As a singer, little else can be as scary as haemorrhaging your vocal cords right as you finally break through with a number one song.
This is sadly what happened to Ava Max the day before she was meant to tour the world for her hit song Sweet But Psycho.
The 31-year-old singer recalled how they ‘exploded’ in 2018, while the track was charting at number one in 22 different countries.
‘The label didn’t know, no one knew, I told them I had strep throat, the flu, anything to get me out of this and or give me two more weeks to go to Europe,’ she told The Burnouts podcast.
Ava continued: ‘So for two weeks I slept like 14 hours a day, I had like barely any food and I went back to the doctor like a week and a half later.’
Miraculously, the regime of rest and recovery worked and Ava’s vocal cords ‘grew back’, dumbfounding the doctor.
‘Brand new but baby vocal cords,’ the Salt singer added of the injury that could have torpedoed her career.
The doctor did call it a ‘miracle’, with good reason, as the vocal cord nerve cannot regenerate should it be damaged and often surgery is needed to aid recovery.
Your body can, however, heal from a haemorrhage in that area, assuming the cords have not been too damaged.
She was warned not to put too much stress on her voice, posing a problem for the star who was about to embark on a live tour.
Ava continued: ‘So the first year singing Sweet But Psycho, I look back at the videos and it’s me learning how to sing again with new vocal cords and no one knows this.’
Her vocal confession comes months after she cancelled her Don’t Click Play tour, just weeks after announcing it.
In July, she wrote: ‘Pushing back my tour is [the] most difficult decision I’ve had to make, but when I perform for you, it has to be of a standard that I’m happy with, and it’s just not there yet.’
The tour was in celebration of her third album, released on August 22, of the same name but the 31 shows have not been rescheduled.
Sweet But Psycho remains her biggest hit to date, running as the lead single for her debut solo album, Heaven & Hell, which was released two years later.
It was not until 2023 that Ava embarked on a headlining tour, after the release of her second album, Diamonds & Dancefloors.
Unfortunately, this tour — aptly named On Tour (Finally) wasn’t injury-free either as she was assaulted by a man while in Los Angeles.
During the strange spat of artists being attacked or having objects thrown at them on stage, Ava was slapped by a gig-goer.
‘He slapped me so hard that he scratched the inside of my eye,’ she revealed afterwards. ‘He’s never coming to a show again.’
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This was just two days after Bebe Rexha was hit with a phone, hurled by an audience member mid-performance.
The man was arrested and the Me, Myself & I singer was granted a restraining order against him.
She, along with the likes of Ava, Harry Styles, Pink, Lil Nas X, and Taylor Swift, spoke out about the dangers of throwing things on stage and the trend eventually calmed down.
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