Deconstructing and Disputing Freddie Mercury's Scientific Vocal Study

I still find it odd that some people still think he's a baritone. I have listened to all sorts of baritones throughout my own pedagogical studies, both high and low ones, both opera and contemporary, and even high ones like Robert Merrill (in opera) and John Legend (in contemporary) have lower-pitched voices than Freddie Mercury does. Now what subgroup of tenor Freddie Mercury was is debatable to be honest, and it's even debatable if subtypes of voices should even be used on contemporary singers. Honestly, I really don't care if people apply voice subtypes to contemporary singers, but it does get annoying when it becomes an obsession.

Yeah in general using speaking voice is just plain silly. Besides, the overwhelming vast majority of baritones, like 99.9%, speak lower-pitched than Freddie Mercury does. One of the only exceptions to this is Guiseppe Danise, who had a very high-pitched speaking voice compared to most baritones. I myself, being somewhere between a mid-to-high baritone (I don't use personal anecdotes too much though because it makes me look amateur-ish), have a speaking voice that averages lower than Freddie's to quite a decent extent at around A2 or Bb2-ish that goes down to around D2 and up to D3 (though granted a lot of my videos are recorded when I'm anxious and so my speaking voice is thin in many of my videos and not the best example of how baritones usually sound due to anxiety issues but some of them I speak more full and resonantly). There are tenors who have lower-pitched and even more resonant speaking voice than I do (it's rare but it happens). My vocal teacher, who is a medium-low baritone, occasionally speaks like a bass but usually like a lower baritone of some sort. Lauritz Melchior, who usually spoke like a lower tenor in most interviews, on occasion spoke like a baritone or even a bass. And in Freddie Mercury's case, I have heard him speak like a baritone in some clips, but most of the time more like a tenor.

Mercury was a leggero tenor. His voice was not big than a full lyric tenor.

Barry White Speaks in profundo range, but sings in baritone range.

10:57 Hautecontre