Althouse: Beyoncé lip-synched.

January 22, 2013

Beyoncé lip-synched.

Do you care? Is there some authenticity issue here that matters? If so, why?

(Yo Yo Ma bow-synched at the 2009 Inauguration.)

85 comments:

victoria said...: So what.

Vicki from Pasadena; 1/22/13, 12:23 PM
Rusty said...: WTFCs; 1/22/13, 12:25 PM
deborah said...: I was outraged that Yo Yo and the other two(?) played Lord of the Dance at the inauguration.; 1/22/13, 12:25 PM
Colonel Angus said...: Don't they all do at these things?; 1/22/13, 12:25 PM
TosaGuy said...: The military band didn't fake it and that is good enough for me.

Shame that the focus on celebrities too timid to mess up on a big stage overshadows an excellent military band that does what it does no matter the conditions.; 1/22/13, 12:25 PM
Unknown said...: Nope, don't care.; 1/22/13, 12:25 PM
Lyle said...: I don't care.; 1/22/13, 12:26 PM
rehajm said...: Ya. Stagecraft. So what.; 1/22/13, 12:27 PM
BarrySanders20 said...: Fake boobs, fake music, fake president.

It's all good.; 1/22/13, 12:27 PM
Tom said...: I'm more concerned that Obama's been faking it; 1/22/13, 12:30 PM
mccullough said...: Since its the national anthem, maybe it was a bit inappropriate to lip synch.; 1/22/13, 12:31 PM
rehajm said...: There's less latitude for freelancing. You can't be too slow, or too fast. You're allowed minor artistic modifications as long as you don't mess with the lyrics.

Sync is forgiven, so long as it's you. No Milli, or Vanilli.; 1/22/13, 12:32 PM
Rob said...: I suspected as much when she couldn't produce her breath certificate.; 1/22/13, 12:33 PM
Nonapod said...: I was hoping for a new BLR vid :(; 1/22/13, 12:36 PM
Eric the Fruit Bat said...: I am a human being of absolutely no distinction, whatsoever, except for the fact that I am a healthy, red-blooded American male who has successfully faked an orgasm during sexual intercourse, not just on three separate occassions, but with three different women!

And that's what I call winning!!!; 1/22/13, 12:37 PM
Chef Mojo said...: What's the use of having them there, if they're not performing it themselves?

But that's Washington these days, especially with Obama.

All smoke and mirrors.; 1/22/13, 12:39 PM
Brew Master said...: Local AM news radio this morning was gushing about her magnificent performance. How she didn't lip sync at all, not like that nasty Whitney Houston who lip synced at the super bowl. They probably won't report the about-face, nothing to see here, move along.

The truth never got it's boots on.; 1/22/13, 12:44 PM
Kansas City said...: It must matter, since I clicked on the link. I have sympathy for Byonce. She presumably got scared at the last minute and chose to lip sync. But I laugh at the media and other "experts' who were fooled by the performance.

Is weird for the people standing a few feet away when someone lip syncs? Does the singer actually sing or just mouth the words. I noticed nothing when I watched. On the replay, I saw how he held the microhone in a manner that blocked a clear view of her mouth. Was that part of the act, or is that how she normally sings?; 1/22/13, 12:47 PM
Bart Hall (Kansas, USA) said...: This is pretty standard for high-stakes situations with lots of moving pieces, some of them uncontrollable. It concerns me more that so many people are focusing on a triviality and missing the moment.

And what is the America being celebrated, even if (as I) you oppose Obama on many of his key issues? It is that a rabbi can stand next to an imam in a cathedral and recite the שְׁמַע in Hebrew. Where else but America.; 1/22/13, 12:49 PM
Dangerous Dreamer said...: I don't know, something about introducing someone to perform live and then singing to a recording bothers me a little. Maybe they should just say "everyone welcome Beyonce and watch her stand there while we listen to a previously record rendition of the national anthem." How'd you like that?; 1/22/13, 12:50 PM
President-Mom-Jeans said...: You mean the vapid, 1%er Beyonce's singing of the national anthem was faker than First Lady Camacho's hair? I'm shocked, shocked.

It's actually perfectly fitting for the kickoff of the hellish second term of the empty chair celebrity presidency.

Is the only thing worse than a Mitch, a fake Mitch?; 1/22/13, 12:55 PM
Baron Zemo said...: Why are you surprised. She is annother charter member of the most overrated club.

It is fitting and historically appropriate that this second start off with another big lie.

