4th Gen Female Top Vocalists!

I'm back with more spice:

If anyone has a vocalist they want to shout out, let me know!

Tier:

AA -- Above Average

A -- Average

W-A -- Weak to Average

AA: Pink Fantasy's Yechan.

My thoughts: Pink Fantasy is a nugu group which has a good vocal foundation surprisingly. I like that this group has some older members, with Yechan being a 1995 liner. She's had vocal training for a very long time and it's shown in Awesome Babies or whatever group she was in before. I think she's been straining a lot recently, she's regressed from her past and she's been showing signs of exhaustion, G#3~B4/C5~E5 is probably her range as discussed, and while her nasality has increased, she's easily still the best 4th gen kpop vocalist, when she redebuted in 2018. She's a mid AA, and if she works on developing her issues, she can improve. She has nodules and sings with hoarseness at times. She does have a well developed lower better than Monday and Ningning both.

Cusp of AA and A: Weekly's Monday **

My thoughts: Weekly is a group with a big imbalance in vocal levels, and Monday stood out for her technique. There's a lot of debate between Monday and Ningning and who's better but I feel like it's a long time from now until we'd truly know as we need more vocal content from Ningning. Monday has a good mix, especially as shown in her covers. Her mix has a habit to go nasal and there are some phrased C5s that carried support but there were some others that were nasal or tight in her KOMS performances and songs. Her mix is probably from around F4 to G#4, however she can be inconsistent and have small issues. She reminds me of Yuju when she tries to keep the bright sound. She has a good head voice and good lows. She is quite good as a standout vocalist however she may need to work on her harmonies, as she loses her good breath support there.

Cusp of AA and A: Aespa's Ningning**

My thoughts: When Aespa debuted, I suspected all 4 could support, and I was correct with Ningning standing out as the best vocalist in the group by far. She's been compared to Bada for her tone, and I do see the similarities, especially with nasality. Ningning has better agility than Bada, and a willingness to control her runs. Ningning has shown good support with C5s, and if she shows a connected head voice, it would put her on AA for sure, as she has shown signs of having a strong head voice in her Lena Park cover. Ningning's support and development in B4~C#5 is much more than an "average" vocalist however she has only sang with a light approach so I can't judge her mix as well, she has the potential to be stronger. She needs to work on her nasality and breathiness at times, along with her connection in her head voice. Good lows as well.

A:

Now this one I will break up into like several categories:

A: IZ*One's Yuri

A vocalist who surprised me once she debuted, Yuri is the only strong vocalist in IZ*One and has shown a lot more than she has been given credit for. Yuri has a clean mix with good support upto the B4 but she has a habit of pushing her B4s and above. She has a habit of singing outside of her supported range, not a very smart vocalist. She gets underestimated because she has always sung with a lighter approach tbh. She also has a habit of lowering her larynx as she gets lower which isn't a great habit to have. Only supports down to Bb3. Struggles with inconsistency at times. (Any IZONE fans who know more can tell me about her approach recently????)

A: Purple Kiss's Goeun

Goeun is the strongest vocalist in Purple Kiss by far, and since her PD48 days, has been showcasing her sense of support. While Purple Kiss is a newer group, they have a lot of content I have been watching for their vocals. She has support until B4/Bb4 according to her covers. She has a habit of dropping support at A3, which is great for a soprano. She does have the trademarks of a traditional "average" vocalist and I like her consistency across her covers.

A: Nature's Sohee

I haven't heard enough of her yet unfortunately, but she also reminds me of Yuri in the sense she has support up to B4 and she actually seems to have less pushing tendencies than Yuri. A REALLY good average. I haven't heard many talk about her.

A: Fromis_9's Jiwon

Someone asked me about Jiwon and I spent 2 hours tracking down material for her since idol school. Whoever told me about her was correct, as that she has regressed but still deserves a top spot here. Fromis is one of the better vocal groups these days and Jiwon is easily the best in her group. Her lower support is very good with some F#3s

A: BVNDIT's Jungwoo

BVNDIT is the 4th best vocal group so far besides duos like Lunarsolar, with an average main vocalist in Jungwoo. It's Jungwoo > Simyeong > rest. Simyeong is super inconsistent though. Songhee has potential. Her pitch could be better at times as her technique doesn't really allow for her higher notes to be that good. She does have an average understanding of support. She has great A4s and ok transitions. She supports up to B4, but again not a great sense of pitch, similar to a weaker TWICE's Jihyo.

