Wailing woman

The wailing woman is a musical motif and solo vocal effect that features "an exotic-sounding, ululating female singer" traditionally heard in the soundtracks of epic films and historical dramas. Generally composed in half-steps and featuring heavy vibrato, the "ethnic sounding" wailing woman technique is a "melodious lament" with unintelligible words and an "ethnic" vocal timbre, usually set in the natural minor, harmonic and/or melodic minor scale.

The mournful wail, typically sung in alto, may often deal with a tragic subject matter or a foreign locale, where it heightens the emotional moments in the scenes while expressing a dramatic mood. It has since been used in scores of film genres outside of drama, and as well as in television shows and video games. Other nicknames for this musical technique include, wailing female or moaning woman.