higher notes sound like they belong higher on the staff than they actually are. The way she’ll slowly ascend to a D5 or E5 shows that she knows how to make every note count.

What do you think of Billie Eilish’s voice? Would you add anything to our analysis? Let us know by commenting below!