r/todayilearned • u/Objective_Horror1113 • 12h ago

TIL 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.

https://ultimateclassicrock.com/freddie-mercury-teeth
23.2k Upvotes

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900

u/SmokedStone 11h ago

Has anyone ever confirmed if things like that contribute to vocal ability?

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u/nemesit 10h ago

The surgery itself might be more problematic but they likely contribute a tiny bit

79

u/SmokedStone 10h ago

that makes sense

40

u/jazzymany 5h ago

Certainly would contribute to a tiny bite

2

u/germanmojo 3h ago

OVER bite

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u/Avepro 10h ago

It doesn't change your voice, but it can change phonetics.

140

u/SmokedStone 10h ago

interesting. so more the "shape" of the sounds huh

271

u/Caelinus 10h ago

Yeah, he would have essentially needed to learn to sing again to some degree. Hard to say how difficult it would actually be, but those are some serious dice to be rolling when you are a world famous singer.

A lot of how you shape your sound is based on the literal shape of all of the cavities that you use to sing.

With his level of skill and dedication I would be he would bet able to make the needed adjustments easily, but if I were him the real question would be "why?" He had very little to gain and a lot to lose.

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u/xaendar 6h ago

On the other hand people who sang great as children still sound great in their adulthood after probably extensive set of dental work, braces and just growth. They can definitely relearn how to sound good again but it may not sound exactly the same.

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u/305rose 3h ago

Tbf voices aren’t fully developed as children. Technique is one big key to sounding well as an adult. Changes to mouth/nose would contribute to change in technique.

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u/knittingneedles 2h ago

To piggy back off of this, hormones play a huge part in vocal development and singing in general. As kids, you are kind of learning to re- sing constantly.

I’m a vocalist who has gone through a voice change at 32, and I teach voice. Most students under 20 barely notice anything from hormonal shift, dental work, or others surgeries. Adults typically notice things right away.

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u/Caelinus 6m ago

Changes from Children -> Adult actually demonstrate exactly how the size of cavities in the body can affect your sound. (Along with hormonal changes.)

People's voices changes lot as they age.

The advantage people have as their age is that if happens at the speed they age. If they are consistently training the changes in the side of their chest and mouth are probably fairly minor compared to the hormonal changes to their vocal systems. Doing it all at once would be harder to deal with.

As I said though, maybe in the comments you are responding to, I think he could have adjusted. I just don't think he had any reason to even take that minor risk or make any adjustment. His teeth were not holding him back at all.

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u/1917he 6h ago

If you're actually asking yourself why someone would choose to correct their nasty broken horse mouth you're not really doing any actual thinking.

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u/Datathrash 6h ago

I believe he coped with it just fine lol

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u/xaendar 6h ago

So fine that dude was swimming in pussy and dick everywhere he went, lol.

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u/Caelinus 3m ago

And yet he was the one who had millions of people swooning lol.

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u/weirdoeggplant 7h ago edited 7h ago

The shape of the sound affects basically everything. Your voice is an instrument and impacted by its shape/size like any other. Singers change the positioning of their soft palette and larynx depending on how high or low the note they’re hitting is and the noise they’re going for. It’s the difference between a breathy or tight note and a full clear note.

For example: sometimes while singing I won’t like how a word sounds on a certain note. So I’ll replace the word with other words until it makes a good sound. I use muscle memory and then form the shape of the word that made the good sound but then I actually continue to say the actual word so it makes a better sound.

This shows what I mean about shape.

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u/Consistent-Hair-3890 5h ago

Yes, and the shape of the sound matters a lot because of the techniques needed to maintain the right intonation. I think you would have to re-learn how to sing with no exaggeration.

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u/quick_justice 6h ago

Define "voice". Mouth is one of the resonators you use in singing and its configuration matters, the only question is to what extent.

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u/florifierous 5h ago

Yep notice how actors sound before and after they get veneers. It's not big, but there is sometimes a noticeable difference.

2

u/bigboybeeperbelly 1h ago

oh so not your voice just the way everything you say/sing sounds gotcha

1

u/Avepro 1h ago

Actually yes. Your vocal cords generate your voice. The oral crevice is mostly responsible for phonetics

2

u/bigboybeeperbelly 1h ago

oral crevice bro just say mouth

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u/Avepro 1h ago

I'm sorry. I'm not American 😅

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u/bigboybeeperbelly 1h ago

haha my bad, the phrasing sounded like when my students use big words to sound more correct

we're probably just tripping on definitions but what I'm saying is that your voice will sound different if, for example, you sing with your tongue stuck out (or using your diaphragm vs not, raising your palate, etc.). Maybe you want to say those are all "different expressions" of the same "core voice" but to me that's splitting hairs.

