GOT7’s Vocal Analysis: JB

Vocal Range

F#2 ~ C6 (3 octaves and 3 notes)

Supported Range

E3/F3 ~ E4/F4

Voice Type

Tenor

Strengths/Achievements

  • Second strongest vocalist in GOT7
  • Shown improvement in his transitions and pitch over the years
  • Able to show some sense of breath support, even if inconsistently
  • Support is present in his mix up to E4/F4
  • Lower range maintains a relaxed and forward approach down to E3/F3
  • Falsetto transitions are better done pitch wise

Points for Improvement

  • Mixed voice is strained and pushed even within his supported range at times
  • Tends to use his throat when singing with more volume
  • Glottal tension present within his supported range
  • Unable to lift his soft palate, voice is often placed in his nose
  • Lower range below E3 lacks support and becomes airy
  • Runs are often pitchy and lack flow
  • Support is inconsistent
  • Above F4 tends to sing with a lot of throat tension and tightness
  • Upper register is thin, airy and lacks development using only falsetto

Registers

  • Lower register: The lower part of his range is not often used and seems to be rather underdeveloped. Down to F3 tone is present with enough amount of support, but as he sings below E3 his voice becomes airy and quiet.
  • Mixed register: His mixed voice is quite bright in placement, and more on the head-dominant side in terms of mixing. He is able to remain relaxed and supported up to F4 when singing softly, but tends to sound tense when singing with more power.
  • Upper register: His falsetto register has shown improvement over the years in terms of stability, tone quality and pitch. Nonetheless he’s never showcased anything but a falsetto and is unable to sing with a properly supported and developed head voice.

Agility

In the past, JB has mentioned quite a few R&B vocalists as his favorite singers and shows that he has a liking to adding vocal runs to many of his vocal performances. Not all his vocal runs are part of the songs he sings, so it is quite refreshing for him to have his own melodic ideas added to songs. Despite that, he tends to sing with a lot of airiness when performing vocal runs and due to not having developed a proper flow and rhythm by separating each individual note in his runs, he tends to rush the notes and thus becomes quite sloppy and pitchy. Most of his runs are not precise and sound a lot more like slides, since he’s unable to sing each tone by themselves clearly before putting them together in the form of a run. This can be heard in many of his vocal performances, including “Bad Girl, Good Girl“, “너를 위해“, “A“, “못잊은 거죠“, and “난 니가 좋아.”

Overall analysis

Originally JB debuted under the duo JJ Project with fellow GOT7 member Jinyoung in 2012, but later re-debuted as the lead vocalist of idol group GOT7 in 2014. Throughout the years JB has shown improvements in his overall technique, mostly to do with pitch and support. His voice tends to stand out as his tone is quite smooth and soft, considering how light his technique is and how he doesn’t tend to favor chest-dominance in his mix, it emphasizes how boyish his voice truly is. With a higher placement in his overall range, JB would most certainly be classified as a light lyric tenor.

The lower portion of his chest voice is generally quite airy and lacks support overall. He seems to take on the teachings of JYP with his “half air, half sound” stylistic approach only in certain parts of his range. Most of his middle voice remains quite clean throughout, but his lower and upper registers are often very airy and quiet. Whenever JB sings in his lower range, support is present with a clear amount of tone down to F3 and E3, but below E3 his voice becomes very quiet, airy and disconnected. As he’s unable to use the right amount of contact between his vocal cords, his muscles lack strength and his voice is unable to remain projected and supported below E3. This can be heard in the range below E3, such as in “못잊은 거죠“, as well as “응급실.”

His mixed voice is generally quite balanced in approach, leaning more towards a head dominant overall development. He tends to sound quite light and bright, without using too much weight from his chest voice as he ascends in range. Whenever he sings softly in his mix, he’s able to remain completely relaxed and supported up to F4, a little above his first passaggio. However whenever he adds more volume to his mixed voice, he becomes more pushed and the back of his throat gets tense, creating glottal tension that blocks his voice and causes him to sound throaty and pushed even within his supported range. The contrast can be heard when comparing his E4‘s and F4‘s in “내가 노래를 못해도” and “달빛“, to his F4’s in “못잊은 거죠” and “Forever Love.”

