"Jordin Sparks has a vocal hemorrhage and she may never sing again!"

"What!! Where did you read that?"

"It was on AOL!"

I zoomed over to my laptop, opened Firefox, did a search on Jordin Sparks, and there is was. News that Jordin was canceling the first lap of her tour with Alicia Keys because she had a vocal hemorrhage that could permanently damage her voice…forever!

The press is so overly dramatic. That girl is young and she’s going to fully recover from this bad case of vocal misuse. But I know how friggin’ scary it can be to lose your voice. Even temporarily.

It happened to me last December. I got this crazy wicked cold that seemed to last forever. I didn’t think it was any big deal until I went to a rehearsal with my piano man, John Simon, and bass player Steve Webber. We were rehearsing for our upcoming gig at Upper Fourth.

And it was really hard to sing. Certain parts of my voice simply didn’t want to work. But I thought it was just due to all the excess mucus coating my cords. So I pushed through. And pushed through.

Turns out that was a really stupid thing to do. Later that night, I knew I was in trouble. My throat felt inflamed and it was hard to talk. I had given myself a mild case of laryngitis.

I quickly emailed all my singer friends, asking them what to do. I had a 3-hour gig to sing the next day. I got all sorts of suggestions. Lemon and honey. Advil. Use a lot of support and sing with my chest pushed out.

But no one said, "Don’t sing. You could damage your voice."

I’ll cut to the chase. I DID sing. I drank a lot of Throat Coat tea. I sucked on lozenges. And I had my friend, Pammie Joy, sit in and sing A LOT. The Boys played a lot of instrumentals as well. I minimized the amount of singing I did. And talking. But you know what? It was still too much.

By the end of the evening, as I croaked out "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," I knew I was in trouble. I had no voice left, and I was really, really scared. Tears streamed down my face as I packed up my sound system. I had never been so sure that I had done damage to my voice.

I cried all the way home, praying to Mother Mary. Now, I’ve never prayed to Mother Mary in my life, but for some reason she came to mind.

I went on complete vocal rest for about 2.5 days. I eased slowly back into both singing and talking. I vocalized tenderly, just enough to move the cords and get the circulation flowing. I remember my voice teacher, Lillian telling me that it actually  helps to vocalize a little.

Slowly, I was singing again. And no damage was done.

Vocal cords are hearty little mucous membranes. And yes, you can damage them. But they tend to heal quickly, unless a virus has really done a number on them. BUT if you have laryngitis, don’t sing. If your vocal cords are already inflamed — for whatever reason, sickness, tiredness, too much singing or talking — do not continue to inflame them with more singing. And don’t take Advil to bring down the swelling just so you can sing through your gig. It can actually increase your chances of vocal hemorrhage.

That being said, I know how hard it is to let go of a singing gig. To cancel. But sometimes, in the life of a singer, ya just gotta. Like Jordin.