If Beyonce was Lip-Syncing the Inauguration, There are Technical Reasons She Might Have Done So
Her stirring performance of the national anthem was popular all around the world, with over 1.4 million YouTube views in a day, but Beyonce is now facing questions about whether or not her rendition was lip synced.
Master Sgt. Kristin DuBois, a spokeswoman for the US Marine Corps, remarked that Beyonce had used a backing track at her performance, which the Marine band was informed of just as she was about to go on. DuBois did not make any further comment. The Marine Corps later altered this in a statement by Capt. Gregory Wolf.
“Regarding Ms. Knowles-Carter’s vocal performance,” said Wolf, ”no one in the Marine Band is in a position to assess whether it was live or pre-recorded.”
He clarified that the backing track was just for the band portion of the national anthem, which was used since Beyonce did not have time to practice with the Marine band. Representatives for Beyonce did not make comments on her performance. Kelly Clarkson, who sang “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” performed her vocals live.
It is common practice for inaugural music to be pre-recorded so as to guard against the possibility for poor weather in the nation’s capital in January. As with any live event, any interruption can be detrimental to the proceedings. Cellist Yo-Yo Ma was accused of hand syncing his performance at the president’s first inauguration in 2009. On that day in which temperatures dropped to 19 degrees, Ma said that instruments were not functioning properly.
Whitney Houston, whose iconic performance of the anthem at the Super Bowl still ranks as one of the best ever, used a backing track in that instance as well. Sometimes artist choose to use a recorded track regardless of weather conditions. Whatever the circumstance or reason, it is somewhat common at large and important events.
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20 Responses to If Beyonce was Lip-Syncing the Inauguration, There are Technical Reasons She Might Have Done So
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Why is anyone caught up in this nonsense regarding Beyonce? Are there not bigger issues & challenges we must tackle in our individual lives than whether Beyonce was lip-synching. How extraordinarily shallow & absurd this all is.
Gerry
January 24, 2013 at 12:10 am
I care about this performance.
I was in the crowd waiting for Beyonce on 7th street in Wash.DC. People actually started leaving before she started to perform. I didn’t come from Los Angeles to Wash,DC to see a tape recording of anybody. You can give your money to Barack Obama but you can’t give your real voice in his presence? Does that make sense to anybody? I can sing over any song(mp3) by Beyonce at home. All the artists were being asked to sing ONE song and that is it. If one song in so called cold temperature were going to affect the integrity of her vocal cords or performance than she should have not accepted the gig. Kelly Clarkson’s voice sounded very strong and was not taped. Veteran singer, James Taylor’s voice sounded fine too. So is it beneath her to use her natural voice in America’s most important event of the year?
This just expressed how much she thought of the fans and the President to perform a tape recording instead of gracing us with her own voice. This brings into question if she could really sing at all. Maybe she is a better Milli Vanilli. Why is this such a big deal??? This is a big deal because and 15 year old can learn to tweak a voice and make recordings to sound better than the natural voice. We want to see natural talent not a tweaked tape recording.
I am sorry, the president’s historical inauguration was not important enough for her to make time to rehearse with the Marine band. These are things that professionals make time because they have a reputation to live up too. Folks that are just budgeting their time between performances do what she did.
Now in the super bowl I would expect some taped material and natural voice because that is longer and more enduring event. The star spangled banner was only 5-7 minutes at best then she was gone.
I was never a fan of the “shake your butt pom pom girl” Beyonce, and this didn’t help either. Perhaps she would have performed live if she was allowed to shake her butt for the audience.
chrystal
January 24, 2013 at 12:57 am
Nuff Said!!! LOL you hit the nail right on the head…
What I can’t understand is why was ANY money spent for gas to drive there, be escorted to the stage…ect…to perform when all they needed to do was to play the cd recording and use a big screen tv with a video of her recording the song….LOLOLOLOL “Perhaps she would have performed live if she was allowed to shake her butt for the audience”… She could have really shook it up for the ceremony on the live screen tv in the comfort of her warm studio.. LOLOL BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM. I wonder what other fake stuff was going on???? hummmmm. In my personal opinion Obama is too close to smoke and mirrors like hiphop, hollywood, and ect, however I suppose that is his connection to the black community, and I heard (and hope it is not true) that Mechelle wanted her girls to grow up just like BeyBey..oh well… guess we take what we can get.