When singing above F4, he tends to sound quite tight and strained. Most of the time his larynx raises above F4, where his voice is unable to remain opened and relaxed. This is also highlighted by his placement, where JB isn’t able to lift his soft palate. As such, his voice can project quite clearly, but tends to stay stuck in his nose a lot. This can block his sound and cause him to lose roundness in his overall tone. This alongside his throatiness and tightness above F4 causes him to sound quite whiny and shrill when belting. This can be heard with the F#4’s in “못잊은 거죠“, “Forever Love“, G4’s in “너를 위해“, “못잊은 거죠“, G#4’s in “Stay“, “Forever Love“, A4’s in “1시34분” and Bb4’s in “Honey.”

His upper register is where most of his improvement can be heard. Most of the time in the past JB would struggle quite a bit with remaining clear and stable in his falsetto, often losing the center of pitch and sounding rather weak and shaky. This can be heard in many performances such as different performances of “We All Try“, as well as different performances “난 니가 좋아.” This issue has been mostly fixed and his voice seems to be more developed in his lower falsetto range, as he’s now able to transition a lot more smoothly while remaining much closer to the overall center of pitch in songs. This can be heard in “너를위해“, “1시34분” as well as “Stay.” Even then, he’s never been able to show support in this register, as well as never using a true head voice. The airiness and the gap of sound between his mix and his falsetto are quite noticeable and this limits the overall development of his voice, as heard by the tightness and discomfort as he ascends up to Eb5 and E5 in his falsetto, such as in “온몸이 반응해” and “매일.” More recently he showed that he can push his falsetto as high as C6 during a high note battle with the other members of GOT7.

Musically speaking JB is able to project his voice with enough air flow to change the volume output in his vocal performances quite well. On top of that, he’s also able to remain clean in pitch within his supported range. Despite that, he’s not able to explore the full extent of dynamic changes in songs due to the lack of development in his overall air supply and the limit of breath support. Adding onto his mostly nasal placement, he doesn’t truly explore more sounds and texture in his tone, remaining limited to a bright and nasal quality, or an airy quality. The lack of openness, chestiness and development of his other registers makes him unable to produce true resonance as well.

Overall JB has shown good improvement from his earlier debut days until now. However so, there’s still a lot of room for more improvement. He is a young vocalist and has had a short career so far, so the future is still open for a lot more improvement. Considering the type of songs he usually sings, working on his runs and his mixing would help him explore a wider variety of difficulty and genres, where he’d be able to take on more challenging songs and truly develop the full potential of his tenor instrument.

Musicianship

Most of his musicianship tends to be quite subtle and he does have a tendency to add his own runs in songs quite often. However due to him having not developed to correct muscle memory and rhythmic approach to his runs, most of the time the delivery is quite pitchy and sloppy. Harmonically speaking JB is able to maintain his harmonies adequately well, even if he may not be able to support his voice as high as some harmonies may take him. Despite that he’s able to somewhat blend his voice to others, but may need to work on proper placement in order to keep his voice from sticking out in harmonies, as heard in “달빛.”

Label (Type of Vocalist)

C Vocalists: Commercial Vocalists

Vocal Range Video(s)

Best Vocal Performance(s)

Analyzed by Ahmin (Kitsunemale)

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87 thoughts on “GOT7’s Vocal Analysis: JB

  1. Sometimes when I see “some sense of support”, I thought that the person might be weak since most of the weak vocalists don’t really support or only have shallow support, but then he managed to be in between, did his improvement in pitch and upper register boost him up?

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    1. Jinyoung isn’t close to JB at all. Although he’s shown improvement in his pitch becoming more centered, but he has basically no support when he sings. If he is unable to support, he couldn’t be rated as anything higher than weak I’m afraid.

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  2. in that ‘neoreul wihae’ video, i actually like his low and falsetto voice. it just when he transition from chest to mix sound like two different person. what is wrong with his mix? is nasality can change voice color?

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    1. I can actually answer this for Ahmin, I think. The transition from chest to mix is more noticeable for JB because his mix becomes head-dominant and nasal and whiny/strained. Think a little bit of Baekhyun whenever he sings above A4, he gets super heady and loses all balance to his mix.

      Nasality can definitely affect the way you sound. For some, the change is small. For others, nasal singing is a style they have developed and they employ it in more pronounced ways. For the second case, this is when people sound most different to their normal voices. If you really want a great example, Niel’s analysis on this blog might have a link to an instance in which he wasn’t nasal. The difference was noticeable.

      Liked by 2 people

  3. This header is particularly cute. Or maybe I just think he’s cute. Awe, his voice is cute too. All of the new analyses are getting me pumped for that infamous chart.
    Do you think he’s about even with V, or does one of them have an obvious edge?

