ten that will defeat almost anybody, and the reasons are not the ones people expect — the whistle notes are the least of it.
the short answer
the hardest are imagine and my hair, both of which end in the whistle register, and dangerous woman, which requires a sustained belt most singers cannot support. but the genuinely difficult ones are the quiet late songs, for the opposite reason.
the four categories of difficulty
- range. the song goes somewhere you cannot follow. imagine and my hair are the clear cases.
- power. the song lives in a belt that has to be supported for a long time. dangerous woman, one last time and no tears left to cry are all in this group.
- stamina. the song does not stop. into you and side to side give you nowhere to breathe.
- exposure. the song has nothing behind it, so every flaw is audible. pov and tattooed heart are the hardest songs on this page and neither goes anywhere near a high note.
the ten
| song | what makes it hard |
|---|---|
| imagine | whistle register at the close, after a full song |
| my hair | the same, with less warm-up before it |
| dangerous woman | a sustained belt with almost no rhythmic support underneath |
| one last time | a chorus that repeats at full power four times |
| no tears left to cry | a tempo and key change in the first twenty seconds |
| into you | no breathing space anywhere in the arrangement |
| pov | nothing to hide behind, at low volume, for four minutes |
| get well soon | five and a half minutes, and the subject matter |
| thank u, next | conversational phrasing that is much harder to place than it sounds |
| defying gravity | not hers, and not a pop song — sung live on a film set |
the two that are hard for the wrong reasons
the one that is not really hers
defying gravity is at the bottom of the list for a reason: glinda's part is not the famous one, it sits high and tight in head voice throughout, and it has to stay audible against elphaba getting progressively louder. it is written by a theatre composer for a theatre singer, and it is a different discipline from everything above it.
if you want somewhere to actually start, the easy list is the other half of this page.
questions people ask
what is the hardest ariana grande song to sing?
imagine, which closes in the whistle register after a full song. my hair is the same problem with less warm-up before it.
why is dangerous woman hard?
it requires a sustained belt with almost no rhythmic support underneath it, which most singers cannot hold.
is pov hard to sing?
yes, for the opposite reason to the others. it is quiet and unadorned for four minutes, so there is nothing to hide behind.
how hard is defying gravity?
glinda's part sits high and tight in head voice and must stay audible against an increasingly loud elphaba. it is theatre writing, not pop writing.
which songs need a whistle note?
imagine and my hair are the clearest. the register also appears briefly and buried in no tears left to cry.