A: CRAXY's Swan

Very impressed with her as well in CRAXY. She has great support through Bb4 but can get tense and pushy with her notes like C#5 which are unsupported. Again with the 3rd gen comparisons, she reminds me of Seunghee, with a good grounded approach however the way she is singing is often hard for her and around the end she does tend to fall a bit flat and unsupported. She needs to work on being clean and relaxed. She's had some rare nice C#5 moments.

A: PRISTIN's Sungyeon

Are they considered 4th gen? Anyways Sungyeon was a great vocalist, her note seperation was great, her tone + support were good, however she had a habit of shouting out high notes like TWICE's Jihyo and Loona's Chuu. She had a consistent sense of support and so much potential. I literally cried for Sungyeon once they disbanded. I was hoping she'd improve like her labelmate Raina.

Mid A: Dreamcatcher's Yoohyeon (yeah this has been discussed before in other places so I'm not spending too much time)

Lower A: Cherry Bullet's Haeyoon

A famous singer since PD48, I underestimated her in PD48 because she sang in her higher range a lot which is not great. All her high notes were pretty strained with a few nasality issues. She has tongue tension. I think Haeyoon supports okay making her average however there is some debate here about how supported it is. A very pretty tone but also quite airy at times, especially with the falsetto. She improved a bit from PD48.

Low A: Lightsum's Nayoung

I've been very impressed with her in her Lightsum debut video, she showed that she had a grasp of support which was very different from her PD48 days where I was convinced she was a weak vocalist. Granted it's light, but it's there with the proper phrasing to show it. It's great as gidle didn't use vocal trainers, clc didn't have great standout vocalists (still love them) and she's improved well. I want to hear more singing as now she's kinda in the lower place of average and some consider her a strong weak-to-average

Strong W-A: Secret Number's Denise

Denise has so much potential but she is very inconsistent. When she was predebut she had such a nice G#4 that showed she has a very nice lower range which is quite good, especially in these days. She doesn't support that well, Her Bb4s/B4s aren't that bad, so I do hope she can go up. There's an unfocused quality where she's struggling to round out her notes properly for support and that gets in her way. G3ish-A4/Bb4. She doesn't engage her breath support properly so that's a big thing to work on. She's not shallow unlike others here so I really think her problem is her breath.

W-A: GWSN's Seoryoung/Lena

The best vocalist in GWSN is Seoryoung, who doesn't really get supported because of her visuals but she is a nice weak-to-average vocalist. She's struggling with her pitch and placement, but she does have some support until B4, and she has potential with her skills. GWSN's Lena is also a ok vocalist with a nice sense of support but she needs to work on her confidence.

Any others added?

POTENTIAL STRONG VOCALISTS:

Heo Yunjin!

The second best vocalist in PD48, although she wasn't amazing, she had a better grasp of support on Bb4s and was the strongest on B4s, however was quite pushy above and could not sustain C5s and C#5s. I think there was another vocalist better who got eliminated at first round. Also debuting in HYBE continuing the tradition of nice main vocals.

Quote from JaSida

If IU isn't on the list, then this is all a lie.

Is IU 4th gen though? She's A though

Quote from Kairina

Who do u think is the best vocalist during pd48 btw

Hong Yeji, but not much of a difference and she's now an actress.

Quote from Anpanromane

Interesting post!

I don't watch most of the others but as a fan of Weeekly and Purple Kiss, Monday and Goeun definitely are strong. What do you think of Purple Kiss' Chaein? Maybe not rank her but just your opinion. I don't know for the rest but from their vocal covers, I think she has strong vocal projection and stability.

Note: Can you put spaces between the different paragraphs because what you says is definitely interesting but it looks nearly unreadable as one!

I did not realize it looked so bad...thanks for the spacing tip.

Chaein honestly comes off as quite underdeveloped, she's putting power but it's falling flat at times because she doesn't know how to support her breath. She's shallow at times but in like their Disney Song Medley she didn't even have that. Her and Jieun have the best potential aside from the main vocalists. Jieun has surprisingly randomly supported a couple times but again not consistent.

