Fonseca‘s 2023 Viajante Tour was an “ambitious” and “incredible” celebration of his 20-year career, spanning across Latin America, the United States and Europe. But the intensity of the trek also led to one of the most distressing moments he has ever experienced.

The Latin Grammy-winning Colombian singer-songwriter, whose vocal quality has been described by maestro Juan Luis Guerra as that of a “nightingale,” faced a terrifying moment when he began having problems with his voice.

“It was very crazy because I would start to sing and when I went high, I would hit a certain note where air would come out and not voice,” Fonseca shared publicly for the first time during a Q&A with Billboard‘s Leila Cobo at the Latin Alternative Music Conference (LAMC) on Thursday (July 11) in New York City. “And what’s worse is that I realized this in the middle of the tour — we still had about 18 shows to go in the U.S. and then 10 more in Europe.”

During a visit to a laryngologist in Miami, he said, a polyp was found on his vocal cords. With insufficient time to treat it due to the imminent continuation of the tour, he had to make changes to the arrangements of his songs and take as much care of himself as possible.

“I did the tour. It was tough. I did exercises. I lowered the key of the higher songs, but the feeling of knowing that you have that, feeling it when you are singing, and also thinking, ‘Is this something that will affect me? Will this not go away?’ Oh, that was crazy!” he continued. “When I finished the tour, I went for another check-up in Bogotá, and the polyp had grown.”

With rest and with therapy, Fonseca and his doctors finally managed to make the polyp disappear. Now, he takes more care of his voice, among other things by using a nebulizer and doing warm-up and cool-down exercises before and after each performance.

“[The Viajante Tour] was very ambitious, it was incredible, but it also left me with the lesson that, at the end of the day, it’s about going to sing. So when you put so much intensity into the voice, there is wear,” the artist said.

On the eve of the Q&A, Fonseca had given a concert at SummerStage in Central Park, where he showed total control of his voice. He also celebrated Colombia’s goal against Uruguay in the Copa América semifinal from the stage. (Colombia won and will now face Argentina in the final this Sunday.)

On Thursday, during the conversation with Cobo at the 25th edition of LAMC, the creator of hits such as “Te Mando Flores,” “Eres Mi Sueño” and “Arroyito” also indulged the audience with a snippet of “Ven,” first a cappella and later accompanied by his guitarist Jairo Barón.

The Latin Alternative Music Conference is taking place this week in Manhattan with panels, interviews, concerts, and more. For a full calendar of events, click here

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