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Incredibly Long Note

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"We'll sing 'til the rafters ring
And emote 'til we overbloat
And then this song, this song will end
With a really long nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooote!"
Forbidden Broadway's parody of Ragtime

A Music Trope. A character in a musical or band ends his song singing a long note.

A very long note.

An incredibly long note, in fact.

Jesus, how much breath does this guy have?!

Can become an Overly Long Gag if held ridiculously long—and it often is—unless, of course, it's not meant to be a gag at all. A parodic version, for instance, would demonstrate just how unbearably long the character is holding that note for, and other characters will probably try to stop it. Doesn't have to be the last note of the song, by the way—long notes tend to appear in the middle of the song as well. Often done after Chewing the Scenery through the song. If the note is particularly loud or high, it might become a Glass-Shattering Sound.

Not to be confused with one character leaving another one 'a quick note' that goes on for several sheets of paper.


Examples

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    Parodies 
  • Paul and Storm:
    Appeal for one more opportunity
    Drop to my knees to elicit a crowd response
    Prayers to my chosen deity
    Modulation and I hold a high nooooooooooooooooooooooote...
  • One episode of The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo found the gang needed to stall until sunrise to fend off the ghosts. Asking for a last request of a song, Scooby holds the last note until sunrise. It's only about twenty to thirty seconds from our perspective, but it's long enough to annoy everyone else.
  • Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat has the song "Canaan Days." The end features the brothers holding a note for a very long time, running out of breath (possibly making a joke about cigarettes), and then resuming the note.
  • The Three Caballeros has Panchito singing the last note of the title song to the annoyance of Donald and José, who precede to do everything in their power to stop him. Nothing works, until a blue sheet is pulled over him and he seems to disappear under his sombrero.
  • The end of "Weird Al" Yankovic's song Spy Hard, has him singing an incredibly high note for so long, that his head explodes! Apparently they were originally planning to extend the note digitally, but then they discovered that Weird Al could actually hold the note that long all on his own.
    • Which itself is a parody of the theme from the James Bond movie Thunderball sung by Tom Jones, who (according to a debunked legend) held the final note so long he passed out.
    • Which is in turn a shout-out to the earlier James Bond movie From Russia with Love sung by Matt Monro, who held the last note of that song considerably longer than Jones did.
    • Back to Yankovic: the one at the end of "Smells Like Nirvana" isn't nearly as long as most other examples in this page, but the effect echoes this: the song ends with Al coughing after sustaining the final note (he even faints in the music video).
    • During live performances of "The Saga Begins", Al likes to stretch one line: "I'm still here and heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee's a ghost" (the band will even stop to wait!).
  • In Shrek, Fiona starts singing with a bird, but they do a note so long and so high the bird explodes. That last note is also horrendously off-key. Cameron Diaz was unable to hit the note, much less sustain it, so they had to bring in a professional opera singer to do the singing part there. Y'know what they say: it takes a very good singer to sound that bad.
  • Martin Short on Late Night With David Letterman (which Nathan Lane mirrors to the T for some reason).
  • In the Bugs Bunny short "Long-Haired Hare", Bugs pretends to be a conductor in order to torment opera singer Giovanny Jones (in retribution for destroying his instruments and injuring him in the process). Near the end he has Jones hold a note for 45 seconds, until it causes the collapse of the orchestra shell above the singer's head, and then for a few more seconds when he causes a rock teetering on the collapsed frame to fall onto Jones, presumably crushing his skull. (In other words, Bugs literally "brought down the house".)
  • In ¡Three Amigos! (with Steve Martin) as they sing their theme song there's one part where they hold one note for a comically long time before continuing.
  • Given how much P.D.Q. Bach Peter Schickele loves the Overly Long Gag, it's not surprising that he has a bunch of these.
    • Parodied in The Stoned Guest: Carmen Ghia takes a breath in the middle of a long note and a voice cries, "I heard that!" In one of her duets with Donna Ribalda, an Intermission is taken as they hold their penultimate note ("Have you got a stopwatch?"). Post-intermission, they continue holding their note as the host, Milton Host, leisurely summarizes the rest of the opera for the listeners. Just at the end, he notes that the singers are getting "quite red in the face," so it was time to return to the plot.
    • The Stoned Guest also has Don Octave gearing up for one of these, but he screws it up partway through. (Appropriately enough, it is in his "I Am" Song, during which he laments that he can't do anything right.)
    • Another P.D.Q. Bach example: in The Abduction of Figaro, Pecadillo gets two of these in a row, when he's calling Blondie in Act 1.
    • There is no singer, but the first two notes in the Schleptet in E Flat Major are well over ten seconds each; in typical performances the horn player falls out of their seat by the end of the second note.
  • In "Anything You Can Do" from Annie Get Your Gun, Annie sings, "Any note you can hold, I can hold longer," and then proves that, yes, she can.
  • Mentioned multiple times in Forbidden Broadway's spoof of Ragtime. First in the parody of "Wheels of a Dream (A Really Long Note)":
    "And then this soooooong
    This song will eeeeeeeee~nd
    With a really long nooooooooooooooooote!"
    • And then in "We Can Never Go Back to Before (I'll Never Get Back My Award)":
      "They can never recount or revote
      So I'll just sing a reeeeeally loooooong noooooooooooooooooooote!"
    • And finally ending with "Make Them Hear You (Make Them Shoot You)":
      "When they shoot you
      Sing that looooong noooote aaaagaaaaaaaaaiiiiiin!"
  • Family Guy:
    Peter: I'm doin' this for you / but it's really for meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee [Commercial Break] eeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
    • Lois: Peter, are you gay?
    Peter: Guiltyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!
  • Speaking of 'Family Guy', Seth Macfarlane has held some fantastic long notes (besides Peter). Occasionally, when singing 'One More For My Baby', he'll hold a note/passage in the middle for longer than twenty seconds.
  • Joke example: A guy sees a sign for the "World's Longest Underwater Tarzan Yell Contest". He asks what the current record is, and is told "Dunno, last year's contestants still haven't finished yet".
  • In Here We Are The Soldier and Fritz sing "Oh my Gooooooooooood!!!" in unison for an extremely long time during their Love at First Sight song, crossing over into Overly Long Gag when the actors run out of breath and have no restart partway through.
  • Murder Most Horrid had an episode which reached a climax with a woman going to be shot when she finished the last word of her song. The last word lasted a long time.
  • Mystery Science Theater 3000: in The Leech Woman Tom loses it and acts like Ma Clampet from The Beverly Hillbillies screaming "Jeeeeeed" For THE ENTIRETY OF THE ENDING CREDITS. 57 unbroken seconds.
  • Title of the Song by Da Vinci's Notebook:
    Modulation and I hold a high nooooooooote...
    • The note is then held through the next repetition of the chorus.
      I'm still goiiiiiiiiiingg...
  • A radio station in Troy, N.Y., once edited Jay and the Americans' "Cara Mia" so that the long note near the end stretched to over a minute. It's still a long note either way, though, and an incredibly high one at the very top of Jay Black's vocal range.
  • Glee: Kurt's audition features this gem from Chicago: "Never! Even! Knooooooooooooooooooooo *fixes his hair* ooooooooooooooooow I'm there."
    • The score for the song "Mr. Cellophane" actually says "vocalist continues note after orchestra stops"; though there is no indication that this is a gag, it is often played that way to emphasize the injustice of the character's invisibility.
  • "My Pink Half of the Drainpipe" by the The Bonzo Dog Band ends with Vivian Stanshall hitting a dramatic high note that goes on and on and on (and is clearly a looped tape), after the band itself has stopped, and cuts off abruptly at songs' end.
