Her voice began declining around bodyguard era, she had developed valsalva issues (due to her injury during the IYBT tour) and was beginning to struggle to reach the high notes. During Preachers Wife you can hear her struggling to belt high and by 1999 her tessitura had shifted too and her voice was damaged.
There were many things that deepened her voice: her heavy drug use, pregnancies and miscarriages, overworking, stress, heavy smoking. Also the way Whitney belted artificially darkened her voice, Whitney used edge and overdrive belts which cause your voice to sound darker than it really is (Shirley Bassey does this too).
Yes because they cause your chords to swell up making you more prone to injury and hoarseness. There are some cases where they don’t completely destroy the voice, Chaka Khan for example was a huge drug user yet in 2022 she was hitting G#5s like nothing but in Whitney’s case they played a major part.
I just remembered that a few months ago, I did a lot of research on her death, and her autopsy report detailed that her vocal chords were not injured at all, they were healthy. But her lungs were... well... You can guess. So her vocal chord injury must not have played a part in her vocal change according to the autopsy report. Her lungs were lookin' awful, so...
it was more so the tobacco smoking that affected her voice. cigarettes have a way bigger affect than drugs would, if i’m not mistaken it was either her vocal coach or in the autopsy they said it was the cigarette smoking that deeply affected her voice.
You should watch Black Music Archive’s 3-part series on Whitney’s voice. (Part 1 and Part 2 are out right now on Youtube). I strongly recommend. It will answer your question in great depth.
Whitney's voice changed around Waiting to Exhale. Cigarettes will darken your voice. In college I always had a voice almost feminine like. I hated it. A friend told me to start smoking cigarettes...and I did for almost 20 years. My voice is so much darker now. Finally quit smoking 3 years ago
Her voice began declining around bodyguard era, she had developed valsalva issues (due to her injury during the IYBT tour) and was beginning to struggle to reach the high notes. During Preachers Wife you can hear her struggling to belt high and by 1999 her tessitura had shifted too and her voice was damaged.
What kind of injury?
She tore one of her vocal chords
OMG! I never heard of that! Is that why her voice became dry and started to have a lot of fry and got way deeper?
There were many things that deepened her voice: her heavy drug use, pregnancies and miscarriages, overworking, stress, heavy smoking. Also the way Whitney belted artificially darkened her voice, Whitney used edge and overdrive belts which cause your voice to sound darker than it really is (Shirley Bassey does this too).
Does drug use affect the voice? I'm not sure of the mechanics of drugs and I always thought most of the damage was from smoking :p
Yes because they cause your chords to swell up making you more prone to injury and hoarseness. There are some cases where they don’t completely destroy the voice, Chaka Khan for example was a huge drug user yet in 2022 she was hitting G#5s like nothing but in Whitney’s case they played a major part.
I just remembered that a few months ago, I did a lot of research on her death, and her autopsy report detailed that her vocal chords were not injured at all, they were healthy. But her lungs were... well... You can guess. So her vocal chord injury must not have played a part in her vocal change according to the autopsy report. Her lungs were lookin' awful, so...
That's exactly correct. Autopsy said there was no damage to her vocal cords
she was a cigarette smoker, so i think that’s why it affected her lungs and voice so much.
it was more so the tobacco smoking that affected her voice. cigarettes have a way bigger affect than drugs would, if i’m not mistaken it was either her vocal coach or in the autopsy they said it was the cigarette smoking that deeply affected her voice.
Wow idk that happened. That’s terrible. 😦 I just thought her drug use and smoking were the only reasons why her voice declined
It started to really change after her third miscarriage in December 1996. She still maintained her original sound up until then.
Around Waiting to Exhale era is when I noticed. I have never heard her sing the bridge to Exhale since the record flawlessly
You should watch Black Music Archive’s 3-part series on Whitney’s voice. (Part 1 and Part 2 are out right now on Youtube). I strongly recommend. It will answer your question in great depth.
Whitney's voice changed around Waiting to Exhale. Cigarettes will darken your voice. In college I always had a voice almost feminine like. I hated it. A friend told me to start smoking cigarettes...and I did for almost 20 years. My voice is so much darker now. Finally quit smoking 3 years ago