    Liked by 1 person

  4. By inconsistent support you mean they strain at the top of their range at times? I know it can be inconsistent anywhere but meaning average vocalist. Also btw I’m 99% sure who your surprise analysis but I’ll keep quiet.

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    1. No I’m curious as to who you think it is, please let me know. lol Also mhmm Inconsistent support can mean many things, many times it’s at the top of their ranges, typically with higher skilled vocalists. With average and lower vocalists, it’s usually in generally anywhere in their range.

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      1. I don’t believe this ”I’m trying to make all vocalists cute for the headers”, Ahmin. I called you out on this pattern before. This time you went with sexy for all three pictures of JB. For Youngjae, you went cute- majestic cute- drool. I’m on to you and your header making ways. Perfect analyses by the way. I’m not surprised at JB. This is JYP singing.

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      2. Hey Ahmin, this is something I’ve been meaning to ask you. I remember this blog once had something that said that maybe the authors would do rough analyses. I had an idea that you could use. For example, Key of Shinee is requested so much (this is an example).

        Rough Analysis: Shinee’s Key

        Supported range : Note – Note

        Comments based on observation

        Employs such and such in his singing.

        Then the comment section is where fans upload videos of Key saying ”How did he do here?” etc. Or maybe open the comment section for a limited time and as soon as you have an idea of his supported range, close the section and include the videos in the rough analysis.

        This is a suggestion only. I am not one of those fans who wants an analysis for someone who won’t be analyzed, but I initially thought this was a small solution to those questions about other popular but not analyzed vocalists like BTOB Hyunshik and BTS Jimin. I don’t know , I just want to be helpful.

        P.S. I know you want to make a header for Hyunshik and Jimin.

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      3. Actually what it was, was that prior to 2014 most of our analyses weren’t very thorough, nor were they detailed or professional. They lacked content and were very poorly written. So as we started rewriting many of our old analyses, we left very few from 2013. So I name the Grace analyses as rough simply because I didn’t want to redo them but I ended up redoing them anyway and so we have no more “rough” analyses on the blog. I don’t believe any of us ever truly felt like writing rough analyses and considering how thorough I am, I wouldn’t feel comfortable releasing short rough analyses. I do want to make their headers LOL but I don’t know honestly. I don’t think it’d fit with what we do currently.

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    2. I think it’s either Ali or Seulgi & Wendy. My gut is telling me K.Will isn’t so soon lol. Thank you for answering the question

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  5. That means GOT7’s vocal line is better than bts’S?

    Also do you know Se7en vocal range, voice type and supported vocal range?

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    1. Yes that’s correct. Se7ens a light lyric tenor, A2 ~ G#5 is the range I know for him and I don’t know his supported range.

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  6. Funny story. So I’m a dance major and just yesterday a group of us folks were chilling at the studio and someone mentioned your blog, which then prompted us to get into a very heated debate on kinesthesia and which idols actually display above average techniques. It got to the point someone proclaimed they were gonna start their own kpopdanceanalysis blog! (which is definitely not happening because we are all lazy bums, but if it does come about I’m gonna force them to give you a well deserved shout-out, hah.)
    All that talk had me wondering about JB’s current standing as a vocalist – because he’s easily one of my favorite idol dancers and I’m still bitter he kinda dropped the ball on his freestyle to focus on singing – so I checked your blog right after and lo and behooooold, just the update I needed!
    The way you put forward your analysis is very concise and easy to follow. I am by no means vocally inclined, but it was relatively easy to understand your points and I completely agree with each and every one. I wish some fans would be more open-minded about critique. There is always room to improve, be it dance or vocals.

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    1. “Because we’re all lazy bums” LOL Actually hi! So yknow a lot of people have mentioned this to me before, the possibility of a KpopDanceAnalysis blog and many people have said it wouldn’t make sense to do it because many idols have very different styles and some are good at some, like ballet, or street dancing, or break dancing, but not good at others. I personally think it’s very viable because in its essence, it is possible to talk about the general technique, isolation of body movements, good flow, rhythm and all those things which are completely objective and universal regardless of style. Then of course it can be more specific to each style and dancers can be categorized by their main “genre” if anything. Aww shout out? You’re too kind! haha I’m surprised you guys even mentioned our blog, I don’t know many people here in LA who know about it for some reason. lol A friend of mine wanted to make a Rap analysis blog which again is different than singing cause of genre, but it still doable. As for singing, of course there are different genres right? But the changes in technique are very minimal and a lot of it is a lot more influenced by instrumentals than the singing itself so the changes in the voice aren’t drastic enough for the technique to change completely. Like rock music can be sung in a healthy way or an unhealthy way.