  • "Marty" by Five Iron Frenzy ends with Reese Roper holding the last note long after the rest of the band stops playing, until he runs out of breath.
  • While the power of Adam Lambert's vocal cords is common knowledge, the note he holds during the bridge of "Pick U Up" is, in a word, sublime
  • I wish, I wish, I wish, I wish a bitch wouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuld... *deep breath*
  • In the film adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera (2004), everyone takes a deep, synchronized breath during the last note of "Prima Donna".
  • "Johnny One Note" from the Rodgers and Hart musical Babes In Arms is about a singer who can only sing one particular note, but does so very loud and very long.
    • "Johnny could only sing one note, and the note he sang was this - aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa..."
  • In Chowder Grows Up, Chowder holds the last note of his "I Don't Want To Grow Up" song so long that a Time Skip occurs in the interim. He, in fact, grows up over the course of holding that note.
  • In Chicago, the second last note in "We Both Reached for the Gun" usually is a long note, but this actor holds it for freaking 23 seconds solely for this purpose. Showoff...
    • The actor playing Billy Flynn is seemingly given license to hold that penultimate note for as long as they want. And, if you think that 23 seconds is a long time, the current (at least, as of April 2016) record holder goes to Jason Danieley, who managed to keep the note going for 35 and a half seconds. The video proving it even has him move closer to the backstage camera and spin around while holding the note, just to have the audio prove that it's all coming from the zeppelin dirigibles mounted in his rib cage.
  • The Igudesman and Joo version of "Ticket to Ride" has one of these at the end of the bridge, complete with a comically deep breath in the middle.
  • A side project of the band Psychostick, Murph and Gawkman, gives us "The Dumb Song", which plays with this trope:
    Gawkman: I'm never, ever wrong, and that's all you'll ever beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee...
  • Tim Minchin puts one at the end of F-Sharp. Warning: May cause physical pain to those with musical training.
  • The end of Can You Stand Upon One Leg? by The Divine Comedy has lead singer Neil Hannon lampshade how holding a singing note 'for a stupidly long time' is his party piece, and decides to challenge himself by making it a high note, encouraging the listener to do the same. He holds it for almost exactly 30 seconds, and generally finishes many of his more recent performances with this song (because, really, if you're going to do that, you pretty much HAVE to finish on it).
  • In "Bad Opera", an early Saturday Night Live sketch, the soprano in the famous German bad opera Die Goldenklang ("The Golden Note") sings a high C of such pitch and duration that she suffers from "Larynx Lock", and can never stop singing the note.
    • Bonus points for the soprano in question being the great Madeline Kahn!
  • Stephen Lynch really likes to dick around with this one in his comedy songs, usually toward the end of a given song.
  • One of the "Fenslerfilm" G.I. Joe PSAs features an incredibly long belch. Well, that is not really the example contained in this entry; rather, they do it again right afterwards by stretching out the usual sung "G.I. Jooooooooe" to about 20 seconds just to cement the Overly Long Gag.
  • The Nostalgia Chick's review of Les Misérables ends with a rendition of "One Day More" by a number of singers on the Channel Awesome site. The Nostalgia Critic gets to hold the long note and plays it for laughs.
    • There's also the one from her My Little Pony review.
  • Balloon Shop made good use of this trope in both "The Sargentos" and "The Masked Avenger": In The Sargentos, Olan is overjoyed about the spaghetti that his chef has prepared for "Chris" that he lets out a long shriek similar to the most annoying sound in the world. In "The Masked Avenger", Senor Ortiz's bodyguard adds short bursts of "Oh no!" into the dialogue, at random, finally, he lets it all go for a full 13 seconds. Even Senor Ortiz is a little weirded out.
  • At the start of the song I Fuck Dogs, Paul McDermott pulls a very long note... And gets a headspin for his trouble.
  • Somewhat done by Wayne Brady and Brad Sherwood in this playing of "Greatest Hits" from Whose Line Is It Anyway?, but implied by Colin Mochrie that "they held that 'oooh' for 15 minutes".
  • The Israeli band Kaveret's mock-tango "Sugar in the Tea" includes several instances of this. In the album version, another band member interjects the main instance with a sarcastic "In case of a genuine alarm..." - and then the singer goes on for a while more.
  • "L'AMOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUR-"(face explodes)
  • Spike Jones' rendition of "Glowworm" features the female singer holding one note near the end for such a long time that the guy making fun of the lyrics yells "Turn the page, you fathead!"
  • Progressive commercial featuring Michael Buffer.
  • In the Popeye short Klondike Casanova, Popeye and Olive run a saloon, where she sings the song "I Don't Want to Walk Without You". At one point, she does this while Popeye (who was playing the piano) serves sandwiches.
    Olive: "...'cause I don't want to walk without you no, siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrEEEEEEEEEEE!!!"
  • The Bridgemen had an Incredibly Long Note at the end of their 1978 show. The corps held the final note for 20 seconds (while the drum major was taking his bows). When the drum major finally ended the performance, the entire corps dropped back into a dead faint.
  • Jay Black parodied himself in a later, live performance of "Cara Mia," in which he held his note slightly longer than he had in the original recording—while comically glancing at his watch as if to time it.
  • Les Guignols de l'Info used it to report on Whitney Houston's death, with then-candidate Nicolas Sarkozy providing a "moving tribute"...
    And IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII amrunningfor President...
  • Spamalot features such a note in "The Song that Goes Like This" that leaves the characters begging for the song to just end already. In addition, the very last note shatters the chandelier above them.
  • In The Concert for George (a memorial concert for George Harrison), Monty Python sings The Lumberjack Song (along with an uncredited Tom Hanks). At the end, they hold the "OK" of "and he's OK" until they're gasping for breath.
  • SiIvaGunner:
  • The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel features one in the Steiner Welcome Song, where the lifeguard holds the last note of the male solo for a very long 25 seconds. It's tradition that someone will try to drag out the last note (with the resort record being 42 seconds). Joel arrives mid-note (relieved to have missed the "bear shit" joke) and immediately calls the lifeguard an amateur.
  • A Waluigi cover of "Bohemian Rhapsody" ends with one Waluigi holding the very last note for 18 seconds, which is lampshaded by the other Waluigis.
  • In 2014's televised "Peter Pan Live!", Captain Hook, portrayed by Christopher Walken, holds a very long note at the end of "Hook's Tarantella" as the broadcast goes into a commercial break. When the show returns, he's still standing in the same spot, (presumably) holding the same note.
  • Galavant: At the end of "Hero's Journey," Galavant holds a very long note that he isn't in physical shape to hold. He immediately regrets it.
    Galavant: [deeply inhales] Oh, holy shit, I'm out of shape. Oh, my tummy hurts. That was a long song.
  • A Very Potter Musical: Dumbledore's introduction in "Goin' Back to Hogwarts" consists of an at least 15-second long, "Wel-cooooooooooomme all of you to Hogwarts!" During the original recording his actor Dylan Saunders throws out candy to the audience, while subsequent performances have varied in length and consisted of greeting the audience and other shenanigans. The fans eat it up.
  • At the beginning of Minions, the Universal Studios theme is sung by the Minions themselves. It ends off with one of the minions (Dave?) trying to hold the last note as long as he can, to the point that he collapses on the ground.
  • VeggieTales: In "The Water Buffalo Song", Larry holds an "oo" sound at the end of the first verse that lasts about six seconds, as a reference to ¡Three Amigos!. Being a Silly Song, this is played for laughs, with Larry gradually tipping back throughout the entire note.
  • The Counterpoint Duet in Mitch Benn's "West End Musical" has Mitch sing "It's a sort of call-and-response thiiiiiiiiiiiiing", while Kirsty Newton sings "Then I keep going while he holds that one long note".

