Shania Twain may be legendary in Country music, but fame can’t stop health issues…including, ironically, issues with her voice.
In an interview with E! Online, Twain revealed that she is losing her voice and is currently undergoing therapy to restore her speech as well as her singing voice. The singer says that years of suppressing and repressing her voice and emotions had damaged her vocal cords, causing her to develop a condition called Dysphonia, which impairs the ability to produce voice sounds.
The condition manifested and grew after Twain found out that her ex-husband, Robert “Mutt” Lange, was having an affair:
“I had reached a point in my life where there was a bottleneck, physically, in my throat. Something had to give.”
With all that pressure that kept building, Twain says that she realized she was the only one who could bring herself back:
“During the course of my divorce, I dug a big hole and stopped growing and searching and had given up. I realized I had to climb back out…You can only help yourself. Others can support you. Just asking myself what I was going to do helped make a place for optimism. You start to isolate yourself in your own misery.”
Now, it’s just a matter of recovery:
“I’ve only just discovered what’s wrong. Next comes rehabilitation, which will take a long time. Physical rehabilitation, voice therapy, learning how to breath again…and the singing will come.”
I have to say…from someone who sings so much that, in the words of many friends, I’m “heard before being seen”, I can’t imagine losing an instrument so valuable, especially if it’s your life. I wish her only the best in her recovery.