A new study of the pop star's voice over four decades shows that Madonna does not follow the patterns researchers normally associate with women's aging.
Madonna during a concert in New York City in June 2026. (Archive photo: © Brendan Mcdermid, Reuters/Ritzau Scanpix) Today at 6:47 PM
Madonna has gotten older. You can (maybe) see it.
But can you hear it?
That question has been taken up by researchers from Aarhus University in a new study ( https://publicera.kb.se/njes/article/view/66422/53674 ). And the answer is not quite as simple as one might think.
The researchers have analyzed recordings of Madonna ( https://nyheder.ku.dk/alle_nyheder/2026/10/sprogforskere-madonnas-stemme-lyder-yngre-end-den-burde-goere/ ) from the 1980s up to 2021 and examined, among other things, her pitch and the way she pronounces certain vowels.
The study shows that her voice in several respects does not follow the development normally expected in women as they age.
- She is difficult to place age-wise, says Anna Bothe Jespersen, linguist and study lecturer at the University of Copenhagen.
It may sound like a niche study of a pop star's voice. But Madonna shows something bigger: Our voice is shaped not only by biological aging. It is also part of our identity, and something we can, to a certain extent, shape ourselves.
© Reuters/Ritzau Scanpix
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The study shows
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* The researchers have analyzed Madonna's voice from the 1980s to 2021.
* Her voice does not follow the normal pattern for women's aging.
* Her pitch does not gradually become deeper; after a drop around 2013, it becomes higher again.
* Her pronunciation of certain vowels is associated with a younger vocal expression.
* The researchers find both biological and social explanations for the voice's development.
* The material consists of interviews with Madonna, not her songs
Source: The Age Chameleon: Social and Biological Effects on Madonna’s Ageing Voice, NJES – Nordic Journal of English Studies, 2026.
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The voice does not just gradually become deeper
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When women age, the voice typically changes. Among other things, research has shown that pitch often drops around menopause.
The researchers therefore expected to find a drop in Madonna's pitch as she approached 50.
And indeed they found a drop in 2013, when Madonna was 55.
But after that, the picture becomes more surprising.
In the years following, her voice becomes higher again. And looking at the entire period from the 1980s to 2021, the development is far from a smooth aging curve.
Madonna's deepest voice actually occurs in the 1980s, when she was young.
- She has various variations that can be linked to the different personas she adopts throughout her career, says Anna Bothe Jespersen.
The researchers cannot know whether Madonna has consciously trained her voice, or whether the changes are due to biological factors, among other things. Nor can they conclude that she has undergone hormone therapy.
But her voice shows a development that is difficult to explain by biological aging alone.
Madonna on the red carpet at the Met Gala in New York in May 2025. (Archive photo: © Angela Weiss, AFP/Ritzau Scanpix)
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A voice without a clear age or hometown
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The researchers have also examined Madonna's pronunciation of a number of English vowels.
Here, too, the result is remarkable.
Madonna's pronunciation does not unambiguously match the linguistic patterns normally associated with her generation or with the areas where she has lived, including Michigan and New York.
In other words, she is not just difficult to age. She is also difficult to place linguistically.
According to the researchers, this fits well with her career as a global pop star.
Susan Yi Sencindiver, external lecturer at Aarhus University, points out that in this way Madonna breaks expectations of both age and gender.
For the voice is not just a biological product. It can also be used to signal identity.
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