Singing Advice Quotes

I said to Mr. Pavarotti once ... a marvelous man and a great artist ... I said to him ... "Maestro, I'm having trouble closing out a note so that it's almost as thin as a butter knife ... finish it out quietly like that." I said, "I have trouble doing that. What do you think I should do?" He said, "Justa close up your mouth." That's all he said, and I fell on the floor. I thought he was gonna give me a dissertation.

Speak from the balls, not from the diaphram.

I knew Sinatra for 38 years. He was like my father. Frank Sinatra was my 'dad.' He treated me like his son. He gave me the best advice about singing, about this and that... He was a very sensitive man, very astute, one of the sharpest men that I ever met in my life.

My advice to singers is always the same: 'Don't sing the song, sing the lyric.'

Boy George always told me to stop noodling; he wanted me to belt like Ethel Merman.

Lots of young singers come to me and ask, 'May I sing to you?' I say, 'Yes, you can sing to me as long as you don't mind what I tell you, because I'm not going to flatter you. I'm going to tell you what I think.' Oh, yes, they're quite happy about that, until they hear it.

I have such happy memories of performing in a choir and I don't think I'd have got where I am today without all that experience. So my advice to young singers is to either join your school or church's choir or find one in your local area. Choral music at any level teaches you so much about musicianship and blending your voice.

I had been taking various lessons. I've also had a lot of incredible singers give me a ton of great advice. From Cyndi Lauper, who kind of taught me the basics, and I've also worked with Bird. She's a tremendous coach and she often coaches the contestants on 'American Idol.' I've had a great amount of support.

The easiest way to avoid wrong notes is to never open your mouth and sing. What a mistake that would be.