I'ts amazing that Prince has still such a delicate and beautifull voice with tons of vocal possibilities!
He has so violently and loudly screamed in the past decades(especialy between 1982 and 85)! Listen to the (very creative) Purple Rain Live recordings: O my god!
I feel scared for his throat! I know that something like in 1999 he went to an hospital for his voice but anyway, remember of the ONA live sessions: Prince even IMPROVED his vocals!

he saved his voice using falsetto.

TheP said:

i hear he drinks tea

and he takes care of

his health

Being a vocalist myself, I can tell you that the voice is an amazing instrument.

Like a muscle, it can repair itself with rest, and when used often, becomes stronger.

I have done my fair share of screaming as well, especially when I sang in a pop metal band years ago. My voice is as good/better than it's ever been.

There are cases where the vocal chords can develop nodes, but those can also be removed by your doctor. These can develop after years of improper strain on the voice.

i just about thought this thread was gonna be kinda like those ones that some people posted a while back--"ohmigod, he'll never sing again, waaah!"

"violently"LOL---true true...

I rmemeber in an interview he told a reporter "I havent lost my hair or my voice" jokingly as to others in the business as to why he can still cut it live and visually still.

rdhull said:

Ha! Ha! Unlike many folk we could name!

He's very blessed...

He didn't do any interviews for a few years.

ConsciousContact said:

Not talking so much shit has probably added years to his vocal life-span!

I've wondered about that myself.But,he doesn't use it so much like he uesed to.He has gotten smarter about it.He saves certain things only for the big payoffs like on the Aladdin dvd(Gotta Broken Heart Again).

The last show I saw of his was the ONA show.There was a very quiet moment where he sang with no music.It was incredible.Here was the guy with the voice I've heard a million times inf ront of me REALLY singing so highly and clearly and ,yes,delicately.It was so pure!

Watching p Prince sing this way reminded me of the DM City Lights cd wwwhen he sings "Broken" and you hera that his falsetto is pure.There is no weakness.And the point that he is one of the special ones is driven home when you hear others sing live and they wreck their songs that sound perfect on cd.

I know..

Prince has done like 25 albums, 1,500 unreleased songs, toured every album/year more or less for 25 years??

BUT Mariah Carey has not even done half of what he has done in only 10 years & she NEEDS to lip sync.

It must be DRUGS! PARTYING waaay to much!

Whitney's voice just started to crack a few months ago on a VH1 Special.

It must be your lifestyle outside of music.

I was just thinking about this when I heard 'Let's work' from the recent Melbourne show. I never heard such a good version vocally!

Diet is a factor too. I've heard Prince isn't a big fan of dairy products, which have been known to muddy up the voice. It's weird, because guys like Chris Cornell can smoke cigarettes and sound awesome because of it.
Not sure how long that'll last, though.

charlottegelin said:

That's a bit harsh, you arsehole

ConsciousContact said:

It was a compliment to Prince. Listen to Britney's verbal diarrhea, she can't keep her mouth shut, and she's got nothing intelligent to say, let's see if she can still sing in 20 years. I'm saying it's a GOOD thing to avoid interviews.

Great topic and great responses here. Prince has improved as he's aged. I think his consistency is what allowed him to improve, if you check he wasn't a great singer through his first several albums, he only sang in a falsetto that often sounded thin and when he started singing in his normal register he had little control or vibrato. He kept getting more and more technically proficient. Watch 85 live and you hear him off key a lot and with little control at times. He'd learned a variety of singing and screaming styles but overall he wasn't nearly as perfect as he would get years down the line. I like to point this out to people when they say he isn't what he used to be. In some ways he's not, in some ways he's better than ever. I put it all down to hard work, you have someone who is not naturally a great singer but through day in day out work became great.