In an industry where artists are viewed as idols, body standards are taken to an extreme. Many musicians are affected by eating disorders, which can affect their ability to create music and even reflect in their own work.
Eating disorders such as anorexia, bulimia and binge eating disorders are common in the Music Industry. About one-third of musicians are likely to struggle with an eating disorder at some point in their lives, according to The Strad, a classical music-based magazine. These findings make sense when considering the stress-intensive environment of the music industry combined with its values of perfectionism.
“There are a lot of expectations in this industry (music industry) about looking a certain way and having a certain kind of appeal,” singer-songwriter Ella Marjia Lani Yelich-O’Connor, otherwise known as Lorde, said in an interview with Teen Vogue in 2014.
Lorde is one of the many pop musicians who struggled with an eating disorder. The singer developed an unhealthy obsession with her weight during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, which worsened with the development of her 2021 album “Solar Power” and the accompanying tour in 2022. The disorder left her struggling to make music, creating a disconnection between her and her career. Once the artist realized her obsession was taking control of her life, she began the slow recovery process. These issues are discussed in her 2025 album “Virgin,” especially in the song “Broken Glass.”
“Once I stopped doing that, I had all this energy for making stuff,” Lorde said in an interview with Rolling Stone Magazine in 2025. “I could see that if I cut that cord, maybe I would get something back that I needed to do my work… Got it all back, and way more.”
Singer-Songwriter and frontman of the rock band Florence + The Machine, Florence Welch is another musician who struggles with an eating disorder, particularly anorexia nervosa. She had dealt with the disorder starting in her late teens, while the mentality sometimes still affects her personally. The artist has reflected on her experience with the single “Hunger” off the band’s 2018 album “High as Hope” and details about emotional hunger as well as physical suffering.
“It’s the first time I’ve been able to put it on paper,” Welch said in an interview with The Guardian. “…I know how to deal with it in a song, but a lot of stuff I’m still figuring out.”
There is a certain stigmatization around men and eating disorders, one that centers around the idea that men can’t have eating disorders. However, this simply isn’t the case as singer-songwriter Edward Sheeran is a male musician who opened up about his struggles with binge eating and bulimia. His issues stemmed from industry pressure and comparison to other male artists. After he revealed his disorder to the public, he addressed the sentiment surrounding the topic and other men.
