2025 - The year I lost my voice and got it back
I’ve been wanting to write this post for a long time. Losing your voice is something that fundamentally affects your life, and as a singer, working professionally with your voice, it is a true crisis. Perhaps that’s why it was so hard for me to let people in on the whole story. Now, with some time passed and a wider perspective, I want to share it, in hopes that it can help someone else out there on their own vocal healing journey.
I can happily say though that my voice is now back to its full power! I’ve allowed 2026 to start at a slow pace, and I’ve just finished the first two weeks of coaching and work preparing my upcoming release. It’s an exciting year ahead!
Now, about losing my voice last year, here’s the long story short; I had a terrible flu with a cough at the end of February. After that, I came back to work, probably a bit too early after my illness, and lost my voice, not only once, but three times. I went to specialist doctors, treatments, and speech therapy and luckily got better, just in time to take off to Los Angeles, where I was scheduled to record a new project in springtime. For the longer version, and for all the voice geeks out there, keep reading further down about my diagnosis and the recovery that followed…
PROFESSIONAL SINGERS LOSING THEIR VOICES
The list of professional singers losing their voices, and even going through voice surgery, is long. Adele, Björk, John Mayer, Celine Dion, Sam Smith, Bon Jovi, and Miley Cyrus, to name a few well-known names… They’re all classified as highly trained singers and they certainly know how to take care of their voices. Still they have had vocal health problems.
When you look up information online about how these professional singers lost their voices, it’s shocking how a lot of harsh videos pop up: “singers that ruined their voice,” “singers who destroyed their voice,” “singers whose voices went crap”, “10 musicians who ruined their voice”, and so on… wow. I’ve been furious looking at these titles. I’m not even watching them. And you shouldn’t either! It is never the singer’s own fault why they lose their voice. And it’s often never just one cause.
SHOULD WE BLAME THE SINGER THOUGH?
Somehow it seems okay to “blame” the singer when they lose their voice. (I also blamed myself when this happened to me!) Isn’t it funny though, that when a sportsman or athlete injures themselves in a game or competition, everyone is empathising with them and concerned about how long it will be until they can play another game or compete again. No one goes and puts up a video saying, “How Zlatan ruined his career by falling over in today’s game, ruining his hamstring.” Right!?
Singing is just another elite sport in the end. It takes an enormous amount of training and maintenance to be on top. Your voice is a part of your body and mind, and if you are approaching a professional career as a musician or singer, you will most likely, at some point in your career, experience vocal problems occurring from a high workload and a demanding schedule. It is NOT your fault.
MY VOCAL RECOVERY (The long story)
At the end of March last year, a few weeks after losing my voice, I was lucky to get an appointment with a specialist, an ENT doctor who has helped a lot of performers in London. After a laryngoscopy, which means a camera down your nose to look at your vocal cord movements, he said there was both “good” and “not so good” news. I froze.
He had noticed that one of my vocal cords showed slightly uneven movement and that the nerve in my left vocal cord had been mildly damaged. The good news was that it already seemed to be healing. Most likely, this nerve damage had occurred as a result of the severe flu virus and coughing, rather than from using my voice too early after the illness.
From studying the voice, this was quite alarming news to me. If a nerve stops working in one of your vocal cords, the cords can’t come together as usual and your voice simply won’t work. What would I do without a voice? I had already had a few weeks of total vocal rest, scribbling on paper and typing on my phone to communicate. The doctor told me that a full recovery would take about six months and recommended speech therapy along with deep tissue massages, as I, as a guitarist, also held a lot of tension around my neck that affected the larynx. He said, to my surprise, that I was fine to sing as usual though. Even though it would feel very different, I would manage because I was trained and had a strong and flexible voice.
I could not have been luckier with all that aligned and unfolded in the weeks after that doctor’s visit. I got in touch with a speech therapist who was so supportive and reassuring, helping me with tools to manage my upcoming recordings. A massage therapist, who was an instrumentalist themselves, released a lot of tension (and worries!) from my neck. I got my voice back and went to Los Angeles as planned to record a five-track EP that will be coming out this year.
MY VOICE HEALED ME TOO
Six months later in September, coming out on the other side of my voice recovery, I discovered my voice was still not as robust as before, and I had to allow it more pauses and vocal rest. BUT my tone had come back a little richer, and singing was feeling freer and more effortless than before the problems started. Who would have thought!
I also felt more grounded and more like myself than I had in years. Maybe my voice was fed up with my constant pattern of overworking, and it was simply screaming for attention and care. Now I’m listening. To what my body says, to what my heart wants, and to when I actually need to say no (when the people-pleaser in me wants to say yes).
THE HOLISTIC APPROACH
From September onwards, when I was back on a full schedule, I enjoyed taking on new clients again. Beginners, professionals, singers and actors; I work with a wide range of individuals and I love the variety. I also had several people, some of them artists, get in contact about various voice problems. These were mainly women of different ages experiencing voice loss. Some of them had tried speech therapy and a lot of other things, and then came to see if singing could be their “last resort” to help them.
With my holistic approach and the method of singing as healing and self-care, I can happily say I managed to help these women start regaining control of their voices again. We are still on the journey together, and I’m super grateful that they trust me to help them with something as personal as their own unique voices.
As of now, at the start of what feels like some kind of new era, I’m enjoying music more than ever. My voice is back to its full power, and I’m looking forward to another year of guiding current and new clients.
If you are new here and curious to try a session, I offer cost-effective 30-minute online sessions. You can get in touch here with any questions, I’d love to hear from you!
Take care of yourself and your voices
… and always keep singing 💙
Love and Light,
Malin