J Epidemiol Community Health

Fame itself may increase mortality risk among professional singers

December 3, 2025

A retrospective matched case-control study compared 648 singers—famous vs. less famous—matched for gender, nationality, ethnicity, genre, and solo/band status. Famous singers had a 33% higher mortality risk than their less famous peers, based on Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and Cox regression. By controlling for music-related occupational factors, the findings suggests that fame itself—rather than musicianship—may contribute to premature death.

Source:

Hepp J, et al. (2025, November 30). J Epidemiol Community Health. The price of fame? Mortality risk among famous singers. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41290491/