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Extremes

The record holders

The widest spans, deepest floors and highest ceilings among famous voices — and why these particular numbers deserve the most scepticism.

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Read these with the most caution

Record figures are the least reliable entries in any range collection, and for a structural reason: a number only becomes a record by being the most extreme claim in circulation, so the selection process actively favours whichever source exaggerated most. The rankings below are the figures fans and journalists repeat, not measurements.

The two specific things to distrust: a span this wide usually splits across registers a listener would not call the same voice — a six-octave figure typically runs from a growled subharmonic to a whistle — and the extreme note is often a single recorded moment, sometimes one produced with studio help, rather than anything the singer performs nightly.

Widest cited span

Measured from the lowest cited note to the highest, regardless of register. This is the number people mean by “who has the widest vocal range”, and the one that rewards the most generous source.

  1. 1Dimash KudaibergenTenor · C2–C86.0 oct
  2. 2Mike PattonBaritone · D#1–D#76.0 oct
  3. 3Axl RoseTenor · F1–A#65.4 oct
  4. 4Mariah CareySoprano · F2–G75.2 oct
  5. 5Geoff CastellucciBass-baritone · B0–A#54.9 oct
  6. 6David Lee RothBaritone · E1–D64.8 oct
  7. 7Mitch GrassiCountertenor · F2–C74.6 oct
  8. 8Rachelle FerrellMezzo-soprano · G2–D74.6 oct
  9. 9Jack WhiteTenor · E2–A64.4 oct
  10. 10Ville ValoBaritone · F#1–B54.4 oct
  11. 11Minnie RipertonSoprano · D3–F#74.3 oct
  12. 12Myles KennedyTenor · A#1–D64.3 oct
  13. 13Stevie WonderTenor · C2–E64.3 oct
  14. 14Ariana GrandeSoprano · D3–E74.2 oct
  15. 15CeeLo GreenTenor · A#1–C64.2 oct

Deepest cited floor

Very low notes are easier to claim than to use: below roughly F2 the voice loses volume fast, so many cited floors are audible only in isolation or with a microphone doing much of the work.

  1. 1Geoff CastellucciBass-baritone · B0–A#5B0
  2. 2Tim StormsBass · B0–B4B0
  3. 3Avi KaplanBass · D#1–C#5D#1
  4. 4Mike PattonBaritone · D#1–D#7D#1
  5. 5David Lee RothBaritone · E1–D6E1
  6. 6Axl RoseTenor · F1–A#6F1
  7. 7Ivan RebroffBass · F1–F5F1
  8. 8Peter SteeleBass-baritone · F1–G5F1
  9. 9Ville ValoBaritone · F#1–B5F#1
  10. 10Josh TurnerBass-baritone · G#1–C#5G#1
  11. 11Chad KroegerBaritone · A1–E5A1
  12. 12Jonathan DavisBaritone · A1–F#5A1
  13. 13Kid CudiBaritone · A1–F5A1
  14. 14Tom WaitsBass-baritone · A1–G5A1
  15. 15CeeLo GreenTenor · A#1–C6A#1

Highest cited ceiling

Nearly everything at the top of this list is whistle register or developed falsetto rather than full voice — a different mechanism from the one doing the work lower down.

  1. 1Dimash KudaibergenTenor · C2–C8C8
  2. 2Mariah CareySoprano · F2–G7G7
  3. 3Minnie RipertonSoprano · D3–F#7F#7
  4. 4Ariana GrandeSoprano · D3–E7E7
  5. 5Mike PattonBaritone · D#1–D#7D#7
  6. 6NormaniMezzo-soprano · C#3–D#7D#7
  7. 7WendySoprano · C#3–D#7D#7
  8. 8Rachelle FerrellMezzo-soprano · G2–D7D7
  9. 9Yma SumacSoprano · B2–C#7C#7
  10. 10Christina AguileraMezzo-soprano · C3–C7C7
  11. 11Mitch GrassiCountertenor · F2–C7C7
  12. 12SohyangSoprano · E3–C7C7
  13. 13Axl RoseTenor · F1–A#6A#6
  14. 14JoJoMezzo-soprano · A2–A#6A#6
  15. 15Kim PetrasSoprano · D3–A#6A#6

Highest full voice

The more meaningful ranking for most singers: the top of the belted, chest-dominant register rather than the top of the whole range. Restricted to the voices here with a cited full-voice ceiling.

  1. 1Wilson PickettTenor · A#2–E6D6
  2. 2SohyangSoprano · E3–C7C6
  3. 3MARINAMezzo-soprano · A#2–C#6B5
  4. 4Sturgill SimpsonBaritone · D#2–C#6B5
  5. 5Zara LarssonSoprano · D3–C#6B5
  6. 6Childish GambinoTenor · A#1–C6A#5
  7. 7David RuffinTenor · A2–E6A#5
  8. 8GrimesSoprano · D3–G6A#5
  9. 9Jackie WilsonTenor · A2–C#6A#5
  10. 10Karen Clark SheardSoprano · F3–D#6A#5
  11. 11Madison BeerSoprano · C3–C6A#5
  12. 12Patti LaBelleSoprano · A#2–E6A#5
  13. 13Ann WilsonMezzo-soprano · G2–E6A5
  14. 14Demi LovatoMezzo-soprano · C#3–D6A5
  15. 15Floor JansenSoprano · E3–E6A5

Whistle register

The singers here are documented using whistle register — a separate mechanism above the head voice, and the reason the top of this library reaches as far as it does.

The questions these tables get asked

Who has the biggest vocal range in the world?

No figure like this is lab-verified, so "in the world" claims are really "in circulation" claims. Among the 636 famous voices indexed here, the widest commonly cited range is Dimash Kudaibergen's C2–C8 — about 6.0 octaves. Spans that wide run from growled subharmonics to whistle register, not one continuous singing voice.

What is the highest note ever sung?

Claims vary and the extremes are one-off recorded moments rather than repeatable notes. The highest note cited in this collection is C8, for Dimash Kudaibergen — whistle register, a different mechanism from the voice doing the work an octave down.

What is the lowest note ever sung?

The lowest note cited in this collection is B0, for Geoff Castellucci. Notes this low carry almost no acoustic power, so cited floors depend on a microphone doing much of the work — the deeper the claim, the more that caveat applies.

Where you fit

None of these numbers is a target. The useful comparison is your own measured range against singers whose repertoire you actually want to sing — which the range test and the main chart do together.

Find my rangeThe full chart