Born in the Peruvian Andes and marketed in the United States as an Incan princess, Yma Sumac became an exotica sensation in the early 1950s on the strength of an extraordinary vocal range said to span more than four octaves, including a whistle register few singers before or since have matched. Her orchestral arrangements of Peruvian and Incan-inspired folk melodies made her a novelty and a genuine vocal phenomenon at once, and her recordings remain the clearest technical precedent for the extreme upper register later singers like Minnie Riperton became known for.

the sound in question

1950

Virgin of the Sun God (Taita Inty)Yma Sumac