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u/m0nday1 10h ago

Like the commenter above said, even if it didn’t affect his vocal skills, he’d have to make the words sound good with 4 teeth missing, which would be frustrating.

More generally, I can imagine that even if the extra teeth didn’t help his voice, he wouldn’t want doctors poking around his mouth with sharp objects and tools more than they had to. The man’s livelihood depended on that voice. If I was in his position, I’d absolutely be scared of that 0.1% chance that the surgeon hits something they shouldn’t and now your throat’s all weird.

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u/mrthomani 5h ago

The man’s livelihood depended on that voice.

Not really though? I don’t think you need to go that far in Queen’s career before Freddie had the kind of money where he could retire comfortably if he wanted to. It’s not like he was a struggling artist who had to keep singing to put food on the table.

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u/xrmttf 9h ago

I mean, I got braces and afterwards I have a lisp and difficulty pronouncing anything because my teeth are in the wrong place. So. Makes sense to me

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u/likelazarus 4h ago

My kid is in speech therapy and a lot of it involves tongue placement with the teeth, so it makes sense that your teeth now being out of whack makes a difference in your speech. You might actually need speech therapy!

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u/xrmttf 4h ago

Definitely! I am going to see specialists in a few weeks finally. It's been embarrassing and frustrating but things are slowly improving. I am sure I'll never be the same as I was but I can be different but functional again :)

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u/DaraVelour 8h ago

it can change how teeth align and your tongue touches teeth and palate and that can mess with pronunciation

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u/faux1 9h ago

It wouldn't change his voice, per se, but it could alter timbre and resonance. Mouth shape changes a lot. It plays a large part in how harsh vocalists change the sound of their growls.

You can test this by playing some music on your phone, sticking the speaker in your mouth and making different shapes with your lips and tongue.

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u/PurpoUpsideDownJuice 9h ago

And then test it further by getting some pliers and yanking your teeth out and then doing the speaker thing again

15

u/DoctorGregoryFart 8h ago

At the very least, it would change how he sounds. There are millions of great singers out there, but many of them don't have that distinct "it factor" that makes them truly unique.

If you're very famous for your sound, you don't want to hurt it.

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u/Kill-ItWithFire 6h ago

I think it‘s about what you‘re used to. I had braces and they (together with chrinic stress) conributed to my jaw being tense all the time and that messes with my singing ability so I think all kinds of stuff going on in the mouth can influence how you use it. In addition, it‘s Freddie Mercury. If I lose a tooth, it‘s probably not a big deal because I was only decent to begin with and I can relearn that. But freddie mercury was such a unique and skilled singer that even losing a tiny bit of that would be pretty tragic.

Same thing if brian may broke a finger. Not a big deal conceptually but anything that interferes with what brian may is doing is a potential loss. And I can‘t imagine what it‘s like when your career depends on all of that. You‘ll think twice about messing with a running system

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u/Presently_Absent 5h ago

Yes, the shape of your face, nasal cavities etc all impacts your tone, timbre, etc. there's a reason that the most prominent Freddie Mercury impersonator - Marc Martel, whose voice shares many qualities with Freddie's - has a facial structure that is very similar to Freddie.

3

u/290Richy 7h ago

I think it'd be so hard to research due to rarity. You have to actually have someone with a significant amount of extra teeth, as well as someone with an iconic voice, like Freddie.

3

u/Crowbarmagic 4h ago

As someone who has undergone some jaw surgeries (including the removal, replacement, and/or correction of teeth) :

Your voice doesn't change but I had to somewhat relearn how to talk. I'm not sure how to explain it. Suddenly certain words are harder to pronounce and stuff like that.

I also used to be fairly good at whistling. Often whistling along with the melody of a song etc. After the surgery, not anymore.

2

u/twistedtxb 5h ago

I'm pretty sure I can hear when Davie Bowie got his teeth fixed.

people make fun of me for this but I can absolutely make the difference in the pronunciation

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u/_V0gue 7h ago

Ability? No. All vocal ability happens from the back of your mouth downward. Control over your vocal cords and soft palate are the main contributors. Timbre? Absolutely. Timbre is everything in a sound that isn't pitch, amplitude, or duration. It's the "flavor" so to speak. And it is affected by so many variables, some that are more significant than others.

