I am a musical theater nerd. I've been performing for almost eight years now in (not that I've been counting) 20 musicals and plays. As I've grown as a performer, I've noticed trends in the popular musical theater style. The most recent and most prominent trend I've noticed is the belting fever. If you're not as into musical theater as I am and don't know what belting is, it is undoubtedly the most powerful, loud, goose-bump inducing sound out there. For reference, here is one of my favorite belting moments. Granted it is not the musical version, but this is still a prime example of belting.

If by the end of that song you don't feel like a strong, independent, empowered person, then you obviously need to take another listen. But here is the problem: Not everyone can sing that. By not everyone I don't mean just people who have never studied voice, but plenty of people, myself included, who have studied voice for years and still can't sing that song with full power. Hard work will get you pretty far, but belting is, for the most part, something you can or can't do. Sadly, most of what we non-belters are left with are lovey-dovey ballad songs. Here is an example of the ultimate soprano, Barbara Cook, singing one of the ultimate lovey-dovey ballads.

Beautiful? Yes on so many levels. Does it make you want to jump out of your seat and go conquer the world? Not really.

We are the sopranos, a silenced people desperately awaiting some composer out there to write an empowering, stand up and fight song that also fits our vocal range.

Because I and my fellow sopranos cannot express our strength and empowerment through song, I will settle for expressing it through this article.

Despite being a vocal range that sounds weak to the untrained, unfamiliar ear, I have never met a weak soprano. Though it sounds less powerful to the audience, the higher notes take massive breath support and technique to actually sound right. It takes years of training to develop those skills, which is why you rarely hear naturally perfect soprano singers. Gotcha belters! You may sometimes beat us in goose-bump inducing power, but nobody beats us in hard work.

Not only do we struggle with sounding weak vocally, but the subject matters we're given to sing about also sound weak. A soprano song about a strong woman who don't-need-no-man is about as rare as a two dollar bill or a good presidential candidate. Because our voice is considered weaker, our characters are always weaker. We're the damsels in distress waiting on our White Knight to come rescue us, we're the ladies who prioritize glitter and gaiety, we're the women who dream a dream about a perfect man and then die. Think about the Bechdel test.

If the sopranos could have a song about something other than a man, then maybe some musicals could actually pass the Bechdel Test. The belters have plenty of songs about being independent. Share the wealth.

We sopranos are very familiar with hard work and strength so why shouldn't our songs reflect that? It takes strength to sing those notes, it takes strength to make yourself sound powerful with all odds against you, and it takes strength to establish yourself as a strong woman when all you've been taught to do is act weak.

It is time we move past this belting fever and give the sopranos a little time to shine and be strong. We've worked for it.

To the composers out there, I think I speak for all my fellow empowered sopranos when I beg you to write us a song about something other than love and happiness. Make us mad, make us overcome a challenge, give us depth. We promise to work hard and make it sound beautiful.

It's hard to top Nikki Blonsky's power notes in Good Morning Baltimore, but us sopranos have a lot to give if only we can have the resources. We've heard the belters, now it's time to hear the sopranos roar.