This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: As women go through menopause, their voices tend to become deeper. This is partly because the vocal folds may swell and the surrounding muscles lose elasticity, resulting in a lower pitch.
Age-related physiological changes can also affect the pronunciation of certain vowels. In a new study published in the Nordic Journal of English Studies, researchers from Aarhus University and the University of Copenhagen analyzed changes in Madonna's voice using acoustic measurements of pitch and vowel pronunciation. The analysis is based on interviews spanning four decades, from her breakthrough in the 1980s to 2021.
"Our study shows that Madonna's voice appears younger than her age. Her pitch does not follow the patterns we would normally expect from a woman in her 60s, and the way she pronounces a number of vowels does not match the speech patterns typically associated with either her generation or the places where she has lived," says linguist Anna Bothe Jespersen from the University of Copenhagen. "In other words, her voice is difficult to place both in terms of age and geography.
We argue that this is a deliberate strategy, with the voice supporting an image of a youthful, attractive and globally oriented performer who is not constrained by chronological age," she adds. According to the researchers, the development of Madonna's voice is consistent with the carefully crafted visual identity she has maintained throughout her career. Each album release and concert tour has been accompanied by a new image, and the findings suggest that she may have managed her voice just as deliberately.
"When it comes to pitch, one particularly striking feature is how much her pitch varies over time. Women's voices generally become lower after menopause, and we do observe a drop around 2013, when Madonna was 55 years old, which roughly corresponds with the timing of menopause," says Jespersen. However, the researchers found that her voice became higher again in the years immediately following 2013.
This could indicate a conscious effort to alter her voice. It is also possible that hormone therapy played a role, helping to counteract declining estrogen levels during menopause. But neither explanation fully accounts for the overall pattern.
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