Four more years of this shit.; 1/22/13, 12:58 PM
Colonel Angus said...: I don't care because I don't care about Bouncy or Obama.; 1/22/13, 12:58 PM
Mary Beth said...: The 2009 inauguration is so four years ago.; 1/22/13, 1:08 PM
Indigo Red said...: Obama lip-synced his speech. That Bouncy lipped the National Anthem is no big deal.; 1/22/13, 1:08 PM
edutcher said...: Somebody said yesterday her voice was the only thing that rose to the occasion.

I guess Barry and Moochelle whiffed all around.; 1/22/13, 1:10 PM
Anonymous said...: I think if you show up for a live performance, it should be live.

1. The president spoke live.
2. The military band played live.
3. All others should be live. Otherwise play the damn recording and sit down.

These are recorded for history, how would we feel if they edited it and threw away the original?; 1/22/13, 1:12 PM
Fritz said...: My give-a-damn must not be working, today.; 1/22/13, 1:20 PM
damikesc said...: I am a human being of absolutely no distinction, whatsoever, except for the fact that I am a healthy, red-blooded American male who has successfully faked an orgasm during sexual intercourse, not just on three separate occassions, but with three different women!

Not that hard to fake them, you know. I've faked them with two women in my life. I'll just tell my wife "It ain't happening tonight" if that road will remain less travelled at the time.

I have sympathy for Byonce.

For that narcissistic ho-bag? Why in the hell would you have sympathy for her?

Save it for somebody worthy of sympathy.

Why are you surprised. She is annother charter member of the most overrated club.

That's being generous. Woefully over-rated.; 1/22/13, 1:23 PM
carrie said...: I don't care, but I don't understand why they pretend to sing when that happens. I think that she should she just stand there smiling while she listens with everyone else.; 1/22/13, 1:24 PM
Bob R said...: Well, the fact is that only a hand full of people would hear a "live performance" anyway. Everyone else is hearing the speaker system instead of the singer. The sound has been (at a minimum) equalized and compressed. If you are hearing from one of the remote speaker arrays, that has been delayed.

The marine band is full of solid pros. Some of the best. But it's January. You ever try to play a french horn outside in January? Beyonce is singing outside, in the cold, in a bad acoustic environment, with a band that will struggle to hold pitch, with millions of people watching, and able to watch again and again on YouTube.

Don't Care.; 1/22/13, 1:28 PM
Anonymous said...: Fake is fake. So is her hair. How does she get it to do that?; 1/22/13, 1:32 PM
Anonymous said...: Who?

When I was an Episcopalian I used to lipsync all the time.; 1/22/13, 1:36 PM
Anonymous said...: Who?

When I was an Episcopalian I used to lipsync all the time.; 1/22/13, 1:37 PM
David said...: Don't care either.

I wish the President had mentioned the deficit though.; 1/22/13, 1:43 PM
Bryan C said...: Authenticity is important. It's disappointing to discover that the person up on stage, who once seemed to have such rare passion and skill, is actually a frightened performer mouthing empty words.

And Beyonce shouldn't have lip-synced the anthem, either.; 1/22/13, 1:45 PM
David said...: Beyonce is not overrated. She is a world-class marketer and businesswoman. That's even more rare than singing talent.; 1/22/13, 1:45 PM
Jason said...: Doesn't surprise me a whit that Yo Yo and Yitzhak both bow-synched to a recording. I watched that 4 years ago and thought they must be bow-synching, because there is no way you can keep the instruments in tune in that weather, without constantly thumping the strings and annoying everyone around you with constant intonation.

And the strings would continue to go out of tune as you played!

And the piano? Fugeddaboutit! Hopeless!

The Marine band is a wind band. With wind instruments you can mitigate the cold effects intonation by constantly blowing warm air through your instrument. Can't do that with strings without making noise.

Anything on live TV is always tricky. Especially with a lot of moving parts. Lots of great players sound bad on TV - especially with short formats. It takes a while to sort out sound, even under the best of circumstances. Beyonce wouldn't get a mulligan to holler at the sound guy turn on her monitor so she can hear herself.

It has to be right from the first second. And if it's not, Beyonce becomes a laughingstock because of something that is not her fault.

So no, I have no problem with the decision to use prerecorded music for the inauguration.

I am less forgivng of Alicia Keys for using really fucking stupid material for the Inaugural Ball. But then again, it fit right in with the juvenile nature of this Administration and it supporters.; 1/22/13, 1:50 PM
I Callahan said...: Fake boobs

And an ass that makes FLOTUS's look small by comparison...

I don't care either.; 1/22/13, 1:57 PM
Dave in Tucson said...: There was a Super Bowl halftime show 10 years ago. Shania Twain came out and mimed a couple of her songs (pretty unconvincingly, as I recall). Then No Doubt came out and played a couple of songs, very obviously live.