Again I was happy with Monday because PlayM don't really have great vocal trainers, and Eunji HERSELF was a vocal trainer before she debuted with Apink, which was quite shocking and showed in the big disparity in vocals. I was happy with her skills because it means the vocals are better than I thought. Soeun too has quite some potential.

Quote from ryu-yamaguchi

Do you think there’s a huge gap between goeun and swan(purple kiss)? Honestly I prefer swan more than goeun. And what about bora? I think people hype her vocal more than haeyoon

Goeun and Swan? Yes. I'm a Swan bias but I'm going to unabashedly admit I liked her a ton in Purple Kiss because her tone is very young Bom. She's had some moments of support but she's very stylistic, her tongue tension is causing problems with her and support, her pronunciation isn't helping her. Besides Goeun who is pretty nice, all of Purple Kiss has problems with their lower registers, which are quite underdeveloped, so I am assuming this is the vocal coaches. To get support she needs to open up that mouth and fix the tongue so she's a stronger W-A but behind like Denise. The thing is that Swan has a very good sense of musicality so I think she's being encouraged to not learn proper habits in order to sound good. That's why you (and I) prefer her haha!

Ah Bora. She's a big question mark of mine. In early Cherry Bullet it was easily Haeyoon > Bora >>> Mirae/Ella. The gap between Haeyoon and Bora isn't big but that's not really a good thing. Bora is also stylistic however she seems to have a better sense of pitch and sound better, but she's even worse with support than Haeyoon (granted she takes a soft approach) so I have been keeping an eye out for her in Gp999 but the show is so heavily post-edited it's harder for me to see if she's improved. The gap isn't big.

Before any GP99 people come and ask, the best vocalists on the show are Chaehyun and the Chinese contestents Wang Yale and Roada Xu Ziyin but Xu Ziyin is quite messy but has the high notes thing so she's probably a strong weak-to-average (granted opera doesn't lend well to classical technique), Yale a bit stronger but she has worse issues with pronounciation-- Chaehyun is a surprise. I thought she couldn't support well but she's had some okay B4s, and I think she could be a low average for now. If she has this new performance down, she's a higher A. She does struggle with pitch. None of the Japanese contestants support strongly as the norm with Japanese idols.

Quote from 3best

I guess you meant Hong? The Hwang Yeji is in Itzy, lol.

I was just about to ask, lol, ty.

AH YES OOPS

Quote from ryu-yamaguchi

That’s a surprise. I always thought jiyoon is the best in gp999

That is a big assumption! The thing is that Jiyoon has VERY strong stage presence compared to the other main vocals (except Yeyoung but she got dirty by the people who dressed her like a backup dancer in Popstars) however if you look at her technique she is very choppy (she has a habit of cutting a syllable before she ends it which means she has no support or very little. That's a big problem especially with belting songs as she's trying to inflate her voice to make it sound big, not the correct technique. Hyelim has the cutting problem too. If Chaehyun shows more and debuts I'll put her on my top 4th gen vocalists list.

Quote from kirishiki

Dreamcatcher is 4th gen I am always confused are they 3rd or 4th gen lol

meh they're probably 3rd now that I think about it.

Quote from 3best

I guess you meant Hong? The Hwang Yeji is in Itzy, lol.

I was just about to ask, lol, ty. What about Jiyoon?

Just replied to someone about Jiyoon.

Quote from ryu-yamaguchi

That’s a surprise. I always thought jiyoon is the best in gp999

Oh also I wanted to add Chaehyun suffers from the fact that she doesn't have a super strong high range so hitting high notes with the correct technique may be harder but she is a better vocalist than say Bora, like the IOI situation. The final lineup will probably have her + another main vocalist that can hit high notes.

Quote from 3best

Yeah, just saw it, thanks. I guess I also got carried away by her stage presence and overrated her a bit, but still a bit surprising that you did not place Bora in the top 3 ngl - but I saw your points. Btw, you said that Ziyin is a strong W-A and Chaehyun is a low A for now, where would you place Yale then - low A or strong W-A? Ziyin seems to have the same problems as on YWY2 (in the un-edited versions) - breathing and instability, that's why I rated her around top 4-5 on the YWY despite everyone saying that she is the best\second best.

