Lion Ceccah’s Eurovision performance of “Sólo Quiero Más” is the kind of moment that stops you in your tracks. From the very first phrase, there is something undeniably polished and emotionally charged about this voice.
It carries a depth that feels rooted in serious vocal training, and for anyone learning to sing, it offers a brilliant window into how classical technique can coexist with contemporary performance. Let us break down exactly what is happening in this performance and what you can take away from it.
Voice Quality and Breath Flow
One of the first things you notice in “Sólo Quiero Más” is the breathy, almost intimate quality of Lion Ceccah’s opening. This is not simply an artistic choice made on a whim. What we are hearing is a chest voice where the vocal folds remain slightly open, allowing a greater flow of air through them.
This creates that soft, textured tone that draws the listener in before the voice opens up into something fuller. It is a technique used by many well-known artists and, when done well, creates an incredible sense of intimacy and vulnerability.
As the song builds, you can hear the folds beginning to close with more pressure, and the tone shifts. The breathiness gives way to a more supported, resonant sound. This transition from open to closed vocal fold engagement is one of the foundational skills in singing and is worth understanding regardless of your style or genre.
Thyroid Tilt and the “Sung” Sound
A key technical element throughout Lion Ceccah’s performance of “Sólo Quiero Más” is thyroid tilt. The thyroid cartilage, which is the structure housing the vocal folds, tilts forward when we sing and adds stretch to the folds. This stretch is what gives singing its characteristic quality and separates it from speaking. The more thyroid tilt present, the more “sung” the tone becomes.
You can hear this clearly in the more soaring moments of the performance. The voice takes on a brightness and lift that comes directly from that forward tilt. Training thyroid tilt is one of the most effective ways to improve the overall quality and expressiveness of your singing voice.
Vibrato: Natural vs. Forced
“Sólo Quiero Más” features some beautifully natural vibrato from Lion Ceccah. There are two key points to understand about vibrato:
- Vibrato cannot be forced. It occurs naturally when breath pressure and vocal fold closure meet at the right balance point.
- When vibrato becomes too slow or wide, it can work against the singer rather than for them, particularly in higher registers.
- A natural, flowing vibrato supports resonance and helps the voice carry further without strain.
- As singers age or carry tension, vibrato can become less consistent, which is why building good technical foundations early matters.
The vibrato heard in this performance leans toward the classical end of the spectrum, which ties into the broader classical quality that characterises much of Lion Ceccah’s vocal approach throughout the song.
Chest Voice vs. Falsetto
One of the most interesting moments in “Sólo Quiero Más” is the transition between Lion Ceccah’s chest voice and falsetto. Falsetto has a distinctly hollow quality because the vocal folds go stiff, with only the very front edges making contact. Chest voice, by contrast, involves fuller fold closure and a much denser, richer tone.
What makes this performance instructive is how the transitions are managed. To move from a heavier chest voice into falsetto, a singer must back off the volume slightly. This allows the folds to thin gradually as the pitch rises. When this is not done, the voice flips abruptly, which can sound unintentional. In some moments of “Sólo Quiero Más,” you can hear Lion Ceccah navigating these transitions with varying degrees of smoothness, and that honest glimpse into the mechanics makes it a fantastic learning tool.
The Classical Influence
There is no mistaking it: Lion Ceccah’s voice carries the hallmarks of classical training. Throughout “Sólo Quiero Más,” you can hear the following classical characteristics at work:
- A high soft palate, which lifts the resonance and gives the voice its characteristic brightness and carrying power.
- Strong thyroid tilt resulting in a clear, lyrical quality in the upper range.
- A consistent vibrato that aligns with the tenor tradition in classical singing.
- A tendency to “cover” or darken certain vowels in the upper register, which is common in classical technique.
This covering of the vowel is a double-edged sword. While it is a protective instinct rooted in classical training, it can sometimes dampen the resonance or restrict the sound when applied too rigidly in a contemporary setting. Keeping the vowel in its natural resonance pocket, rather than darkening it as the pitch rises, often allows for a freer and more powerful sound.
Resonance and the Soft Palate
The soft palate plays a crucial role in the resonance heard throughout “Sólo Quiero Más.” When the velum (soft palate) is raised and closed, it creates a resonance chamber at the back of the throat. This reflected sound can actually help to close the vocal folds more efficiently, producing a cleaner, more supported tone. Think of it as the sound bouncing off a wall and returning to assist the folds themselves.
In moments where Lion Ceccah achieves that ringing, full-voiced tenor quality, you are hearing the soft palate working at its best. Opening up the mouth and the vowel in higher notes is one way singers try to access more of this resonance, though it requires careful control to avoid tipping into a yell-like quality.
Oversinging and Performance Pressure
Toward the end of the performance, “Sólo Quiero Más” presents a challenge that many singers face: the temptation to oversing. As a song builds emotionally and dynamically, the instinct is to keep pushing for more volume and more intensity. However, this can lead to the tone becoming slightly unstable, drifting out of pitch, or taking on a strained, distorted quality.
Some practical principles for managing this:
- Practice the full performance repeatedly so that every note feels earned and inevitable, rather than reached for.
- Know exactly what you are going to sing before you step on stage, particularly in the final moments of a song.
- If you are vocally fatigued, recovering from illness, or feeling under pressure, play it safe rather than attempting to reinvent the melody in real time.
- Trust what you have prepared. No one in the audience knows what you had planned; they only hear what you deliver.
Even on the biggest stages in the world, these moments of oversinging can happen. Seeing them in a live Eurovision performance is a reminder that singers are human, and that is part of what makes live performance so compelling and so beautiful.
A Multilingual Performance
One final and often overlooked detail about “Sólo Quiero Más” is the multilingual nature of the lyrics. Lion Ceccah moves across what sounds like Spanish, Italian, and English throughout the song. This kind of multilingual writing is not uncommon in Eurovision, and it creates an interesting vocal challenge.
Different languages place the tongue, lips, and resonators in different positions, which means the singer must remain adaptable and consistent across vowel sounds that naturally want to land in different parts of the mouth. That Lion Ceccah navigates this with as much smoothness as he does is itself an achievement worth acknowledging.
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.