An 84-year-old pop superstar just dropped an album — how does she sound so good?

Mina, one of the bestselling Italian musical artists of all time, just dropped a new album — at the age of 84.

She's not a household name in the United States, though audiences in this country might recognize the performer's unmistakable voice from the Netflix series Ripley, the HBO series The White Lotus or the Pixar animated feature Luca.

But in her native country, Mina has been worshipped for decades — especially because of her powerful and distinctive voice.

"All generations have always identified with her voice and with her albums," said Rome-based musicologist and music critic Paulo Prato.

Prato said Mina sings in many languages and is constantly reinventing herself.

"She can sing pop music, opera, jazz, rock and roll," he said.
 

Retreat from the stage and the media

Like Barbra Streisand, another singer with an enduring career and a voice for the ages, Mina has sold more than 150 million records worldwide. But unlike Streisand, who has given live concerts over the past decade, Mina hasn't performed in public since 1978.

"She chose to focus on recording and making the music she wanted to," said independent scholar Rachel Haworth, who is based in the U.K. and has written a book about Mina.

Mina also doesn't give media interviews. Haworth said the last time the general public was offered a glimpse into the artist's creative process was in 2001, in a video live-streamed from her recording studio.

"It broke the server, because so many people wanted to see it," Haworth said.

Signs of aging suggest authenticity

As a result of the relative secrecy that surrounds Mina's work, and the toll aging takes on the human voice, Haworth said it's hard to know just how she keeps her amazing voice going, or if that voice — especially in our age of artificial intelligence-generated replicas — is truly hers.

Mina's use of imagery made with AI in at least one recent music video has prompted discussion, Haworth noted.

"There's this kind of debate around, 'Well, we never see her. How do we know if it's even her?' " Haworth said. "And then you get the counter to that, where it's, 'Well, of course it's her, because we know what she sounds like.' "

Mina's representatives did not respond to NPR's requests for comment.

But experts generally do believe it's Mina's authentic voice on the recordings because it plainly shows signs of aging.

"In the early years, she had a very clear voice — a lot of flexibility, a lot of range," said Sarah Schneider, a voice speech pathologist at the University of California, San Francisco, who works with singers. "In listening to her most recent work, there's a little bit more of a huskier, raspier sound to it — which is not unexpected."

Navigating the aging voice

Schneider said just as our bodies age, so do our voices.

"Our breathing mechanism changes, our vocal folds themselves change, skin gets thinner, muscle gets smaller, potentially," Schneider said.

She said Mina's apparent use of backup singers on her new album, Gassa D'Amante, helps bolster her voice in the higher passages.

And she added the singer's retreat to the recording studio has likely worked in her favor over the years. It's less physically taxing than keeping up with a relentless touring schedule.

And she owns her own label and studio. "Assuming she has control over her studio time, she's going in when she wants and she's doing as many takes as she wants," Schneider said. "Being in control of those things allows for you to choose your best work."

Not all artists have this kind of control — though many do have access to is the latest technology.

"I think pop stars are going to be more and more tempted to use AI-assisted voice software that will allow them to keep their vocal timbre and their vocal range maybe longer than their actual physical voices will allow them," said musicologist and Switched on Pop podcast co-host Nate Sloan.

But Sloan said he hopes they'll resist the temptation.

"Audiences want to hear a direct and unfiltered performance. They want to hear an artist's vulnerabilities. They want to hear their flaws," Sloan said. "Because that is what draws us to art is that human connection."

Sloan said he gets excited when singers like Mina connect with listeners in an unvarnished way. "There's space for older artists to make their voices heard," he said.

Jennifer Vanasco edited this story for broadcast and digital. Chloee Weiner mixed the audio.