For my money, the best voice in all of pop music today is the voice of Martina McBride. Here’s a great video clip of her performing live on American Idol in 2007 when she introduced her song Anyway for the first time. She’s better live in this clip that many recording artists are in the studio.
Toward the end of the song, McBride hits a crescendo and belts out a series of notes that are at full strength, starting at 3:09 and lasting until 3:25. It’s brilliant songwriting and you can’t not be inspired by this song, but when you reflect on her stunning breath control and how she’s singing so long, so strong, without taking a breath, it’s even more striking.
There’s a little bonus in this clip, which is the brief chat after the song (at 3:44) with Ryan Seacrest and McBride’s daughter Emma, who is about 9 years old in this clip and really steals the show and is very cute and funny. The reference to “Paula” in that chat is to American Idol judge Paula Abdul, who was known to find something nice to say about everyone, and the reason for the reference.
The entire clip is 4:44.