    Straight examples 
  • Morten Harket, lead singer of a-ha, holds the record in Europe for the longest note ever held in a pop song- namely, their song "Summer Moved On". That note is held for about 20.3 seconds!
  • In Aida's The Gods Love Nubia, near the end, the ensemble sings "The spirit always burning though the flesh is torn..." followed by a pause in the music, and Aida finishes the line with "Apaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaart!".
    • If you listen carefully, Aida actually holds out "torn" for a while right before that note.
    • Also in Aida, the last note of Easy As Life.
  • What, no one's heard Clay Aiken's rendition of "Solitaire"?
    • An even better example: his and Ruben Studdard's duet of "Jesus is Love" wherein Clay held a note at full belt for 22 seconds.
  • Air Supply's "I'm all out of love, what am I without you? I can't be too late TO SAY THAT I WAS SO WROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG!" Which, at the time, set the record for longest-held unaltered note by a soloist in a #1 hit song. 16.2 seconds.
  • Myles Kennedy of Alter Bridge lets out a freakishly long one at the end of belting the final chorus of Blackbird.
    "May you never be broken agaaaa-(18 seconds later)-aaain!"
  • This guy's audition on American Idol. Funny for us, but the guy was completely serious.
    • Likewise, This guy on his X Factor audition, except he does this twice. Like the American Idol example below, people think it's funny, but he thinks he's serious.
  • Anastasia at the end of Journey to the Past has a long note which last at least 20 seconds.
  • The song "Kiss of the Spider Woman", in the version presented in the revue And the World Goes Round has two instances of a note scored to last over eight measures. The first, coming at the end of the first chorus, is often cut short for choreography or stylistic reasons, but the final note (a high G#) is an excellent opportunity for a strong male vocalist to hold one of these.
  • Sonata Arctica's "Draw Me" — twice.
  • Non-music example: The Arsenio Hall Show announcer Burton Richardson's claim to fame is announcing him as "ARSENIOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO HALL!"
  • A number of Johann Sebastian Bach's organ works also have long sustained notes. The Toccata in F, BVW 540, actually begins with one.
  • Sara Bareilles' "Come Round Soon", at about 2:19. Gives goosebumps every time.
  • Barenaked Ladies. Steven Page. "Break Your Heart."
    Yoooooooour heaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaart!
  • The last minute and 12 seconds of The Beatles' "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" from The White Album consists of George Harrison singing Still my guitar gently weeeeeeeee-eeeeeeee-EEEEEEEE accompanied by his powerful guitar and his haunting Aaah... Aaah... and Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! which can be heard in the background.
    • Similarly, at the end of Harrison's "I Want To Tell You" from Revolver George, John and Paul hold the word "time" well into the fade out.
      • The end of "A Day In The Life" from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band has all four of the Beatles striking a final chord on a piano that lasts 45 seconds.
      • During recording, as the piano faded Lennon turned the gain up so that it remained audible for longer.
  • During the final choral movement of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, he makes the sopranos hold a note long enough to make them pass out.
  • In the Israeli song למה את לא עונה לי (Why Won't You Answer Me?) Yoni Bloh does a very long "WHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHY?!''
  • On the officially released live version of Joan Crawford has Risen from the Grave, Eric Bloom of the Blue Öyster Cult holds the last note of "Joan Crawford has rissssssssssssseeeeennnnnnnnnnnn....." for an unfeasibly long time, finishing on a suffocated gasp before Allen Lanier's piano outro.
  • The Book of Mormon has a "HE-ELLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
  • Boston's "More Than a Feeling". Particularly noticeable when the song keeps showing up in games like Karaoke Revolution and Rock Band.
    Till I see Marianne walk awaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa...
  • David Bowie holds one towards the end of "Ziggy Stardust" on the Stage live album.
  • Elton Britt, a country music singer of the Depression and World War II eras, held a single note – part of a yodel – for 25 seconds in his 1934 hit "Chime Bells." Britt recorded the song several times through the 1930s, with new recordings as late as 1959, where he held the note every time. It was his 1947 version that became an established hit on the then still-relatively new Billboard country charts, the "yo-del-leh-heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee ... " intact.
  • Brütal Legend: DECAPITATIOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO- (hold for about 30 seconds) -OOOOOOOOOOOON!
  • Cab Calloway: "The Saint Louis Bluuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuues!"
    • Cab would eventually work this into some live performances as a show-stopper: he'd hold an especially difficult note, get "challenged" by a wind instrument, and compete with it to see who could keep going for longer.
  • In La Cage aux folles, the chorus holds the last note of the title song for 26 bars (albeit at a very fast tempo). The original Broadway production used a prerecorded vocal track for this.
  • Dylan Carlson holds one note on the guitar for over 30 minutes on the track Like Gold And Faceted.
  • Coco:
    • Ernesto's version of "Remember Me" ends on a rather long high note, leading to the big bell to fall and crush him to his death. Same with Héctor's original version, but on a quieter, more gentle chord.
    • The end finale song "Proud Corazón" has Miguel pull one of these in the final crescendo.
  • Company:
    • The title song has two ensemble verses, each ending with everybody singing "We looooooooooove you!" The second time around, the word "love" is sustained for at least a dozen bars. In the original production, the cast sung this note while on an elevator between the two levels of the set, and since there was no way to make the elevator go faster, the note had to be sustained until it reached its destination.
    • Beeiiiiiiiiiiiiing AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE!!!!!!!!! Damn it, Raul Esparza!