      LOL behold. I am glad you think it was easy to follow, since sometimes I worry that I talk in a way that’s too complicated for fans to understand every time, so I try to be as clear as possible which makes me be a bit redundant. I think most fans tend to be quite open and rarely do we get negative responses. I’m still learning not to take negative responses to heart and block users who are immature, but it’s not easy for me haha Anyway thank you for your anecdote and your comment overall! ^ ^

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    1. This performance is mentioned in Youngjae’s analysis. The last notes are a harmonized F#4 from JB with an A4 from Youngjae, both outside of their supported ranges, both strained/tense.

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  7. I’m sort of confused is that he’s consistent with using shallow support but inconsistent with using fully developed support idk.

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      1. Oh thanks I was really trying to avoid asking that to seem dumb but I was very confused lol. But if you know Eric Nam I really like his voice and I can’t tell musical notes when signing but assuming he sang eyes nose lips in the same key his G4’s sound tight to me https://youtu.be/bjP8m3iGeMo
        At 1:12 and 1:15 so I assume he’s average of A to AA at most but I know support is the most important factor and average vocalist use adequate not fully developed support but I can’t tell the difference.

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      2. Mhmm let’s not try to guess his rating for now but yes those G4’s are what he’s hitting, in the original key of the song.

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      1. I thought his support was shallow? But this is kind of random but would you consider his voice to have like that natural R&B sound like jungkook and Kyungsoo

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  8. “He seems to talk on the on the teachings of JYP”

    You probably meant “He seems to take on the teachings”, right?

    I swear I don’t read these analyses so I can find any errors lol, but I feel I should let you know when I do

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  9. I rarely leave comments but as a huge GOT7 fan “Makuhari Masse” is the dome/location they performed at in Japan and the song you are referring to is “Stay” from their Japanese Studio Album

    K bye, love reading your stuff 😛

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    1. Yes, support is the first thing a vocalist is supposed to master. If you can’t breathe properly for singing, you can’t support. If you can’t support, then you don’t know how to sing correctly.

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  10. Hi, I have sort of a random question. I know that you won’t do an analysis of him because he’s probably not even in the top 3 of Got7’s vocalists but do you believe it’s possible for Yugyeom to develop a full sound or is the smallness of his voice simply indicative of his voice type? He almost seems like a male soubrette at times lol.

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    1. It’s completely possible, he would just need more chest qualities in his voice to get more of a thicker quality, if that’s what you’re asking.

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      1. Thank you for responding, Ahmin.

        Yes that’s essentially what I’m asking. I guess the other facet that I’m doing a horrible job of getting to is, having heard how he sounds when he speaks, how much fuller/thicker could his singing voice really get? If it helps to have a comparison, in a hypothetical scenario where he implements those qualities you referred to, would you imagine his vocal weight would be similar to JB’s currently for instance?

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      2. I’m not so sure what he sounds like when he speaks and there’s no measuring unit I can use to answer this question, all I know is he could a thicker sound but a thicker sound with strain isn’t much better than he has now. As far as I remember, he’s a tenor I think. So I believe yeah their vocal weight should be similar. I may be wrong.

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  11. Where would Yugyeom and Jinyoung rank amongst the vocals?
    I know Jinyoung is lacking but I feel he has improved.
    And Yugyeom… has shown some varied performances so I’m kinda curious where he falls.

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    1. I’m afraid both would fall under the weak rating. Jinyoung did improve his pitch quite a bit, back when it was JJ Project, he was hardly ever able to sing in pitch throughout a whole line, he is a lot better at controlling the basics of his voice now.