Seems like Milli Vanilli were the last ones to be embarrassed they couldn't perform their own material.; 1/22/13, 1:58 PM
Paul said...: Band was fake, singer was fake, I wonder if Obama's 'I do' at the swearing in was fake to. His robo pen sure is.

So was it fake but accurate?

Sadly though we do know for sure the dead in Algeria and Benghazi were not fake.; 1/22/13, 2:02 PM
Jason said...: Oh, don't worry. Yo Yo Ma and Yitzhak Perlman can both perform the living shit out of their material.; 1/22/13, 2:03 PM
Baron Zemo said...: I puy Beyonce in a box with Britney Spears and Justin Bieber as fake as fake can be.

There are many more deserving singers who would have been better choices. Get someone who could actually sing like Nancy Wilson or Cassandra Wilson or any other Wilson they could find.; 1/22/13, 2:04 PM
Baron Zemo said...: And now Beyonce is going to infect the Super Bowl with her phony bullshit.

They should have used Jennifer Hudson instead of wasting her on one of the inaugural balls.; 1/22/13, 2:06 PM
ricpic said...: Beyonce is married to a genuine thug with genuine notches in his belt. Could anything be higher in THEIR AMERICA?; 1/22/13, 2:07 PM
madAsHell said...: The whole thing looked like an awards ceremony on BET.; 1/22/13, 2:07 PM
ricpic said...: America's new aristocracy: genuine thugs who do the killing with their own hands. What's not to love?; 1/22/13, 2:09 PM
Jason said...: My pick for the National Anthem?

Staff Sergeant Alexis Cole.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnWWK15U09w; 1/22/13, 2:12 PM
donald said...: Beyonce's moves are like some kinda dude.

Horribly mechanical and inappealing, some kinda lame funky chicken thing or whatever.

I don't know anything about her voice cause I don't know the name of anything she does.

But I know that transgendered moving body. Or impersonater or whatever.; 1/22/13, 2:16 PM
kentuckyliz said...: If you like then you better put a sing on it.; 1/22/13, 2:17 PM
Big Mike said...: Beyonce didn't want to risk joining the long list of famous singers who muffed the line of the National Anthem. I don't blame her.; 1/22/13, 2:21 PM
kentuckyliz said...: Seriously, instruments and/or voices in freezing cold weather is difficult.

For the vocalist: that's what the spiked hot cocoa (nondairy) and the thick neck scarf are for.

Sing on, mitches.; 1/22/13, 2:25 PM
Revenant said...: I would be Outraged! if I knew who Beyoncé was.; 1/22/13, 2:31 PM
Chip Ahoy said...: Was it real lobster? I actually like surimi.; 1/22/13, 2:32 PM
Kelly said...: It's just as well, the woman can hardly produce a decent studio recording let alone be expected to sing the National Anthem live.

Yes, I know how wonderful we're told she is, but the first time I heard her song 'Irreplacable' I burst out laughing. Vocally, she's all over the place, she attempts runs that go nowhere, she seems out of breath, and that's with the best producers available. She's beatiful, I'll give her that, she's great at selling herself, the music is just the prop.

This will make it more uncomfortable for faking it at the Super Bowl, but she really has no choice. It would be much more embarrassing for her to sing live.; 1/22/13, 2:39 PM
AHL said...: I fully expect a vocaloid artist to sing the national anthem for our first Japanese-American president.; 1/22/13, 2:49 PM
Tibore said...: It's common. We'd all like to pretend it's not, but it is. That's just the way things are now, like it or not.

Now personally, I'd rather see an honest performance honestly given, but I also understand that too many people don't understand why popular artists don't sound the way they do "on CD" or on the radio, so as long as there's no repurcussions, I totally understand why artists and their handlers do it.

And in fairness, I can reluctantly concede the point that for an event of the magnitude of a Presidential inaguration, it's better to have a perfect sounding performance, even if you're putting "performance" in scare quotes. I disagree with the notion, but I also recognize that tons of people won't care. And that's what'll matter to the event organizers. They'll take the appearance of blemish free performances over the notion of "purity" any day. And again, who can blame them? The majority of the public won't give a damn.; 1/22/13, 2:53 PM
Paul said...: I wonder how much Beyoncé was paid to say nothing? And the band?; 1/22/13, 3:04 PM
Bryan C said...: What galls me the most is allowing people to think it's a live rendition when it isn't. It seems unfair to all the live performers who've somehow had to make do despite the horrors of typical DC-in-January weather.; 1/22/13, 3:18 PM
rhhardin said...: There's a performative aspect that doesn't work with lip-synching.

A ritualist might care.

