Miley Cyrus' distinctive low-pitched voice is partly due to Reinke’s Edema. Photo / Getty Images
Miley Cyrus' distinctive low-pitched voice is partly due to Reinke’s Edema. Photo / Getty Images
Miley Cyrus has a “very large polyp” on her vocal cord but is “not willing” to have it removed in case it changes her voice.
The Flowers hitmaker explained the sound of her distinctive low-pitched voice is partly because of a growth and Reinke’s Edema – swelling of the vocalfolds because of fluid accumulation – and though the conditions mean she finds it “extremely difficult” to perform, she doesn’t want to have surgery in case she no longer sounds like herself afterwards.
Speaking on Apple Music 1’s The Zane Lowe Show, she said: “I had the Reinke’s Edema, which is something that is called, it’s abuse of the vocal cords. And being 21 and staying up and drinking and smoking and partying after every show does not help. But also in my case, it does not cause it. So my voice always sounded like this.
“It’s a part of my unique anatomy, this is what I look like. So I have this very large polyp on my vocal cord, which has given me a lot of the tone and the texture that has made me who I am, but it’s extremely difficult to perform with because it’s like running a marathon with ankle weights on. So even when I’m talking sometimes, at the end of the day I’ll call my mom and she’ll go, ‘Oh, you sound like you’re talking through a radio’. And that’s how you know I’m really tired because it creates that ultimate vocal fry.
“So my voice is super unique because of it, but I do have this Reinke’s Edema and I have this large polyp on my cords and I’m not willing to sever it because the chance of waking up from a surgery and not sounding like myself is a probability…so I’m really torn about it.”
The 32-year-old star also recalled the “pretty traumatic” time she had when she suffered a ruptured ovarian cyst and battled through the pain to continue with her 2023 TV special, Miley‘s New Year’s Eve Party, alongside her godmother Dolly Parton.
She said: “I had a pretty traumatic experience on a show that I was doing with [Lorne Michaels] when I was doing my New Year’s show.
“I had a medical emergency. I had an ovarian cyst rupture. We didn’t know exactly what was going on, so we did it.
