Mariah Carey just did the Bottle Cap Challenge using her voice – here’s how it worked

8 July 2019, 15:47 | Updated: 1 November 2019, 15:32

The chart-topping singer used her impressive vocals to blast off the bottle cap, but is it actually possible to use only your voice to remove a lid?

A video of Mariah Carey has gone viral after she recorded herself completing the Bottle Cap Challenge – apparently using her bare vocals.

The latest trend to take the internet by storm, the Bottle Cap Challenge started when Taekwondo instructor and fighter, Farabi Davletchin, shared a video of himself untwisting a bottle cap with an impressive backwards kick.

Now the ‘We Belong Together’ singer has just taken the challenge to a whole new level, supposedly using the power of her incredible vocal range to remove the bottle top.

In the video (watch above), Mariah sings a high F grace note followed by a commanding F sharp – which on a piano, is an impressive two octaves above middle C.

Captioned ‘Challenge accepted! #bottletopchallenge’, the video then shows the bottle cap wobble slightly before flying off into the air.

What’s the science behind Mariah Carey’s Bottle Cap Challenge?

Mariah is well known for her extraordinary whistle notes and five-octave range, but just how did the singer use her voice to blast off that bottle cap?

Well, maybe the secret behind her remarkable stunt is all down to vibrations.

Music is formed of sound waves which cause minute vibrations, and those vibrations reach your ear drums.

In the same way as vibrations cause movement that reaches your ear drums, maybe – just maybe – this movement can also work on objects.

The louder the sound, the larger the vibrations, and these can cause other nearby air particles to vibrate.

In Mariah’s Bottle Cap Challenge, the vibrations that travelled from her voice to the bottle cap were large enough to make it move and fall off. Or at least that’s what we want to believe.

What makes Mariah Carey’s voice so unique?

According to professional soprano and Classic FM presenter Catherine Bott, Mariah Carey’s distinct sound is produced through, and with, the help of nodules on her vocal chords.

Bott says, “Dolphins would hail her as a kindred spirit. And she could nail those Queen of the Night arias from Mozart’s Magic Flute!

“Mariah is brilliant because she takes that shouty voice higher in pitch than any classical singer that I’ve ever met. It’s really, really impressive.”

In fact, Mariah’s vocal range is so great, she can reach a low F2 and hit an unbelievable G7 – a note that only some dogs can hear.

Fans of the award-winning R&B singer – including record label Sony Music – are equally awestruck, taking to Twitter to share their reactions:

And Mariah Carey isn’t the only musician to try her luck at the Bottle Cap Challenge – violinist Ray Chen also shared his attempt online:

Is Mariah Carey’s Bottle Cap Challenge real?

Well, if anyone's voice could knock the cap off a bottle, it would be Mariah’s. But in terms of how real this particular stunt is, we would've had to have been there to know for sure...