Vocal Abuse in Singers, due to Performing Environment and Lifestyle. A Comparison between Greek Entertainment and Greek Musical Singers

Adamandia Prachali

The need for care of the professional voice is great. Especially for singers, who are an important and special group with certain needs and demands. Sometimes their working conditions may lead to vocal dysfunction and that can be considered as an important issue for a singer. This study aims to determine the relationship between working conditions and voice pathology in a group of Greek singers that perform in night clubs; a group with very specific and unique characteristics. Furthermore, it examines if their personality contributes in anyway to voice pathology. Two groups that perform in different environments were compared, night clubs’ (buzukia) singers and musical singers. Acoustic, laryngographic analysis, GRBAS scale, a questionnaire about conditions, behaviors and symptoms and a brief personality test were used. Chi-square and one-way ANOVA tests were conducted to examine the differences in performing environment, performing conditions, lifestyle and personality between the two groups, while Pearson correlation was applied to investigate the relationships between the above factors and pathologic characteristics. Also stepwise multiple regression examined which was the best predictor of several pathologic measurements. As indicated by the results of the statistic analysis, performing environment was indeed special and contributed to vocal abnormalities. Lifestyle was not as different in the two groups as it was hypothesized, however it was related to several pathologic characteristics of voice. Finally personality, which didn’t have to do with the place of singing, was not proved to be a factor that contributes considerably to voice pathology.

Adamandia Prachali, BSc
University College London
Athens, Greece