  • Counting Crows did this in the song "Sullivan Street."
  • Lord Worm, the vocalist of Cryptopsy, holds a scream for over 30 seconds on the track Open Face Surgery.
  • In Deemo, we have Myosotis:
    Per ardua ad astra... Bye-bye my doleful aria- AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
  • Joe Elliott of Def Leppard holds a note in the live version of "Make Love Like a Man" that is utterly incredible.
  • Walt Disney loves this. Notable examples include "Hellfire", "Bells of Notre Dame", "Out There", (noticed all three are from the same movie) "Go the Distance", "I Just Can't Wait to be King"... Aladdin has some incredibly long notes too, especially in "Prince Ali" and its Dark Reprise.
  • DORAMATIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII-IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII-IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIKKU! [2]
  • "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" from Dreamgirls is one of the best-known examples in modern theater; it includes not one but two Incredibly Long Notes at the end, back to back. This is the reason Jennifer Holiday won a Tony in 1982 and Jennifer Hudson an Oscar in 2007. There is no mediocrity with this song. Performing it is either a singer's Moment of Awesome or biggest Epic Failure.
  • The Enchant song Pure features a sustained call of the word 'rain' for close to twenty five seconds, as heard here about 3:52 in.
  • Happens a few times in the Eurovision Song Contest, though due to the maximum length rule they don't last as long as most of the other examples already listed. The longest note in the contest happens in Natalia Gordienko's 2021 Moldovan entry Sugar, in which the high note capping off the bridge lasts for 17 seconds and goes over the entirety of the last chorus.
  • The only thing anyone can ever agree on about Fall Out Boy: "The Take Over, The Break's Over" has a really awesome long note in the middle of it, and it is glorious.
  • Farinelli: The title character, an 18th-century castrato, is able to hold a high note so long, he causes women in the audience to swoon. At one point he deliberately holds it long enough to give Haendel a heart attack.
  • It is not uncommon for the actor playing Fyedka in productions of Fiddler on the Roof to see how long he can hold the "Laaaaaaaaaaaaaaazaaaaaaar" in "L'Chaim (To Life)" - with said actor usually holding it until the audience starts applauding. It is also not uncommon for betting to be going on backstage about when said actor will pass out.
  • A lot of barbershop songs end with a single held note (called a "post") and the other three parts resolving around it. YouTube multi-tracker Finey Leee demonstrates for your enjoyment. (34 seconds, for those wondering.)
    • And no mention of barbershop would be complete without a shout-out to Tim Waurick, who is no stranger to 30-second posts as seen here. (skip to 3:50)
  • Florence + the Machine in "No Light, No Light", with Florence holding the note from the end of the bridge to the final chorus.
  • In a slightly more subtle example, in the Foo Fighters song "Monkey Wrench", Dave Grohl starts a rant with "One last thing..." coming out of the bridge and finishes with a long-held "freeeeee" — the entire thing is done without a pause for breath and is over twenty seconds of shouting. This was almost certainly done through editing; it's notable that in live performances, Dave never has enough breath to get through the whole thing.
  • The current real life record for sustaining a vocal note is held by singer Dean Frenkel at 57 seconds. If you include sustained notes on a musical instrument, Kenny G used to hold the record, having sustained a note on a saxophone for 45 minutes, 47 seconds. Costa Rican Geovanny Escalante currently holds the record with over 90 minutes of continuous playing. Of course, saxophonists—unlike singers—can use circular breathing...
    • Vocally, it is actually possible for any experienced singer to hold a note out for a very long time, if that note is very soft. Obviously, a louder sound takes more air, so if you sing softly it is incredible how long a note can be held. Most of these examples, however, are belted, which is much more impressive.
  • Peter Gabriel has a quite effective one at the end of "I Grieve".
  • Brazilian song "Galopeira", originally performed by (at the time) child singer Donizeti but made popular by Chitãozinho & Xororó, is famous for drawing out its title line for a ridiculous amount of time, specifically 15 seconds.
  • On his only studio effort Grace, Jeff Buckley makes a "Hallelujah" last 23 seconds in, wait for it, Hallelujah.
  • The final note of "Invitation to an Autopsy" by Grace & Tony is held for 17 seconds.
  • Guns N' Roses: Sweet chi-aha-aha-aha-aha-aha-aha-ahild of miyiiiiiiiiiiiiiine~
    • And don't you cry... toniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii-yah-yah-yaaaaaaaaahiiiiiiiiiiiiyaaaaaaaaahiiiiiiiiiiiiyaaaaaaaaahiiiiiiiiiiii...
      • Let's add that ridiculously long one in "I.R.S." on Chinese Democracy.
      • Arguably, what takes the cake is the final scream of "You Could Be Mine". Just when you think it's over Axl somehow manages to grow an additional lung and keeps going for a few more seconds.
  • In "Burn" from Hamilton, Eliza holds an A4 on "mine" at the end of the crescendo, before dropping down into a quiet whisper for the last line of the song.
  • Irish singer Lisa Hannigan's "Prayer for the Dying" from At Swim is all about this from the opening line: "The praaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayerrr for, the dyyyyyyyyyiiiiiiiiiinnnnnng..."
  • "I Want Out" by Helloween. After the solo, Michael Kiske sings "leave me aloooooooooooooooooone" for about 20 seconds, overdubbed over the chorus. Immediately after the note is over, Kiske's overdubbed chorus voice sings "to leave my life and to be freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-ohhhhhhh" for the last 13 seconds or so.
  • The Hollies: All I need is the air that I BREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEATHE!!
  • Japanese singer Minako Honda does this for at least 28 seconds in her song "Wings."
  • One of the most well-known examples of this is from Whitney Houston: "And IIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEIIIIIII will always lo-ove yoooooooooouuuuooouuouuuu..."
