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in collaboration with
Amine Harichane (Pediatric ENT and Head and Neck Surgeon)
In the March 2 edition of The Voice, Auna, a 23-year-old young woman, stood out for her hoarse and deep voice. A range that she attributes to a coronavirus infection. Can Covid 19 change our voice? Dr Amine Haricane, ENT doctor, answers us.
A velvet voice, and four upturned armchairs. The performance of Auna, a 23-year-old singer from Toulouse, was noticed during her appearance on The Voice. But the one who marked the spirits with her voice “close to that of Maurane” according to Zazie, surprised everyone during her presentation: this hoarse tone is not natural to her, and would have appeared after having contracted Covid.
A hoarse and serious voice since Covid
According to the young woman’s explanations, her vocal range would have changed completely in October 2022.
“I had Covid, I didn’t really worry about my voice because I thought it would get better. I never wanted to go to the doctor. Little by little, my throat started to hurt a lot. It was very complicated. I went to an ENT who told me I had a vocal cord infection. It changed my voice and made it completely hoarse. In the end, I think that’s what made the difference during my audition” she reveals on the TF1 website.
Concretely, his voice, which was in the high notes, would have since plunged into the low notes. To the great joy of the coaches obviously. “It’s the only beautiful thing that came out of Covid” commented Mika.
An irritation more than a vocal cord infection
The story is pretty, of course, but can we see his voice completely changed because of the covid virus, even if it causes a long-term infection? We asked the question to Dr Amine Harichane, ENT, who does not really seem convinced by this anecdote which lacks details according to him.
“In reality, Covid had an effect more on the nervous system: we noticed vocal cord paralysis, but no infection strictly speaking. In the case of this singer, it is probably an irritation due to coughing and inflammation rather than a Covid infection of the vocal cords.
This does not mean that the young woman invented her story, but rather that the channel or the candidate made a shortcut:
“She was able to make a viral laryngitis but there is no documented case of Covid affecting the vocal cords” confirms our expert
Auna’s vocal history, however, had the advantage of also making noise on the web. On X (formerly Twitter), many Internet users were amused by this unusual explanation. “Go get Covid and Beyoncé’s voice”; “Hey the Covid gave me a blocked nose not a crazy voice there’s a scam” we could read. Voices, for once, jealous… Of course there is no question of trying to be infected to become a crooner!