Where would you place Yaning among the GP999 trainees btw? Granted she did not really sing much on the show - a bit on The Eve and now a bit more on MITM.

Besides Chaehyun Yale and Ziyin everyone else on the show is a W-A or W so Bora is technically in the top 5. Her and Choi Yeyoung --> Jiyoon/Hyelim --> others. It's basically splitting matches.

Okay so Chaehyun is easily the strongest with classical technique, her videos and Black Mamba performance shows she has some problems with pitch and pushing but she can hit B4s/Bb4s which would make her an average (if you scroll up) on the likes of Jungwoo or stronger as she has the "SM" clean approach.

The thing about the Chinese contestents is that classical technique does them kinda dirty, especially Yale and Ziyin. Yale is using a very operatic head voice which is not a thing really seen in classical vocal rankings like this, but she's been very trained as that's almost impossible to maintain by itself. She has less consistency issues than Xu Ziyin so I'd put her at an average over like Park Haeyoon. Her pronounciation isn't as good so I am expecting she'll somehow get eliminated as Korean is pretty important.

Now Xu Ziyin: I've said this before but the best vocalists were Xu Xinwen and Juicy Zhou in YWY, and the thing with her as she's very inconsistent. She's had some quite average moments where she'd be a low average and some very W-A moments. She pushes at B4, which is not great, and her head voice is not developed at all. Her tone is "magical" and that's her nasality coming out. She can hit high notes but she strains easily. I see breathiness with the opera influences. She's stronger than Bora as she's had better A4s and some great B4s but not by much.

Yaning? She can sing, and she's a very strong allrounder, easily the best in C group in terms of allroundness. She's never had vocal training though, she's softer with no support like Jiyoon and tends to mimic the cover of whoever she's doing. MITM is a great song for her as 4-5 of ITZY are in the same capability area.

Her tone is nice and she has good stability while dancing, so she's the kind of person who can sing, but can't take on a super challenging role and do it with proper technique. She has chest power so I think she can sing loudly. (She'd strain though)

Cute song she did

Quote from ryu-yamaguchi

What do you mean by ioi situation? Oh btw don’t you think shana is good?

Sejeong was the stronger vocalist compared to Yeonjung but people thought Yeonjung was better because of her strained high notes.

Shana? She's okay, many Japanese vocalists struggle with technique as the problem is that many have the "stuck throat" sound and are quite nasal. I do see potential but I doubt it'll be utilized with her. She's a weak vocalist, but she has a nice sense of pitch and can stay on beat.

She'll probably be the main vocal for Momoland's other little group.

Quote from bartkun

kind of a sad thread

sleeping on STAYC so much when you had at least Sieun, Yoon, and ISA to pick one...

Stayc? The reason why I didn't put any of them is because none of them are trained, and they're all weak vocalists because they haven't been trained and probably will not be with Black Eyed Pilseung- they don't believe in training.

I mentioned it in the other thread earlier that I was worried for Sieun developing vocal nodules as she was never taught and I was very unhappy about their situation. They are singing live all the time too which is going to accelerate vocal nodules. (however I am glad they are singing live and are enthusiastic about it)

Just like 9muses, another group that was never taught and developed vocal nodules.

Actually the members with the occasional support are Yoon and Sumin, not Sieun but Sieun has the chest power to scream out the high notes (which she shouldn't be doing but :,()

Quote from ryu-yamaguchi

Just noticed you didn’t mention anyone from itzy, idle or loona. Are they that bad?

It depends.

Miyeon is a W-A and now with her breath support improved is equal/stronger than Yuqi, who was once the strongest vocalist in the group, another W-A. The rest are weak. I would put her below Denise but above the other W-A's I've mentioned.

ITZY....besides Lia none can support so it's like 1 vocalist and...everyone else. Yeji is just naturally very stable but she has not much technique whatsoever. She has good breath support and stamina.

Lia...I'm not sure what's going on with her tbh, hence I didn't comment. She'd always have relaxed support but recently she's been kinda tight but I doubt it's her really regressing, more of a bump. If a Midzy could tag me when the album vocals come out it would be great. She's also a W-A. Also she's literally better than everyone in her group by a lot.

Loona has some nice vocalists for 4th gen.