    • In the Dolly Parton original, it's more like "IIIIIIIII will alllllllll-waaaaaaaaaays love yoouuuu..."
  • The Idolmaster gives us the last line of "ALIVE" ("sekai ga aruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!") which is twice as long in the M@STER version as in the game version.
  • If/Then has the last note of 'Always Starting Over'.
    "My new life starts right... nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow!"
  • "Run To the Hills" by Iron Maiden. You'll know the part.
    • "Hallowed Be Thy Name", too.
    • The first verse of the Title Track, "The Number of the Beast", is prefaced by a legendary scream Bruce Dickinson has not been able to match since, much less ordinary humans.
  • The James Bond series has a long, long, long love affair with this trope. See exhibits A, B, and C for more details.
  • Masaaki Endoh's schtick in JAM Project, in Steel Messiah and 110000000 (from Niconico Douga Selection: Waste of Talent).
    • To say nothing of the truly EPIC one in JAM Project's cover of Omoide wa Okkusenman. GURAFITIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!!!!!!!
  • "Gethsemane" in Jesus Christ Superstar is a no-mediocrity, nail-it-or-fail-it number. Some performers like to add to the awesomeness by holding a long note over the crescendo — one outstanding example being Steve Balsamo.
  • JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Sono chi no sadame… JOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-JO!
  • Jumalatar: "IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII feel like a Private Eyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyye!"
  • Hal Ketchum holds out the last "keep your mansions of gooooooooooold" at the end of "I Know Where Love Lives", complete with a very impressive vibrato.
  • During KISS's MTV Unplugged concert, the band actually stops playing for a while so Paul Stanley can drag out a high note during "I Still Love You".
  • Kitananx is pretty fond of this.
    • For example:
    Knoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo-hooooooo-hooo-hoooooow iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiits.—
    ...And then we'll do a battle, within the center of the miiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii-iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiind!
    • And then there's Break The Vase, which contains THREE incredibly long notes in the ending.
  • The last note of So Much Better in the musical adaptation of Legally Blonde ("I am so much better...than befoooooooooooooooooore!").
  • The last verse of Tom Lehrer's "Irish Ballad" runs "My tragic tale I won't prolong..." In her performance, Naomi Louisa O'Connell holds the note on "prolong" for a good ten seconds, increasing the length of the verse by 50%.
  • Linkin Park's late co-frontman Chester Bennington bellowed a few of these in some of their songs, though it sometimes crosses with Metal Scream:
    • His two-note, seventeen-second belter at the end of the bridge in "Given Up" is particularly regarded for this trope due to the straight, seamless transition between notes. Though admittedly, he has added a slight pause in between said notes during their later live acts.
    • Then this gets slightly trumped by "War" from The Hunting Party, where he just lets it loose with the long screams, capped with a very long "WAAAAAAAAAAAAR!!!!" at the very end.
  • Eurobeat singer Elena Gobbi, as Lolita, has "Riding on FIIIRRRRRRRE!", particularly the intro and the end of the chorus.
  • From the Love Live! franchise: Riko Sakurauchi has her very long "Rikochan Laser Beeeeeeeeeaaaaam" in the "Guilty Kiss" song "New Romantic Sailors". This is in fact a reference to the anime Love Live! Sunshine!!
  • "The Luckiest Guy On The Lower East Side" by The Magnetic Fields ends in a series of "ride"s of increasingly long duration. They go up in pitch as well.
  • In the stage version of Mamma Mia!, Donna sings "The winner takes it aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaall!" three times during said song's final chorus, with the third time usually lasting as long as the singer can hold the last note (the end of the song is quieter and much less powerful in the film version).
  • Manowar: Hold your hammers HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGH
  • In The Musical adaptation of Matilda, Miss Honey does this at the end of "This Little Girl":
    And another door closes, and Jennyyy's ouuutsiiiiiiiiiiide.
  • The last "fly" in Martina McBride's "A Broken Wing" is held out for thirteen seconds. Martina has said that she can usually sustain it even longer in concert.
  • "Like a bat out of heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeellllll!" In his prime, Meat Loaf was great at this.
  • Idina Menzel, who originated the role of Elphaba in Wicked, has two long notes at the end of "Queen of Swords" from her self-titled album.
  • Near the middle of the Meshuggah song "Sum," vocalist Jens Kidman holds a scream that lasts for over 30 seconds.
  • In Mexican soccer games, people frequently score ¡GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLs!
    • All of Latin America, actually. A football championship between musicians on MTV Brazil even parodied this, with the announcer interrupting the "GOOOOOOOLLLLLLL!" to speak a few things in-between.
  • "Come Alive (War of the Roses)" by Janelle Monáe has this, notable for not only its length (twentyish seconds) but its incredibly high pitch.
  • Terry Jones and Michael Palin play it straight in The Lumberjack Song in Monty Python:
    "He's a lumberjack and he's okaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay, sleepsallnightandheworksallday!"
  • Guitar example: Gary Moore would often use this trope during performances of "Parisienne Walkways", holding one single note for upwards of 30 seconds.
  • Melba Moore's 1982 hit "The Other Side Of The Rainbow": She holds the final note, at full volume, for an astonishing thirty-eight seconds.
  • Michael Jackson's 1997 tribute song to Elizabeth Taylor ends on a "you" held for 19 seconds.
  • Craig Morgan, "Love Remembers". He practically screams the last "remembers" and holds it for 15 seconds.
  • Münchener Freiheit: "The game will never be o-o-over..." and even more so, "Di-a-a-a-a-ana, I know you're near" (or "Di-a-a-a-a-ana, kannst du mich hören" in the German-language original).
  • Muse have their cover of Prague, with an 18-second long vocal note.