If you think it's all stupid, it doesn't matter.; 1/22/13, 3:20 PM
bleh said...: I just don't understand why the performer is there pretending to perform. What does her presence add? There is something interesting and meaningful about live performance. It's interactive, there's an element of uncertainty and imperfection to it, there's collaboration among the musicians, there's improvisation, etc. Listening to a prerecorded tape and watching someone pretend to sing is just an experience that leaves you feeling empty and kind of insulted. It's unnatural, it's too clean and soulless.; 1/22/13, 3:32 PM
Nomennovum said...: I don't care and neither should you, because she is the sexiest woman alive (or so says some men's magazine I think, and I have no reason to doubt this, even if she's just had a kid and she's like 33 years old, so she's practically middle-aged).

In any event, I've heard her songs and I like her voice. At least, I think it's her voice.; 1/22/13, 3:32 PM
hombre said...: "I wish the President had mentioned the deficit though."

What deficit? There ain't no stinkin' deficit.; 1/22/13, 3:35 PM
Titus said...: I don't care.; 1/22/13, 3:36 PM
Titus said...: She was all acting though-like she had to take her earpiece out, but why, she wasn't even singing?

She's pretty though, got to admit that and Jay Z is nasty looking.; 1/22/13, 3:37 PM
hombre said...: "I wish the President had mentioned the deficit though."

What deficit? There ain't no stinkin' deficit.; 1/22/13, 3:41 PM
Indigo Red said...: Kelly Clarkson did sing live in the cold and without backtracking.

http://www.tmz.com/videos/0_klwnem0t; 1/22/13, 3:44 PM
Lydia said...: The way it should be done: Marion Anderson (around 07:40) at the Kennedy inauguration.; 1/22/13, 3:59 PM
jr565 said...: after shilling for this jerk, the least she can do is not phone in a fake performance. But maybe she's as plastic as Obama.; 1/22/13, 4:12 PM
Known Unknown said...: This is like an Althouse movie thread.

Dour.; 1/22/13, 4:20 PM
Wince said...: "Beyoncé lip-synched."

Oh no, not another vagina post.; 1/22/13, 4:22 PM
kjbe said...: Well, Kelly Clarkson sang live. Seems to me this is maybe more a reflection of Beyonce's diva-hood than anything else.; 1/22/13, 4:25 PM
Amartel said...: Everything about this administration is fake and stage-managed. Why should the pop tart singing the national anthem at the reinauguration be any different? I wonder if they auto-tuned the national anthem too?; 1/22/13, 4:25 PM
Known Unknown said...: For that narcissistic ho-bag?

Ho-bag?

Really?

You may not like her music, nor her politics, but does Beyonce Knowles qualify as a ho-bag?; 1/22/13, 4:39 PM
Mel said...: I think it matters with the National Anthem. I think if you sing it well and love it and the nation, that you can sing it in front of a large crowd rather than pretending to sing it in front of a large crowd. Go on stage confidently, or don't go at all.; 1/22/13, 4:41 PM
damikesc said...: Ho bag is generous for her.; 1/22/13, 4:52 PM
Henry said...: Seems like a good thing to me.; 1/22/13, 5:04 PM
Nomennovum said...: "Ho-bag? Really? You may not like her music, nor her politics, but does Beyonce Knowles qualify as a ho-bag?" -- EMD

Not sure who you're talking to (if anyone), but I'll bite. Sauce for the goose, EMD. Kanye West said -- quite eloquently, if recall correctly -- that "Bush doesn't care about black people ... and they've given [soldiers] permission to go down [to New Orleans] to shoot us."

FWIW, IMO Beyonce is not a ho-bag. She's a hot bag of burning hotness. Ouch!

Heating the airwaves with hot lips syncing verbal heat.; 1/22/13, 5:06 PM
Baron Zemo said...: Of course Kelly Clarkson sang live.
She has talent.; 1/22/13, 5:23 PM
JAL said...: Someone probably beat me to it: Some form of "Fake but accurate?"; 1/22/13, 6:01 PM
kjbe said...: My apologies to Beyonce - seems that more facts are coming in...; 1/22/13, 7:06 PM
Browndog said...: Does authenticity matter?

...asks Althouse.

I dunno, does irony?; 1/22/13, 7:47 PM
Known Unknown said...: Kanye is an entertaining idiot (who sadly does have some musical talent) who has now said he sympathizes with Bush after going through the Taylor Swift incident.; 1/22/13, 8:04 PM
Known Unknown said...: Ho bag is generous for her.

Do tell.; 1/22/13, 10:39 PM
Joe C. said...: She and the faux military band accompaniment: the styrofoam Greek columns of 2013.; 1/23/13, 7:39 AM