Big Lungs

This past Sunday in church the young girl’s choir sang.  I enjoy listening to little kids sing, even more so watching them sing. They’re often distracted, looking to spot their parents in the pews, or looking up at the lights, etc. But one thing that characterizes most very young girls and even teenage girls is typically a weak or thin voice, probable due to a combination of lack of professional training and nervousness.  I’m not being critical; heaven knows, I’m not the one to sing in front of a group.  I can’t even sing in the shower.

But it reminded me of how much we gravitate to female singers with big voices (“big lungs” as I like to say). In another era it was Bessie Smith and Ethel Merman; then Bette Miller, Linda Ronstadt, and Dolly Parton’s turn, followed by Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston and now the reigning queen of the lungs, Adele. Each one could belt out the volume, and that's part of their formula for popularity and commercial success. Not a wimpy voice among them.