Adele's Vocal Surgery

If you have been reading entertainment news, you may know that the pop singing sensation, Adele, has undergone vocal surgery.  I thought I might explain, from a voice teaching perspective, how such a thing might have come to be.

Singing is a huge physical workout when it is engaged on a daily, professional basis.  Singers like Adele, opera singers etc...spend hours singing, practicing, or using their voices in some way to further their career.  And just like any athlete, singers can have vocal injuries if they subject their vocal folds to harmful use repeatedly over a period of time. 

While pop singing can be done in a very healthy manner, most pop singers have not undergone rigorous vocal training, often because they fear they will lose some individuality to their voice.  This lack of training, combined with the tremendous physical demands of a concert tour, may result in the buildup of polyps or nodules on the vocal folds. 

From a health perspective, a polyp and nodule are two different phenomena.  However, they both tend to have the same cause: excessive stress on the folds due to poor technique.  These polyps/nodules are simply 'bumps' on the vocal folds that inhibit the folds from closing completely while singing, which often results in a breathy or raspy tone quality.

Now, please let me clear: I LOVE Adele.  She writes great music and sings with tremendous passion and insight.  HOWEVER, she puts herself under extraordinary stress because of the constant touring and vocal mannerisms that have made her so popular.  This probably caused one her polyps to hemorrhage, and resulted in her needing to completely stop singing and undergo laser surgery to remove the polyp from her vocal fold.

Thankfully, it appears Adele will have a full recovery, but she is going to need to be very careful for the next few months.  Here's hoping she gets the help she needs to prevent this from happening ever again.

DWS

Next blog: I will talk about WHY pop singers sometimes want polyps to develop, and ask some questions of my own.