  • Olivia Newton-John, "Can I Trust Your Arms": "And you let me faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaall..."
  • Jim Gillette, Lead singer of Michael Angelo Batio's former band, Nitro, belts out a simultaneously awesome and hilarious 30 second falsetto scream in their song "Machine Gunn Eddie" (starting at about 49 seconds in).
  • The musical Paradise Square has Nelly's Eleven O'Clock Number, "Let it Burn" (famously sung by the insanely-talented Joaquina Kalukango). The final "burn" is held for a whopping 20 seconds, which cannot be easy to do eight shows a week on Broadway.
  • The Rock Star Song "Opening Band" by Paul and Storm is three minutes of Self-Deprecation ending with a succession of "Hello"s, the last of which is held for a long time. 22 seconds to be exact, in the studio version. (Considering that they're also listed up in "Parodies", we can be confident that they like this trope.)
  • During one of the Three Tenors shows, Luciano Pavarotti hyper-extends a note during a performance of "O Sole Mio". The other two mock him for this in the next verse.
  • The Phantom of the Opera:
    • In both Phantom and its stage sequel Love Never Dies, the Phantom gets a long note to cap off his solo songs, "Music of the Night" and "Till I Hear You Sing" respectively.
    • In some live productions, the husband does this during the mock opera sequence 'Il Muto' (if the actor can handle it). "I shall not leave, but shall hide over there to obseeeeeeerve heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-(five minutes later)-eeeeeer." Bonus points for also being an incredibly low note. It often gets applause!
    • The last stretch of the title song involve Christine vocalising a series of very high and long notes, demonstrating (a) what the Phantom has taught her and (b) how he puts her in a near-hypnotised state. Being able to hold a clear and steady note at the proper pitch for so long means that Christine's part is only for the best sopranos.
      • Tellingly, aside from a single verse of "I Remember / Stranger Than You Dreamt It", Christine doesn't have any lines until Il Muto near the end of Act 1, likely to give the actress a rest after that song.
    • "You will curse the day you did not doooooo all that the Phantom asked of yoooooooooooooooooooooooooooou!" (Some singers manage to hold that note for over 30 seconds...)
  • Pink Floyd's "Sheep" from Animals has many of these. ''MEEK AND OBEDIENT YOU FOLLOW THE LEADER DOWN WELL TRODDEN CORRIDORS INTO THE VALLEY OF STEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!'' The first two lines of each verse end on a really long note that slowly morphs into a synthesizer drone; it's a really subtle and really cool effect, and you don't notice it until Roger's voice is completely unrecognizable.
    • A similar effect is used in "The Gunner's Dream" from The Final Cut, merging the end of the "hold on to the dream" line and the first note of the sax solo. A straighter and more impressive example occurs further in the same song, when Roger holds the final vowel of "his dream is driving me insaaaaaaaaaaaaaaane" for a good 16 seconds. So long it can still be heard in the background during the next three verses.
  • Mabel introducing herself in The Pirates of Penzance, if the actress can pull it off. (Actually, that's a cadenza, typically of around 30 very short, very staccato notes, but still with no opportunity to breathe between them.)
  • Pokémon, believe it or not, has a couple, even if they don't have any lyrics or anything. Examples are: Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire's Gym Leader Battle, Champion Battle; Pokémon Diamond and Pearl's Route 212, Rival Battle; and Pokémon Black 2 and White 2's remix of the Kanto's Gym Leader Battle (even though previous remixes have a shorter long note), and also Ghetsis' Battle remix. The longest and highest note of all Pokémon history (so far) is Reshiram/Zekrom's Battle theme, which the third to last part of the song ends with one that goes for 17 FUCKING SECONDS.
  • Judas Priest: CAN'T! STOP! THE! PAIN!KILL!ER................................................................................................ (Almost 20 seconds. Have fun with that on Rock Band 2.) PAIN!
  • The Prodigy's "Smack My Bitch Up" from The Fat of the Land has a note sung by Shahin Bada (and almost certainly stretched out digitally) that lasts for 63 beats at approximately 132bpm, making it just under 30 seconds.
  • Radiohead's "Creep" precedes the Last Chorus Slowdown with "Run, run, run, RUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN!
  • In Hell Patrol, by Heavy Metal band Raven (do not confuse by the Judas Priest song of the same name), singer John Gallagher lets out the biggest "NO!" at around the 3:10 mark.
  • Also an example of Careful with That Axe, but The Marshall Arts by Razor has a 27 second long scream that sounds more like a tire squealing than a human being.
  • Kalinka via the Red Army Choir has a number of long held notes, but the longest (starting @ 3:15) goes for 26 seconds.
  • Anthony Stewart Head, of all people, gets a tremendous one in Repo! The Genetic Opera, during the song Let The Monster Rise. Sarah Brightman, as seen below, also gets a few.
    • Also Terrance Zdunich's Graverobber, who holds an incredibly long screaming note, no less. Twice. GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAVES
  • NintendoCapriSun of The Runaway Guys yells "LET'S GET READY TO RUMBLE!" during a Super Smash Bros. game. He drags the last syllable of "Rumble" out for at least ten seconds. And he could've kept going, but he dissolved into laughter and interrupted himself. Needless to say, the others are dumbfounded.
    "What else can you do, Tim?!"
    • Here he holds a note for 31 seconds.
  • Roza Rymbaeva draws it out in "Alia". "AAAAAALIIIIIIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! Aru qyzy sen khaaaaalqyyyyyymnyyyyyn! AAAAAALIIIIIIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! Batyr qyzy sen khaaaaalqyyyyymnyyyyyn! Yerke kusy sen daaaalaaaamyyyyn! AAAAAALIIIIIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
  • Camille Saint-Saëns' Sympony No. 3 contains a number of very long notes. If one is going to have an organ obbligato in a symphony, one may as well take advantage of it.
  • This performance of Scriabin's Poem of Ecstasy ends with a 19-second chord.
  • Seryoga! Seryoogaa! Seryooogaa! Seryoogaaa! Seryoooogaaaaa!
