If you’re looking for a powerful chest voice workout that doesn’t require insane vocal fireworks, “Fire” by Sarah Engels is the song for you. Representing Germany in Eurovision 2026, Saga delivers a performance that is both vocally impressive and accessible for singers working on building a strong chest voice foundation.
Let’s break down the vocal techniques behind this performance and how you can apply them to your own singing.
Why “Fire” Is a Perfect Chest Voice Song
One of the most exciting things about Sarah Engels’ “Fire” is that it sits very comfortably in the chest voice register. The melody begins around the G4 (the G above middle C), which is solidly within the comfortable chest voice range for most female singers. What makes this song especially useful for practice is the repeating melody structure.
When a melody repeats, it gives you the chance to really lock in the muscular feeling within your throat, making it easier to build consistency with each pass. For anyone working on strengthening their chest voice, “Fire” is an excellent addition to your practice repertoire.
Breath Control: Less Is More
One of the standout elements of Sarah Engels’ performance is her breath control. You can actually see the expansion of her ribs as she breathes, particularly in the area just below the bra line, where the lower ribs visibly move outward on each inhalation. This is a sign that her in-breath muscles are properly engaged, which helps support the sound from below.
Here’s the key takeaway that might surprise you: when singing in your chest voice, you actually want to breathe in less, not more. Loading up on air might feel like it should help, but your vocal folds are only about the size of your pinky fingernail.
If you blow a massive volume of air at them, it makes it harder for them to close properly and produce a clean sound. Thinking about using less breath will actually help you achieve more volume and better tone. It sounds counterintuitive, but it works. Some quick tips on breath control for “Fire”:
- Focus on gentle rib expansion rather than big, dramatic breaths
- Avoid over-filling your lungs before each phrase
- Let the in-breath muscles do the work of supporting the sound
- Stop obsessing over your diaphragm, focus on rib movement instead
Growl and Vocal Rattle in “Fire”
Throughout “Fire,” Sarah Engels uses a subtle growl or vocal rattle that adds grit and texture to the sound. This effect is created by the arytenoids, the small cartilages that open and close the vocal folds, gently knocking together. The important thing to understand is that this is actually a release of tension, not an addition of force.
You are not pushing more air through the sound to achieve it. Just as with the breath control, the theme here is restraint. Think of the growl as a letting go, not a pushing through.
Hitting the High Notes: Larynx Positioning
As “Fire” progresses, Saga moves up to a B4 and eventually reaches an E5, which demands some more advanced technique. One of the clever things in this song is the lyric itself: the word “fake” in the line “you can fake it till you make it but you won’t” uses the consonant F, which naturally builds up back pressure and helps the larynx seat itself into a higher position before you onset the note. This prevents you from simply dragging chest voice upward, which would create strain.
Taking a tiny pause before a big interval can also help you prepare your larynx for the jump. The position of the larynx — whether high, low, or neutral, has a huge impact on how comfortable and controlled your singing feels, especially at the extremes of your range. Key points for navigating the higher sections of “Fire”:
- Use consonants like F to build natural back pressure
- Allow a micro-pause before big interval jumps to let the larynx adjust
- Don’t pull chest voice straight up, let the larynx rise naturally
- Consider switching into head voice and back down if the E5 feels too challenging, and try substituting a B4 instead
Articulation and Tongue Strength
Sarah Engels repeats the word “fire” many times throughout the song, which puts a real demand on articulation. Tongue twisters are great for building speed, but they don’t do much to strengthen the actual muscles involved in articulation. For real improvement, you need targeted exercises that build strength in the tongue and surrounding muscles, think of it like doing bicep curls, but for your tongue.
One fantastic exercise is the tongue cave: suck your tongue to the roof of your mouth and hold it there for 30 seconds, then release with a big tongue click. This stretches and strengthens multiple muscles within the tongue. The benefits go beyond singing, it can improve your breathing, sleep quality, and even facial symmetry.
Building up your articulators through myofunctional therapy exercises like this one can dramatically improve your pitch stability, tone clarity, and overall vocal control.
Pitch and Stamina: Managing the Live Performance
During her Eurovision performance of “Fire,” Sarah Engels does experience a slight drop in pitch during the second pre-chorus, and this is completely normal. When a singer is performing with a lot of movement, nerves, and energy, the pressure beneath the lungs can decrease slightly and the tongue can start to fatigue, both of which can cause pitch to drift. Here are some common reasons pitch drops during a live performance and how to address them:
- Tongue fatigue causes the tongue to drop, affecting resonance, strengthen it with daily exercises
- Lifting the soft palate helps maintain pitch; think of doing a slight smile to trigger that lift
- Over-singing (trying to get louder than your natural maximum) can push notes slightly flat without you even hearing it
- Adrenaline and excitement can make you add too much volume, unknowingly pushing the pitch out of tune
The solution? Practice performing. Record yourself, review the recordings, and learn to recognize what the feeling of oversinging is like so you can manage it on stage.
Mouth Shape and Jaw Freedom
One more thing that stands out in Sarah Engels’ performance of “Fire” is her excellent mouth positioning. As she moves higher in her chest voice, she shifts toward a more trumpet-like mouth shape, slightly narrower with lifted cheeks and a raised soft palate. This helps hold on to the thicker vocal fold configuration needed for chest voice at higher pitches.
Her jaw moves freely along with the lyrics, with no excess tension or locking. If you notice a fixed or tight jaw in your own singing, building up tongue and articulator strength often helps because jaw tension is frequently the body’s way of compensating for weakness elsewhere.
The Takeaway: Simplicity Can Be Powerful
Perhaps the most inspiring lesson from Sarah Engels’ “Fire” is that vocal fireworks are not required to deliver an incredible performance. The riffs at the end of the song are relatively simple, but they are effective and perfectly suited to the song.
Every singer is an individual, and the goal isn’t to copy someone else’s acrobatic runs, it’s to find what works for your voice and your song. If you strip out the E5, this song sits beautifully in the chest voice range and makes for an outstanding practice piece.
If you want to learn more about how you can learn to implement these singing techniques into your own voice, let’s sit down for a chat and discuss if the vocal academy is the right fit for you. You can join us here.