Ella Eyre has revealed she “basically had to learn how to sing and speak again” after an operation on her vocal cords, but described it as “the best thing” she has ever done.
The singer, 27, underwent an operation in December to remove scar tissue she believes could date back to her childhood, and was told she could not speak for a month while she recovered.
London-raised Eyre, whose hits include Waiting All Night, Came Here For Love and Just Got Paid, spent six months recovering and doing rehabilitation ahead of her first post-lockdown tour.
fiiiinally get to go on tour in T-minus 16 days and @bowanderson is coming too ⭐️ tickets still available below 👇 see u there ? https://t.co/OOttujmtPj pic.twitter.com/3zy12fB1Tq
— ella eyre (@EllaEyre) October 2, 2021
She told the PA news agency her “biggest worry” had been that her singing voice would change permanently.
She said: “I think that is why I put it off for so long as well. I was like, ‘What if I come out sounding like an opera singer? No one will want to hear that from me’.”
However, she said the operation simply made her voice more efficient and improved her stamina.
She added: “I basically had to learn how to sing and speak again in a much more efficient way.
“And it was the best thing I ever did because it meant I am now using my voice in a way that means it can last a lot longer.
“I am respecting it like I should. I think I sound the same. I think the only difference is that my laugh is different.”
Eyre said her period of recovery prompted her to re-listen to her old music and re-evaluate her priorities for her forthcoming second album.
“In that time, I wasn’t allowed to speak for a month and you can imagine when you are not allowed to speak for a month, all you can do is listen,” she said.
“And that’s what I did. I listened to a lot of music. I listened to a lot of stuff I had planned to release this year and I just had a change of heart.
“Covid has really made me realise that the music that you put out there is there forever – and I really wanted to represent me as a person and me as an artist.
“And I really want it to be there forever.”
Eyre suggested the follow-up to her 2015 debut album Feline, which reached number four in the charts, would show a different and more mature side to her.
She said: “When I look back at my last album I was in such a different place. I was still a teenager when I was writing it and I was still a teenager when it got released.
“Mentally I was a young teenager who had just had her heart broken. I was angry. I had all these things to say.
“Now I am 27 and I have broken up from my long-term relationship and I am dealing with things very differently.
“I feel like being able to write and document these stages in your life in a creative way and share that with people, and hopefully be able to relate to them in some way, is really special.”
Ella Eyre starts her UK tour at Bristol Academy on October 18 and finishes at London’s Kentish Town Forum on October 25, with Bow Anderson supporting. Tickets are available online now.