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    1. This has been asked about before:

      “0:07 G#3 drop of support. 0:14 slightly flat. 0:15 lowered larynx G#3 to F#3, 0:21 E3’s, just whispered with a lowered larynx. 0:31 a bit too whiny and too gritty of him, he is also a bit too airy but it’s mostly stylistic for both of them. His transition into falsetto was nice. 0:50 his aye vowel could be more opened and relaxed. 0:56 G#4’s that are mixed have support, anything in her upper register including C#5’s and Bb4’s are mostly falsetto and as such lack support. I mean it’s live enough, it’s live vocals… 1:43 closed diction, shallow support from her. She was barely attempting it. 1:55 G#4 to F#4 throaty for him. She sounds mostly nasal throughout as well, as does he. 2:28 pitchy run. 2:35 closed throat throughout her falsetto in the fifth octave, including the E5. This song isn’t really challenging at all, she’s not mixing high, she’s not using her head voice at all, she is not using proper technique in her mix, it’s a bit too airy, she is not using a proper head voice either and lacks support overall. Baek Ayeon isn’t a very technical vocalist regardless, she is more of a pretty tone but she supports, at least that much is true.” I did focus more on Baek Ayeon because they asked about her.

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  12. Okay Now how would you analyze Jinyoung in this video, ALSO what about yugyeom? I always wondered who’s a better singer, yugyeom or Jinyoung?

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    1. This is a compilation video. He has no true support, he sounds really flat both in pitch and in tone production. He lacks depth. He is fairly nasal, pushed and tense when he sings. 0:41 pitchy as well. This is a Jinyoung compilation video, it doesn’t show Yugyeom. They aren’t very different vocally, there’s very little to compare them with as well.

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      1. Both Jinyoung and Yugyeom sang recently on Singderella. Can you tell me how they did? I feel like Jinyoung has improved somewhat, especially in tone production.

        Jinyoung:

        Yugyeom:

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      2. Well Yugyeom is not a main nor lead vocalist, so he doesn’t really get highlighted vocalist. All he is doing is singing with air, there’s no real support. 0:19 0:22 0:24 0:30 0:33 0:35 all of his E3’s are really raspy and sharp. 0:20 0:27 flat. 0:42 tight throat, nasal, high larynx. He sounds really tight, he doesn’t have a real basis of technique, he is really pitchy too. He does have a cute voice.

        Jinyoung also has a pretty voice. 1:05 flat He sounds a lot less airy than Yugyeom, but he is really singing in his throat and he sounds really shallow. 1:16 1:22 F4’s, it’s really just in his throat. He is not relaxing at all. He reminds me a lot of old 90’s K-pop vocalists or like Lee Seunggi, pure throat but not necessarily airy. I mean I agree that Jinyoung improved since his debut with JB & Jr. but not after his last improvement, like to me after his more major improvement in pitch and tone production, he’s stayed pretty stagnant.

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      1. Oh thank you so much for answering, is was a big question I had because my voice is a little bit similar to his, it was very surprising to know that we have the same first passage, maybe I’m also a tenor omg. LOL anyway, thank you very much:)

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  13. as a fan i wanna ask can jb and youngjae improve more and be upgraded in your list? i mean is it a matter of practise or a matter of birth given voice?

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    1. This isn’t a rating of their voices, it’s an analysis of vocal technique and skill. Skill can always be worked on and improved, so it’s nothing to do with ones birth.

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    1. nope he’s a tenor listen to his parts in like oh and take my hand he’s straight tenor he doesn’t have a developed technique but he has a light and high placed voice and i don’t hear much weight in the 2nd octave
      0:35 if he was a baritone he wouldn’t mixe F#4s that easily https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsxFBK_qAo8

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    2. Wow I’m pretty sure most people by first impression would deduce by his timbre that he’s a Tenor. Despite the very bright, boyish and occasionally feminine nature of his tone, his voice does seem to be a tiny bit weightier than a typical Tenor, he also switches to falsetto very often. However I think the latter might be a Jungkook-type of issue. Always hear him sing in his mix and falsetto, don’t know about passagio but it’d mess me up more to know he’s a Baritone than when Ahmin told me that Donghyun was a Baritone @.@

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  14. What can you say about JB’s high note around 3:20? I know jb has a lot of strained notes, but this sounds kinda okay, i guess

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    1. I don’t hear anything, the falsetto is still fairly breathy and unsupported. Youngjae is shouty and has jaw and glottal tension, JB is straining through the chorus. The range is G#4 or higher. It’s too high actually at some parts, but nothing new. It feels like it’s lip synched.

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  15. Hi! I’d like to know what are the voice types of got7’s rappers, Jackson is probably a baritone but how about mark and bambam?

    Also, how would you rank the vocalists’ falsetto?
    Keep on with the great analysis

    Like

  16. hey here is a new performance of lb he sounds pretty natural and relaced i think i dont know if you see anything new but you should know this is a new self produced song

    Like

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