*sigh* I swore I wouldn't revisit this, but everyone keeps saying, "How can you say Alice isn't a BELTER?"
To me, all I *hear* when she's "belting" is screaming. That's not belting. I hear a fast vibrato that is in some major need of constraints. It sounds shrill to my ears... I don't find it enjoyable. I MUCH prefer her "pretty voice" to what some consider to be her "belt". I just prefer Emily's rich quality, whether she's belting or not. It's a more classic belt. A fuller, chesty belt. That's what the belters of the past (as some have mentioned) were known for. It just seems that the talent of "belters" today is measured by just how HIGH one can belt, even if it's not enjoyable to listen to.
Give me Emily or Jennifer Holiday any day over half those mentioned. Those girls can BLOW! :)
"You! You are the worst thing to happen to musical theatre since Andrew Lloyd Webber! And you, well, I just plain don't like you."
~Stewart Gilligan Griffin