Chuu is another W-A, she's got a nice tone but she's very shallow, so she's like Itzy's Lia. She's very undertrained and strains to hit those high notes. She's a very typical 4th gen main vocal: lack of support, raises her larynx around the A4 area, and she's very nasal. Also a closed sound thanks to the larynx. She has a nice sense of pitch.

Haseul's next, she's has the opera influences but she's not trained enough, (a huge comparison to Wang Yale and Roada being more trained in Opera technique) has the best pitch but has the exact same issues as Chuu but worse.

Heejin is the other vocalist with support, she's even more shallow than the 2, but has a problem of going flat really often. She has the tightness and pushiness problem but is a good master of singing/dancing at the same time so pretty stable.

The rest can't support.

All 3 groups have the same overall vocal level with it being Chuu>= Lia > Miyeon/Yuqi but Loona have some decent leads, as ITZY and Gidle fall flat there.

Also BTW Gidle didn't have much vocal training, I think Soyeon didn't like the training for their "sound" but Miyeon seems to have trained recently.

Overall W-A or W vocalists.

Quote from babydoll23

Yes! I'm a former vocal instructor and I agree on all of your points here. I kept trying to explain to someone the Roada Xu/Ziyin situation and said basically the same thing as you. Strong singer but her head voice is practically non-existent and so she might have a hard time getting the kpop sound down because a lot of kpop songs use head voice.

Correct. I don't see her as someone who is a very typical kpop vocalist however she's done very well with learning korean. I was surprised by her pronounciation. Also I think she'd make for a great solo singer anyways, she has stage presence, can sing the way people like, and gives people goosebumps.

Quote from JaSida

This is a Mys troll thread. Leaving out the 4th gen groups and their vocalists.

No I didn't make this a Mys thread tbh, In fact Weekly come off better than Aespa. I just didn't put all 3 groups as besides their main vocals, I don't have much to say.

[ Although Haseul and Yeji have a lot of potential, especially Haseul if she's more consistent ] and I don't think Lia is regressing unlike what others think.

If you look at my title, I made it the top vocalists of 4th gen: I only added some W-A vocalists because many think they're stronger ie GWSN's vocalists "sound" good but have some underlying issues, and Secret Number's Denise is frequently mentioned as someone who's a top vocalist [Again I think she has the biggest possbility of going up] but for now that's not true.

That's why I didn't put some "more popular" 4th gen groups as ITZY are a performance group, G-idle didn't even have vocal trainers for most of them, and Loona have already been discussed and are a standard 4th generation group with not much standouts.

Quote from SooYoung

and what do you think of Winter ?

because you rated Ningning but i didn't see you talk about winter even if there's not a lot of content to judge her yet

Winter has a very bright mix. She's a mid/strong average being weaker than the likes of Yuri, Goeun, Yunjin, and the like but better than Jungwoo and probably Jiwon. I've said this before but she has a very light approach but she definitely has support. She has very opened Bb4s so a good mix, but my problem is that her lows are quite underdeveloped, and while her mix is much better than Seulgi who can be tight, Seulgi's lows are much much better. I doubt she has any agility too, but she's also got a problem with her pitch at times, because she's also very nasal. She has B4/Bb4 probably as she's shown the most out of all the girls.

Soeun and Karina are probably the same level? Soeun seems to be a big contender to improve over time if they have good vocal coaches like what Monday has/had for her. Both are like SNSD's Yuri, a strong W-A

Quote from SooYoung

oh i would have imagine that Winter is stronger than karina and yuri

The lead vocalists ranking goes:

Winter

Soeun

Karina

so the gap between WinRina isn't as big as you think. The gap between WinNing and WinRina are possibly the same.

Quote from ryu-yamaguchi

Is there a possibility of male vocalists next? I’m curious with p1harmony keeho. I like his billie eillish cover so much more than the original

See I don't follow male vocalists as much and to be honest, there's not many standouts. Jongho is the strongest but at best he's a low average and I've been worried about him developing nodules from singing in a super high octave every time. He's a tenor but a more lower placed one imo. He has a possibility to improve but he's not a super strong vocalist (at best W-A) but he's very "less trained and younger" Scott Hoying type with his singing. He's a smart vocalist though!!!! (ie tries not to strain)

Quote from Ronnietheperth

Seeing this two besides each other brings back PD48 memory where they constantly competed with each other for the main vocal position lol

Anyway, we all know that Yuri is the strongest vocalist in IZ*ONE but what are your thought and ranking for their lead vocalists (Eunbi/Yena/Chaewon/Chaeyeon/Yujin)?