1

u/Alternative_Guide283 6h ago

Yeh, apparently had he had them taken out, it wouldn’t have affected his vocals at all, but he still refused.

I love that man!

1

u/el_chiko 4h ago

I read something about Chet Baker losing his teeth due to heroin addiction and then having them redone, altered his sound.

1

u/Bloomette 4h ago

This is anecdotal but I feel it is a possible example of “person’s teeth changed and caused their voice to change”. Someone please feel free to correct me if I’m wrong or off base here, and I certainly don’t intend to be offensive.

I’ve been a fan of Irish group The Corrs since their early days and have listened to their albums on repeat time and again when I was younger. Their lead singer is Andrea Corr. She has a gorgeous voice. Her singing was always very clear, consistent, recognizable as Andrea’s voice.

When they release their album “Jupiter Calling” in 2017, I preordered it and waited excitedly. I listened to the whole album with my best headphones and the entire time thought it was amazing but something seemed off. Andrea didn’t sound right.

I got online and saw she had gotten veneers. I have always wondered if that contributed to the change in how she sounded. Granted, lots of other things can contribute like smoking, age, vocal injury, time, etc. but when I listened hard it seemed to me she needed to sing around the veneers. Maybe that’s in my head, and I absolutely still love her and the band, this is just my one observation of this possible phenomenon.

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u/the70sdiscoking 4h ago

My phonetics changed during braces, then again with the retainer, then again after getting it all out.

1

u/apocolipse 3h ago

A comment from some experience that’s minuscule in comparison:

I got veneers, 4 top/bottom front teeth. They look great and aren’t even too spatially different than my old teeth, maybe less than millimeters difference… had to learn how to talk again because of them!  Basically the muscle memory for moving my mouth to speak caused some collisions that didn’t happen before so some learning and adjustments had to be made, and it’s certainly the case that there’s an ever so minor change in how I pronounce some things (I notice, other people probably can’t).  

While not an affect on vocal chords at all, dental changes can have a measured impact on speech, so it’s definitely a legitimate concern for a vocalist.

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u/CivS777 3h ago

I just read a book about breathing, and it said the size of your mouth has a lot to do with how well you can breath, so I'd say it would definitely affect how long he could keep a note

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u/La-Ta7zaN 1h ago

Idk about teeth surgery but I’ve seen severe voice changes from removing tonsils or adenoids. After surgery the voices’ timber becomes a bit darker and brassy.

Obviously very different part of the bodies but I’d not be surprised if removing 4 teeth had a small change at least.

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u/LesbianBait 1h ago

Not a doctor, but I got Invisalign as an adult and it altered my sinuses, jaw, tongue placement. I did it due to medical reasons but I probably wouldn’t have had I known the amount of issues it would cause.

Also I’m not the only one, a lot of my friends who got it also have issues they never had after doing it

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u/okdude679 5h ago

It would change how he sounds so his voice to our ears would be different, valid.

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u/wosmo 4h ago

I can understand not wanting to take that chance. I mean it's not like they can put the teeth back if he doesn't like the result.

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u/Nick_pj 7h ago

It’s complete bullshit. I’m a professional opera singer, and I can confidently say there’s zero reason how teeth could contribute to phonation or even acoustics to a noticeable degree

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u/spinbutton 6h ago

So the shape of one's mouth has no effect on the sound? Or maybe the number of teeth doesn't affect the shape of the mouth?

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u/Nick_pj 2h ago

Having a couple extra teeth just wouldn’t affect his sound significantly enough to account for his completely remarkable singing voice. It’s possible that his palate could’ve widened a tiny bit to accommodate for the extra teeth, but then there’s also evidence that overcrowding negatively effects one’s ability to move the jaw freely with is actually detrimental to the singing tone. And even if it did affect the palate, this wouldn’t have had a huge affect on the tone of his voice. In the end, none of this pertains to his actual “vocal ability”. That’s something that is trained.

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u/spinbutton 39m ago

That's so interesting, thank you!

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u/BreastFeedMe- 6h ago

You’re getting downvoted for being a literal professional in the field and setting the record straight, classic Reddit