Ep. 35 - "Overcoming a Vocal Injury" with Sondrine Bontemps

But first, let's reflect on how vocal injuries impact singers in all genres of music.

Several years ago, I interviewed over 40 Broadway performers to discover how they navigated vocal health issues, both proactively and when a vocal issue arose.

Over 85% of them said that they experienced fatigue at the end of an eight-show week.

The largest contributing factors were their show and their role demands.

Almost 30 percent of participants said that the fatigue lasted two to three days and more than 25 percent said it lasted longer than five days.

A quarter of the participants said that they had suffered temporary or sustained vocal damage as a result of their Broadway role.

As Caitlin Huston notes in a 2019 article on BroadwayNews.com, quote, vocal injuries are a common occurrence, especially for actors performing eight times a week.

But they're not talked about when they happen.

Whether it's on a large scale or more of a small recurring issue, vocal damage carries a stigma.

Actors blame themselves and fear it could hurt their future employment.

To combat the shame, some leading actors are now speaking out about their injuries in the hope that doing so may prevent a similar fate from befalling others and to help those who have already suffered find a sense of community." It's a great article.

I recommend it to you.

Many notable pop rock singers have overcome vocal injuries, such as Steven Tyler of Aerosmith, John Mayer, Meghan Trainor, Sam Smith, and Adele.

Adele suffered a vocal hemorrhage while on tour in 2011 and had another scare in 2017, which fortunately she was able to navigate without further surgery.

Certainly, Western classical singers are not immune to vocal injury.

Interestingly, even Pavarotti developed a vocal nodule early in his career before he became famous.

Now, it might be easy for us to develop a particular narrative about why a singer has a vocal injury.

They were improperly singing.

They didn't get good training.

The music they were singing was too punishing for them.

They sang while they were sick.

It is so easy and tempting to point the finger when something goes wrong.

When I interviewed otolaryngologist Dr. Lucian Salica about the stigma of vocal injuries, he noted, quote, if you're a baseball pitcher and you go over to see somebody about your shoulder, no one is going to say you've been abusing it.

No one is going to say that your pitching technique stinks.

No one is going to say it's your fault, even if it is.