If you’ve been watching Eurovision lately, you already know that ALICJA’s performance of Pray stopped people in their tracks.
The moment the song opens, you’re pulled into something rich, soulful, and vocally complex , a masterclass in modern gospel-influenced singing technique. Whether you’re a developing singer or simply a curious listener, breaking down what ALICJA is doing in Pray reveals a stunning layering of vocal craft that’s absolutely worth studying.
The Dark Timbre: ALICJA’s Signature Sound
One of the first things you notice when listening to Pray is the darkness of ALICJA’s tone. Even as she climbs into the upper range, sitting around G4 and even C5, the voice retains a warmth and depth that feels lower than it actually is.
This darker timbre is influenced by a combination of factors: a lower tongue position, a slightly lowered larynx, and tension at the tongue root. Much like the body of a guitar produces a deeper resonance than a ukulele simply due to size, the larynx plays a similar role in shaping vocal color. ALICJA leans into this beautifully throughout Pray, creating a sound that feels grounded and soulful even at higher pitches.
Thyroid Tilt: The Missing Piece
Perhaps the most critical technique powering Pray is thyroid tilt, the forward tilting of the thyroid cartilage, which houses the vocal folds. Thyroid tilt is often described as the primary difference between speaking and singing.
When ALICJA moves into her more sung, melodic passages, the thyroid tilt softens and sweetens the tone, preventing it from sounding harsh or overly chesty. When she strips it away during her more speech-like moments, the voice becomes raw and direct. This toggle between tilted and non-tilted production gives Pray its emotional range, it breathes, it shifts, it surprises.
Key benefits of thyroid tilt in a song like Pray:
- Softens chest voice so it doesn’t sound forced or shouty
- Allows the singer to carry chest voice higher in the range
- Warms and sweetens the tone, especially in gospel-influenced passages
- Helps maintain closed vocal folds at higher pitches
Tongue, Soft Palate, and Larynx: The Support System
Watching ALICJA perform Pray closely, you’ll notice the subtle but deliberate movement of her tongue, cheeks, and jaw, none of it is accidental. Lifting the cheeks helps elevate the soft palate, which in turn stabilizes the lower vocal mechanism and improves pitch accuracy.
The tongue, rather than being passively relaxed (a common misconception in vocal teaching), is actively engaged, tensing slightly as the larynx rises with pitch. This tongue tension is crucial because the tongue actually inserts directly into the top of the larynx, meaning tongue engagement helps hold the larynx in place as the pitch climbs.
At the very top of the range in Pray, you can see ALICJA’s tongue dip slightly at the back — donating just enough space to the larynx to prevent the sensation of choking that many singers experience when reaching high chest voice notes.
Breath Support and Subglottic Pressure
ALICJA takes noticeably short, frequent breaths throughout Pray rather than long, gasping ones. This keeps the breathing mechanism efficient and prevents excess air from destabilizing the vocal folds.
On sustained notes, you can observe her body moving downward, a technique that supports the appoggio system of breath management, where the abdominal and pelvic floor muscles engage to slow the rise of the diaphragm, maintaining consistent subglottic pressure.
This pressure beneath the vocal folds is what keeps the voice ringing and connected, rather than breathy or collapsing.Signs of great breath support in Pray:
- Very few audible breaths despite sustained phrasing
- Stable tone on long notes without fading or cracking
- Controlled dynamics without a loss of resonance
Growl, Constriction, and Stylistic Color
Scattered throughout Pray are moments of deliberate constriction, a slight narrowing of the space above the vocal folds that produces a gravelly, gospel-tinged edge. This is not forced or pressured; it’s a controlled letting go, where the tissues at the back of the throat are allowed to come together gently.
This is what creates that churchy, soulful rasp that gives Pray such emotional texture. It pairs naturally with the lower larynx position and thyroid tilt to create what you might describe as the full Pray sound, dark, warm, and spiritually charged.
The Money Note and Stamina
At the climax of Pray, ALICJA pushes up to a G5 in chest voice, an extraordinarily demanding feat. Here you can see the full picture come together: cheeks lifted, soft palate raised, tongue actively engaged, larynx raised with pitch while maintaining tone quality.
The performance is a reminder that the end of a song is just as technically demanding as the beginning, if not more so. Stamina, consistent support, and not releasing the technique prematurely are what separate a great live vocalist from a good one.
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.