The legendary performer Freddie Mercury suggested one thing gave him such a unique singing voice. The Queen frontman was left feeling self-conscious about his “extra teeth,” which he was born with, but refused to get them changed as he believed it was the secret to his singing voice.
Mercury had a vocal ability unlike other performers of the time, and the Don’t Stop Me Now singer seemed to think it was tied to the extra teeth. A post to the r/TodayILearned Reddit page has shared why Mercury did not have his teeth altered, despite feeling self-conscious about his overbite.
The post reads: “Freddie Mercury was born with four extra teeth, causing a prominent overbite. Despite being self-conscious about them, he never got them fixed, believing the extra space in his mouth contributed to his vocal ability.
“He feared altering his teeth might change his voice.”
One fan of Mercury wrote: “It is entirely possible that it would have changed his voice. Not his vocal range, which was extraordinary, but the timbre.”
Another added: “The greatest male singer ever. Always will be.” A third added: “This is common for singers and very valid. Altering any part of vocal resonances chambers will alter the sound. Sinuses, mouth, throat. Leave it alone if you sing for a living.”
Other music lovers have since shared stories of singers refusing to receive corrective surgery as the performer believes it could have an impact on their vocal qualities.
Elton John, Barbra Streisand and Tobias Forge of the Swedish rock band Ghost are all reportedly resistant to corrective surgeries as it could affect their vocals.
One music lover wrote: “Not rare for vocalists to be worried about things like this. The vocalist of Ghost got his nose smashed in a fight when he was younger.
“It affected his sinuses and he very often gets bad infections that are hard to clear out. He hasn’t gotten it fixed because he also thinks that his mangled sinuses are part of what gives his singing voice its characteristic sound.”
Elton John would undergo a surgery in 1987 which would affect his voice for decades of his career. He told Billboard in 2004: “My voice is the thing that’s really improved the most over the last few years. There’s more resonance to it.
“It started to change when I had the operation in Australia after the live album, because of the nine cancerous … whatever it was on my vocal chords.”