Udosed
January 24, 2013 at 6:10 pm
No need to make excuse’s for her the other performers didn’t seem to have a problem.
Granted the lady can sing, she didn’t have to LS, but she did.
I say it’s just like everything else the President does, it’s phony!
Onesilverbac
January 24, 2013 at 1:43 am
Donot get sucked in in this Beyonce stuff, thats white folks business.
Haile
January 24, 2013 at 2:17 am
Although I’m a gospel fan; I must admit, beautiful Beyonce has a beautiful voice and it’s was strong enough for me. She sounded so smooth, so who cares if it was live or memorex? It was still her voice.
Marie
January 24, 2013 at 2:52 am
if this is memorex…..than it can be tweaked and adjusted with sound equipment to make it sound better. Lost of artist sound horrible live and terrific on a recording because of this. Her voice natural or her voice tweaked to sound better…which do you prefer to spend money on…
chrystal
January 25, 2013 at 6:59 pm
Here’s my response to the Beyonce incident; “Yawn…”
crosstown
January 24, 2013 at 2:54 am
@ Chrystal and Onesilverbac. I never looked at it that way. Those are valid points. When you think of it to lip sync at an event like this is just in bad taste.
Latrice
January 24, 2013 at 3:09 am
Another point. I don’t think the backlash is so much about the lip synching as much as it is about Beyonce herself. I think people are just getting tired of her. People feel like she got to where she is by backstabbing her old group members, so they feel this backlash is her karma. I think more is coming
Latrice
January 24, 2013 at 3:14 am
….and she did it very well!!!
Lori
January 24, 2013 at 4:35 am
I think she nicely towards her old group, they are still on salary. She is still paying them! Unlike Diana Ross, her girls were left struggling! What was Beyonce suppose to do? suppose to do? If you got paid for shaking your butt like she does you would shake your too! A lot of women are jealous of her, but you cant bring her down, she is a beautiful girl! Who give a dam if she lip synced its still her voice!
SYLVIA
January 24, 2013 at 4:58 am
Live is best. Pre-recordings may also cause problems. I;, all for the real deal at a concert or special performance.
Dr. Floyd Darden
January 24, 2013 at 7:16 am
I can’t stand Beyonce. . She thinks too much of herself!!!
AJ
January 24, 2013 at 9:49 am
Some people are saying it doesn’t change anything in the world, and they couldn’t careless careless, only they care well enough to read the article.
Mbafan
January 24, 2013 at 11:28 am
Since I am not a singer, and those others that made rude comments aren’t either therefore we do not know the problems that she may have encountered since it was so cold, Aretha said she had problems after she sang in 2008. Beyonce had to leave for New Orleans and practice for her Super Bowl performance also, there could have been many reasons. Lets not down the young lady ,after all, she is one of us.
Ann G.
January 24, 2013 at 3:32 pm
It does not matter whether we liked her performance or not. After all is said and done…..it is over!
Lets all move forward. Worst things could have happened. No need to make a mountain out of a mole hill.
maartieb
January 26, 2013 at 8:37 pm
The technical reason is that she sucks, Live,
Dorian Mode
January 28, 2013 at 2:29 am
Okay, Beyonce Lip Synching and issues with Libya or better yet right in our back door mass murders in Chicago….What is more important?????????????? Well, The Lip Synching is only important because President Obama is affiliated with this…
Try writing news worthy articles…
I think writing about the murders and drugs are a lot more worthy to write than some stupid lip synching by Beyonce.
Not worth the ink and paper
Toni
January 28, 2013 at 3:45 am
THE LADY CAN SING AMERICAN BLACK WE DONT CARE .SHE DID HER THANG. WE KNOW THIS IS A PAY YOU BACK FROM WHAT KYANE DID TO TAYLOR SWFIT.
Delores
January 28, 2013 at 5:08 am