  • The last note of "Meditation No. 1" from the musical version of Shenandoah. "For as long as the Lord will allow," indeed.
  • Freddy Curci of Sheriff holds a falsetto YOOOOOOOOOUUUUU for 26 seconds at the end of "When I'm With You".
  • Jónsi of the band Sigur Rós is known for doing this during live performances of "Festival". One such example can be heard on the band's live album Inní.
  • The Fatboy Slim song "Praise You" has vocals taken from the song "Take Yo' Praise" by Camille Yarbrough, but the "should" starting at 0:32 is digitally treated to last for a whopping 46 seconds!
  • Sofia the First: In "Make Way for Miss Nettle", Miss Nettle sustains a long note in her Villain Song of the same name, which she gets applause from the plants she summoned with her magic.
  • The original theatrical release close music for Star Wars ("A New Hope") ends on a very long note.
  • Stratovarius are fond of this, particularly in "Out of the Shadows" ("WEEEEE GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!") and especially "Fantasia", in which Timo Kotipelto holds "Let us all uniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiite" for an impressive length of time, then continues singing immediately after it. And then does it again later in the song. The best example, however, has to be "Dreamspace", at the end of which Timo Tolkki sings "No hope left, I want to" and then belts out a falsetto "DIIIIIIIIIIIIIE!" which lasts for about 20 seconds.
  • When performing Styx's 'Suite Madame Blue', Dennis DeYoung seems to like doing this during the verse 'You've conquered the world, and mooooooooooore ... '. It's not drawn out on the studio version; it's only when live.
  • "Dim All the Lights" from Bad Girls by Donna Summer once held (and may still?) the record for the longest note held in an American Top 40 pop hit.
  • Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street has a lot of these:
    • At the end of the first "Ballad of Sweeney Todd"
    • Sweeney has an epic one (upwards of 20 seconds) at the end of the quartet of Johanna, and most of the stage Sweeneys pull it off rather well. Johnny Depp? Not so much.
    • Johanna and Anthony have ALOT of these.
    • The Beadle has about 3 in "Ladies and Their Sensitivities"
    • Also Pirelli. Oh Lord, Pirelli.
  • Tanz Der Vampire: In Dance of the Vampires, Michael Crawford held a note at the end of Act I for a very long time, as he was escorting his bride across the drawbridge into his castle. (Though it was pre-recorded, not actually performed live).
  • They Might Be Giants:
    • Near the end of "See the Constellation", the Johns holding the last note in "Do you hear what I see in the sky?" for roughly fifteen seconds.
    • "Til My Head Falls Off" ends with the two Johns singing the last "off" for over ten seconds straight.
    • John Linnell singing the end of Fingertips in this TMBG podcast starting at 6:18 and ending at 6:37, a full 19 seconds of him singing the letter "I"... He becomes noticeably out of breath the last few seconds.
  • Thomas & Friends:
    "Accidents, incidents, accidents happen juuuuust... like thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat!"
  • In "Birdsong" by Tomahawk, Mike Patton holds a ridiculously long "say" near the end of the song (about the four-minute mark).
  • In the tool song "The Grudge," singer Maynard Keenan holds a primal scream for 24 seconds, though it degrades significantly by the end. At concerts, the audio technicians loop the live scream back on itself so it lasts longer and causes less strain.
  • Regine Velazquez does this at the end of almost all of her songs. It's no wonder she is the Filipino songbird. Heck, she can go high as C5-D6!
  • When Vinny from Vinesauce played an HD mod of Super Mario Sunshine, the music would sometimes glitch out, leaving it stuck playing the first note of the current song. Vinny called this glitch a "one-note remix", and it became a Running Gag throughout his streams.
    • In the Big Rock Ending of "Tired of Love" from his band Red Vox, he holds the last "love" for a whopping sixteen seconds.
  • A lot of artists on The Voice tend to drag out the last note of their performances as long as possible in a last-ditch attempt to try and get the judges to turn around. In this example from The Voice UK auditionee Ruth Brown holds the last note of "When Love Takes Over" for an astonishing 16 seconds - and it convinces Tom Jones to pick her. Don't think that's very long? You try it.
  • Vylet Pony: The "murdereeeeeeeeeer!" in "The Carrion Child", from Carousel (An Examination of the Shadow, Creekflow...).
  • The Warning, with the last notes of "Wildfire" and "Dust to Dust" respectively. The latter is especially noticeable, because it is sung by Dany(the Guitarist and lead singer) instead of Pau (who takes the lead for "Dust to Dust").
  • The Who: YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!
  • Wicked has this happen a lot, in the form of "The Wizard And I" (Twice!) and "No Good Deed" (FOUR TIMES!) Stephen Schwartz explicitly said that while a mezzo-soprano, the vocal range for Elphaba's role in every other song, might be able to pull it off, she also needs to be a belter for the second number alone.
  • Bill Withers's classic R&B single "Lovely Day" features extremely lengthy held notes whenever Withers is singing "A lovely daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!" in the chorus. Including one which goes on for 18 seconds, which followed another instance which was only slightly shorter!
  • The Wiz has a number of these, most notably the one Dorothy delivers at the end of the last song, "Home":
    "And I learned that we must look inside our hearts to find a world so full of love, like yours, like mine, like...hoooooooooooooooooooooooooome!"
  • Michael Crawford held a 21-second long note during the song 'I Can Get Away With Anything' on opening night of Woman in White.
  • Barbra Streisand's final number in Yentl (Papa Can You Hear Me/A Piece of Sky); her last note clocks in at over 20 seconds. Babs in general is famous for these.
  • Young Frankenstein: Inspector Hans Kemp has one near the end of "He's Loose", and the entire chorus holds one at the end of the same song. (But only on the CD.)
  • Warren Zevon enjoyed holding the last syllable of "Berkeley" in live versions of "Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner" — in the album version it's only 2-3 seconds, but on Learning to Flinch it's a good 17 seconds.

