Eagle Rock Entertainment
The very famous Freddie Mercury in 1986. He died five years later, at 45
In a band, singers tend to live less than other musicians. The spotlight can actually take years off your life.
“Being famous means working 24 hours a day”the iconic American actor once said Bill Murray.
A study now in Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health by Investigators from the University of Witten/Herdecke, in Germany, confirms this theory, suggesting that singers who achieve celebrity status tend to die, on average, about four and a half years earlier than those who are less known.
Publicly available data on 324 music artists mainstream relatively famous people who were active between 1950 and 1990 were matched by gender, age, nationality, ethnicity, musical genre and solo/band career status with 324 much less well-known “pairs”.
The analysis showed that famous singers died, on average, at age 75; while the average age of death of their more unnoticed counterparts was around 80. The conclusion is that the anonymity may not bring as much wealth, but it can help you live longer.
“When subjected to rigorous testing, fama is associated with an increased risk of mortality“, wrote the leader of the investigation, Johanna Heppcited by .
“This highlights the need for targeted health interventions for individuals in the public eye,” he considers.
When considering the date of the artist’s initial entry into the world of music, the team discovered that the high risk of dying appears after fame is achievedsupporting the suggestion that fame is, in fact, the underlying reason for the change in mortality risk.
The researchers did not interview musicians, outside of the study, but they point to factors of “psychosocial stress” as a possible reason for the disparity.
These factors may include the intense public scrutiny, loss of privacy and constant pressure.
“These stressors can fuel psychological distress and harmful coping behaviors, making fame a chronic burden that amplifies existing occupational risks,” the researchers write.
Previous studies have shown that famous musicians tend to die earlier than the general population. But the conclusions of this study are general: they suggest that this is must be famous and not specifically a musician.
