Mezzo-Soprano Vocal Range: Notes, Famous Singers & Karaoke Songs
The notes a mezzo-soprano typically sings, A3 to A5, on a piano keyboard, plus karaoke songs that fit the voice as written.
Are you a mezzo-soprano? Sing into your mic and find out in about a minute.
Test your vocal rangeThe typical mezzo-soprano vocal range runs from A3 to A5, two full octaves. The middle-range female voice type. On the keyboard above, the green band is the mezzo-soprano range, lined up with the keys it covers, and the grey bands are the other female voice types (soprano, C4–C6; alto, F3–F5) for comparison.
What is a mezzo-soprano?
Mezzo-soprano is the middle female voice type, sitting between the soprano above and the alto (contralto) below. A typical mezzo sings from A3, the A below middle C, up to A5, two octaves higher. Opera divides mezzos into lyric, coloratura and dramatic voices, from light and nimble to big and dark.
A mezzo range covers a lot of the notes pop, rock and musical theatre melodies use, with room above and below. If sopranos' songs feel a little high and altos' songs a little low, you may be right in the middle, which makes mezzo one of the luckiest voices to bring to a karaoke night.
Karaoke tips for mezzo-sopranos
Because your range covers so much of the pop sweet spot, the main trap isn't finding songs that fit. It's picking songs that show off the warm middle of your voice instead of fighting the top of it.
- Lean into belted choruses. Songs that build from a low verse into a strong chorus around C5 suit a mezzo perfectly.
- Drop the key a step for the real showstoppers. Songs written for big sopranos often peak above A5. A one- or two-step key change keeps the drama without the strain.
- Try songs sung by men an octave up. Many male rock songs land in a great spot for a mezzo when you sing them an octave higher.
- Don't chase the whistle notes. Skip the ad-libs nobody expects you to hit and own the melody instead.
How to tell if you're a mezzo-soprano
Your voice type comes from more than your top and bottom notes. Voice teachers also listen for your tessitura (where your voice is most comfortable), your timbre and the spots where your voice shifts gears. Range on its own doesn't decide it. Still, range is the easiest place to start, and it's all you need to pick better karaoke songs.
- Measure your range. The free vocal range test listens through your mic while you slide from your lowest comfortable note to your highest. It takes about a minute and your audio never leaves your device.
- Compare it with A3–A5. If your range covers most of the mezzo-soprano band and lines up with it better than with soprano or alto, mezzo-soprano is your closest match. Once you've taken the test, your range shows up on the chart above as a dashed band, with how many semitones you share.
- Check where it feels good. Sing a song from the list below. If the verses feel easy and the chorus doesn't strain, you're in the right zone. If everything feels like a stretch, try the songs on the soprano page or the alto page instead.
One more thing: the mezzo-soprano range is exactly one octave above the baritone range (A2–A4). On average a man's top notes sit about half as high in frequency as a woman's, which is one octave.
Famous mezzo-sopranos
Singers whose sources put them in the mezzo-soprano voice type, each with their range on the same keyboard:
Karaoke songs for mezzo-sopranos
These are the songs from our karaoke lists whose published range fits inside A3–A5 as written, so you can sing them in the original key. The ones with the most room to spare at both ends come first. Each one links to its write-up, with the range source.
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Want more? The Best karaoke songs for women list has more picks for every kind of voice, with range and difficulty for each song. Songs slightly outside your range still work with a key change, and the karaoke song list lets you filter every song by range.
All six voice types compared
| Voice type | Typical range | Voice | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Soprano | C4–C6 | Female | [1] |
| Mezzo-soprano | A3–A5 | Female | [1] |
| Alto | F3–F5 | Female | [1] |
| Tenor | C3–C5 | Male | [1] |
| Baritone | A2–A4 | Male | [1] |
| Bass | E2–E4 | Male | [1] |
Ranges: Wikipedia, "Voice type", which follows the classification in McKinney's The Diagnosis and Correction of Vocal Faults. Alto is listed there as contralto.
See them all on one keyboard on the vocal range chart.