    Musicians 
  • Amy Lee of Evanescence uses this trope so much.
  • Anthony Warlow
  • Koshi Inaba of B'z is a master of this, especially live. In fact, it's pretty much a tradition for him to hold a note in the middle of their song "Juice" when played live. During their 20th anniversary, he manages to hold a note for 22 seconds.
  • Axl Rose, usually at the end of a song.
  • Freddie Mercury. Ludicrously so in the rising "whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy?!" in "Under Pressure".
  • Barbra Streisand
  • Céline Dion
  • Christina Aguilera will throw one of these in occasionally.
  • Montserrat Caballé is the operatic patron saint of this trope, available for loud (which everyone can do in opera) and soft (which is extremely hard to do) high notes on demand.
  • Ethel Merman once bragged she was able to hold a note as long as the Chase Manhattan Bank.
  • Jan Peerce.
  • The late Luciano Pavarotti.
  • Joan Sutherland. A legendary recording of Turandot had her facing up to Pavarotti, with Pavarotti winning by a couple of seconds.
  • Franco Corelli was notorious for this. He had enormous lung capacity and superb breath control, and would hold out on climactic loud high notes whether the score called for it or not. Audiences loved it. Conductors and some fellow artists, not so much. He got very good at sustaining softly as well.
  • Birgit Nilsson, especially when paired against Franco Corelli. They used to have friendly competitions as to who could hold out the longest, especially in Turandot.
  • Leontyne 'glory of my own sound' Price
  • Rockwell Blake
  • Leona Lewis
  • Mariah Carey
  • Pretty much every singer who uses the "high pitched wail" form of Metal Scream.
  • Bruce "Air Raid Siren" Dickinson
  • Michael Crawford
  • Patti LaBelle
  • Thom Yorke
  • Ramin Karimloo
  • Peter Hammill
  • Sarah Brightman
  • Shirley. FREAKING. Bassey.
  • Simon Gallaher
  • Tarja Turunen, former lead singer for Nightwish
  • Tom Jones
  • Whitney Houston
  • Regine Velazquez
  • Roza Rymbaeva
  • Patti LuPone
  • Kenny G once held the world record for the longest saxophone note—he did it via circular breathing.
  • Jessica Simpson, especially on her third album In This Skin.
  • Corrine Drewery of Swing Out Sister, usually as an act of improvisation in live concerts, as she revealed in this interview
  • Doug Walker. Admit it, singers, when he carried out that long note in the 2011 holiday message special and looked bored, you wanted to hit him.
  • Marvin Junior, of the Dells.
  • Savage Garden's Hex Hector remix of "Animal Song"
  • The late Israeli singer (and incidentally, Eurovision Song Contest participant) Ofra Haza is fond of this, most notably her vocals in The Prince of Egypt.
  • Klaus Nomi ends "The Cold Song" from Klaus Nomi with one.
  • Sean McCann of Great Big Sea
  • John Cage's "As Slow as Possible" is Exactly What It Says on the Tin. In a church in Germany, the piece is currently being played on an organ. The song has been going on strong since 2001, and will continue until 2640. Notes are held for years at a time, exaggerating this trope.
  • Blue Öyster Cult, "Teen Archer":
    She will smile, she will smile
    She will die, she will die
    She don't caaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaare"
  • GFRIEND: Yuju's high note was a signature sound in their early title tracks. Deconstructed after Sunrise, where other members started to have high notes, too..
  • Dream Theater does this a lot, too.
    "I'm asleep, but I'm SO A-FRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAID!"
  • Brazilian musician Deborah Moreira calls herself "Deborah dos Falsetes" (even if falsetto normally is "singing higher", not "turning your voice into scraping sound") for singing random sentences ending with this.
  • Eurovision Song Contest:
    • The 2008 edition has Azerbaijan's representatives, Elnur and Samir, with TWO EXAMPLES!!!!
    • The 1996 edition has Croatia's Maja Blagdan, whose note is so high, that has even a 30 second length!
    • The 2011 edition has France's Amaury Vassili and Ukraine's Mika Newton, whose notes are primarily used at their songs' endings.
    • The 2012 contest has Albania's Rona Nishliu, whose note is as quite long, as her voice became really high-pitched!
    • Another 2012 edition contestant is Spain's Pastora Soler, whose note is as long as it's actually just a bloodcurdling scream!
    • The 2013 edition has Romania's Cezar Ouatu, whose note has an almost one minute length!
    • Paula Seling, of Paula Seling and Ovi, who both of them represented Romania for two times at Eurovision, is really a Large Ham! She even held two of them at both her performances!
    • Mei Finegold, the Israeli contestant during the 2014 contest, led out a note so high, that it durated at least 20 seconds!
    • The 2016 edition has Ukraine's Jamala, whose note is so high, as it durated one minute!
    • The 2017 edition has Switzerland's Timebelle's leading singer, Runa, whose final note is so high that durated at least 29 seconds!
    • The 2018 edition has Israel's Netta and Estonia's Elina Netšajeva.
    • The 2019 edition has Australia's Kate-Miller Heidke and Czechia's Albert Cerny.
    • The 1998 edition has Imaani, the UK's entrant, who ends on a rather high note, who touches the duration of a half-minute!
    • The lost 2020 edition would have been another trial for Croatia, with Damir Kedžo for this time, holding one at his entry's climax.
    • The 2021 edition has Israel's Eden Alene, which now holds Maja Blagdan (Croatia 1996)'s record.
  • "Ranger Doug" of Riders in the Sky can hold notes for a very long time. He does it twice during the group's signature song "That's How the Yodel Was Born", and now and then during various episodes of their serial skit "The Cowboy Way."
  • Amane Kanata of hololive enjoys challenging herself to hold such notes. One notable instance was her cover of "Unravel", in which she replaced the death metal scream in the chorus with a sustained note that lasted 22 seconds, which she was very proud of.
  • Bob Dylan combines a Long Note with Motor Mouth Lyrics in "Freight Train Blues", making it a very short performance indeed—clocking in at just two and-a-quarter memorable minutes.

 
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Long-Haired Hare

Bugs pretends to be a conductor in order to torment opera singer Giovanni Jones. Near the end of the cartoon, he hold Jones a note for 45 seconds, until it causes the collapse of the orchestra shell above the singer's head, and then for a few more seconds when he causes a rock teetering on the collapsed frame to fall onto Jones, presumably crushing his skull. (In other words, Bugs literally "brought down the house".)

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5 (20 votes)

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