Headlining Singer’s Vocal Demands

It’s no secret that many popular vocalists in the past few years have come under the knife – both literally and figuratively – for vocal pathologies and problems. John Mayer, Adele, Sam Smith, Stephen Tyler and Meghan Trainor have all recently made headlines for issues related to their voices.

Often, this is attributed to poor vocal training and misuse. However, is that really what is happening, or is there perhaps another factor contributing to these vocal issues? Certainly, poor technique, inadequate knowledge about the voice, and vocal abuse will lead to vocal pathologies, however in this post I will offer another possibility for consideration. This isn’t my idea entirely – it’s something I saw Matt Edwards post on his blog here: https://edwardsvoice.wordpress.com/2015/07/11/celebrity-vocal-fold-problems-its-not-necessarily-their-technique-thats-at-fault/ And it got me to thinking and doing a little digging. Here’s what I found out:

In looking at travel itineraries and concert/engagement calendars for lead professional opera singers – I’m talking NYC MET level – they perform, on average, three performances a week. Those are rarely back to back. In other words, if they perform on Friday, they won’t perform again until Sunday or Monday. And the week continues in this manner. There are specific requirements in their contracts about how many hours they can be in rehearsals or makeup or costume fittings and there are specific amounts of time allowed for rest in between performances. Additionally, if in a production of a certain opera, there is no traveling between performances. Certainly, after the show run is over, there will be traveling for different engagements, but again, more care is taken for adequate rest of the voice.

In looking at travel itineraries and concert/engagement calendars for the same level of popular singer – let’s say Beyonce or Adele – these artists are performing five – six nights a week, with many of the shows being back to back and rest days only really falling on travel days in between cities. Additionally, the life of a touring popular artist is often very late nights, very early morning lobby calls, and long trips on either a bus or a plane. There are early morning talk shows or television appearances that coincide with the tour dates, leaving little time for sleep or rest of the voice.

All of these factors contribute to vocal health issues. These performers are singing at loud volumes, in loud venues, for many hours a day. They are often dancing and moving in ways that are not conducive to optimal vocal health. They are not getting adequate rest for their voices, and they are using them all day – not only to sing, but to talk to the press, to fans, to their manager, to their families – it takes a toll. And yet, their managers, contracts, and deals seemingly offer little protection for their plight.

So, perhaps, instead of saying that these voice issues are related solely to poor vocal training, we should look at the bigger picture. Certainly, we can look at how to train these singers to know about what the voice can and cannot do. But we can also educate them as to how to write riders into their contracts to best serve their instruments. We can talk to the industry about ways to protect their assets – what the voice needs, on having a voice team – a voice teacher and an ENT/Otolaryngologist at minimum – on vocal health, and on what an optimal performance schedule would look like to best meet the demands placed on the voice. These steps could go a long way to protecting their instruments and avoiding surgery and vocal pathologies, as well as keeping our favorite performers healthy and able to provide their music for everyone over a long and extensive career.