Talk:Sébastien Izambard

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The article says that Sebastien is a tenor. Is he really a tenor? Well, NOT as far as I am concern. His voice is far below tenor and he is not even a baritone. Please double confirm about this. David and Urs are tenors but Sebastien is not. Sebastien is a French pop singer. If my comment is not justifiable because it is based on my hearing to his voice, please watch the DVD interview with Il Divo. Besides, if you listened to Josh Groban and Carlos Marín, their voices are far deeper but still they are only labeled as Baritones. Sébastien voice is softer than both of them. Jay

Tenors vary in tone quality, some are light and some heavier. For example, David's tone is far lighter than Urs'. Likewise, Sébastien's is heavier than both of them (not much though) without being heavy enough to qualify as baritone or even baritenor. I think he's a regular tenore lirico, lacking the kick of the spinto or even the baritonal quality of heldentenore.Rosa 19:52, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

My point is, Sebastien doesn’t have the “tenor's” voice and the capability to deliver the tenor’s part. Based on 4 Il Divo’s album that I have, his voice is just like a common pop singer’s, no more no less. Therefore to label him as a Tenor would make it looks inappropriate. In fact, during the interview, all 3 other friends of him recognized him as a pop singer. When I read the article in Sebastian main page saying that he is a French Tenor, I smiled. Tenors usually are associated with singers with deep strong voice and generally sing using falsetto voice just like what Urs and David do. I know there are ranges of tenor but in the case of Il Divo being a pop opera (with a lot of classical touch), Sebastien has never proved that he is a Tenor in any form. I would not argue about this if Il Divo is just like a common singing group such as the “Back Street Boys”, but being a ½ (pop) classical operatic group, the level of singers’ capacity must be measured thoroughly. There are enough too many classical operatic fans who hate Il Divo for what they said as the destroyer to the true classical opera, I just don’t wish to see them coming here and laugh to see Wikipedia would classify the pop singer as a Tenor. Listen to his voice, what do you hear? He has a nice-sweet-pop-voice but as we all know that nice-sweet-voice is not a quality to be defined as Tenor. It strikes me hard when I read the article says Sebastien is a French Tenor. He himself never said that as well as other 3 Il Divo’s members and Simon Cowell. I appreciate strong voice singers such as Pavarotti, Carerra including David and Urs. The recognition to be called a Tenor does not come easy. I do not want to amend the article because I rather like to have a discussion and hoping that author would change it him or herself. Jay 01:52, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

emmm...I not only have the four albums (which I have listened to about one hundred times each during the past two years) and all the dvds but have also seen them live in concert and have watched 100 plus tv interviews where they speak about their voices...trust me, Seb IS a tenor. He sounds like a tenor (his voice is strikingly powerful live; not that sissy soft thing you hear to on cds) and I distinctly recall them saying in several occasions that Il Divo is formed by three tenors and one baritone. Sébastien may not be formally trained as a tenore lirico (in fact, that's not even true anymore, whilst being a member of Il Divo he has been heavily coached to match the vocal quality of the other members of Il Divo) but his vocal range surely does have the register of a tenor. I think that maybe the core of this discussion is an unclear perception of what a "tenor" is. "Tenor" is just one of the classifications of human vocal ranges, whether the individual is trained in bel canto or not is a whole different story. For example, Jim Morrison wasn't trained lyrically but it's common knowledge that he was a baritone (you can look it up in his bio right here at Wikipedia).Rosa 16:48, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

I've edited the "French tenor" part just now. I'd rather not discuss it any further. I'd like to point out that although I'm the main author of this article, I wasn't responsible for writing that bit. If the author of that part still watches this page, I invite him or her to discuss here.Rosa 16:59, 4 January 2007 (UTC)