Wendy Son is a canadian artist who debuted in 2014 as the main vocalist of the girl group Red Velvet, under SM Entertainment. Formely being a part of the project “S.M. Rookies”, her agency released various performances including a music video for the drama “ 미미” as well as many performances including a cover of Taylor Swift’s “Speak Now.”
VOCAL RANGE: Eb3 – Eb7 (4 octaves)
Supported range: G#3 – C5 / C#5 (1 octave, 2 notes and 1 semitone)
Wendy debuted in 2014 as a part of the girl group “Red Velvet” and instantly gained recognition due to her extensive range, that expands through four octaves.
Wendy possesses a light weight voice with a thin timbre that becomes headier as the she ascends. Although her style of singing could be deemed as very “pop-like”, the singer has shown her ability to adapt her voice to different musical genres such as R&B, and has the ability to move her larynx for stylistic matters.
Vocal positives: As a very young vocalist, Wendy has shown a lot of improvement since her debut in 2014. She is able to show support up until C5 and ocasionally C#5 with mixed voice, and F#5 with head voice. She possesses a very wide vocal range. Resonance is present in her mix time to time, more consistenly in the G#4 – Bb4 range. Although not being fully developed, her lower register has shown improvement since debut and can be considered as “decent.”
Vocal negatives: Very flat and imprecise vocal runs. Resonance is not achieved in all her supported range. The singer has intonation issues when in bad condition. Tends to lower her larynx as she descends, even within her supported range (as shown in Because I Loved You). When in bad condition, the singer shows an inability to sustain high chest notes even within her supported range. Her lowest notes lack clarity.
- LOWER REGISTER
The register is not fully developed and shows inconsistencies in projection and support until G#3. A full tone is achieved consistenly until A3 (see Late Regret) although Wendy has shown support until F#3 every now and then (see Time to Time). Below G#3 / A3, the singer’s tone becomes less audible and loses clarity, with a missplacement of the larynx when in bad condition. - MIXED REGISTER
Although showing inconsitencies, the mixed register of Wendy shows a better development than her chest voice, and is the one that has shown the biggest improvement since debut. The singer stays in a comfortable range when she performs in between G#4 and C5 consistenly, and has shown “bright” times with supported C#5s (see Goodbye Sadness, Hello Happiness), although resonance is only present in the G#4 – Bb4 range. The singer has shown great ability in phrasing in this register, as shown in Speak Now, but her vocal runs become flat and imprecise most of the time (see Shake That Brass) although they can be accurate in pitch (Speak Now). Above C#5, the voice becomes heady, warbled and strained most of the time, with a considerable difficulty in holding notes. - HIGHER REGISTER
The least used voice of Wendy is her head voice, despite the fact that it shows the least inconsistencies among all her registers. Wendy achieves support until F#5 and shows a head resonance until E4 consistenly. She has shown a good improvement since her pre-debut days until now, as she was not able to support properly a F#5, like in Halo, where her head voice would become tight, to the point that now she can sustain the same note with relative ease, as shown in her performance of Shake That Brass, covering fellow singer Taeyeon’s part.
Wendy is gaining recognition in the k-pop worldwide community because of her singing abilities recently. Although the singer still shows a couple of issues, the improvement she has shown since her debut and pre-debut days is worth the watching, and her natural abilities as a singer leaves the fans and non-fans alike thinking about how promising she might be in the future. Although her group, Red Velvet, does not focus on showcasing her abilities as a vocalist in their title tracks, Wendy has performed several times in TV shows and radio programs to prove again that she is a vocalist to take in consideration.
Recommended performance(s): “Late Regret”, “안녕 (Annyeong).”