Also a little bit surprised that Kim Chaehyun is the best vocalist in GP999 as people tend to talk about other contestants more (I don’t follow GP999 that much but still know some names).

It's because her earlier covers were kinda bad and in Black Mamba An Jeongmin was much better than her (in fact An Jeongmin is going to do great as she gets older mark my words) in terms of support. Her solo videos with her cell and group actually increased my view of her a lot. She has B4 but pushed but the rest of her mix is okay but she hasn't showcased much yet elsewhere so she has the potential to do better.

Ah it's Yuri >>> wall >> Yena(the only other member with proper breath support, hence why she and Yuri could sing the high pitched parts with no strain in comparison to the others > Eunbi (has some shallow support) but has a pretty nice mix >>>> Chaewon/Chaeyeon >> Yujin > rest. Besides Yuri they're all W-A or W but they're a good balanced group when singing with the vocal line. The rest can't support.

Chaewon is very stylistic and has some nice musicality so she's quite overrated for her technique by some. Chaeyeon is stronger than Yujin and she has some potential for soft support, Yujin can be very overconfident and pushy.

Overall Chae's and Yujin are at a similar tier tbh.

Yena may have been the strongest singer in Everglow if she had joined with Sihyeon.( Off topic but Sihyeon has improved SO much, she was pretty bad on PD101)

EDIT: AN JEONGMIN IS A TOP 10 gp999 vocalist I can't believe I completely forgot her! Queen. She's so young as well! She has the choppy problem but she can improve, I know she can.

Quote from 3best

Thank you for the analysis I am basically agreeing with you on everything, lol, I had similar thoughts on Ziyin and Xu Xinwen\Zhuo (Juicy) Zuo are my top 2 vocalists as well, with Juicy being my absolute fave. I saw "Flammable and Explosive" fancam from the audience and she sounds basically the same as in the show version (the overall sound quality of the fancam is poor though, it was probably recorded on the phone), while some of the other girls in the performance were obviously tweaked to sound less pitchy.

Yeah, I like her in "A Little Sweet" - it is not exactly a challenging song but sounds nice. There is an un-edited version on Weibo (https://m.weibo.cn/detail/4499110772426966#&video), someone recorded their cloud assessment version, lol. I like it a bit better than even the show version although it is less cohesive, I like the rap part hits better in that one, but Mo Han's (Momo) vocals are... meh. My favorite Yaning's performance is still "Ambush on All Sides 2" tho.

It seems that only Chaehyun and maybe (huge maybe) Ziyin have chances to make it into the final group though, others are not really popular enough. But probably that's more or less enough, considering that IZ*ONE worked well with Yuri.

P. S. Loved your analysis, followed your profile, lol.

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I think Bora will rise as like a Chowon type Dark Horse. She's got the leader thing down, unlike yujin and yaning both who struggled for different reasons. Her hair also makes her look younger and she has the ethereal voice that fits.

Ziyin is maybe making it to next elimination but for those posts, she won't probably debut. She's honestly super popular on Chinese forums. I think she should go to China and make a solo debut.

Poor Momo has like no breath management whatsoever and is so nasal, she was squeaky. She's trying unlike Bobo Lin or something. Nineone and Victoria saved that performance.

Quote from Ronnietheperth

Thanks for your answer. I agree with Yena being the second strongest as well. And yeah…Sihyeon improved a lot, watching her growing since PD101 to PD48 to Everglow is amazing.

One more question: So who is on the similar level with Chaehyun in PD101 or PD48 because I fear that she could be the only vocalist who has a shot of making the final group and she isn’t on the same level as Yuri yet.

Don't be worried, she'd be a strong vocalist for this gen and I'd put her on this list. Also she hasn't shown her full potential yet, she's a fair bit stronger than trainees like Haeyoon who were considered main vocal trainees, and she's in contention with say Jiwon but I need to see her other registers too.

I think Yoohyeon is a nice example of her level.