As many of you are already aware, Beyoncé has been accused of lip-syncing at President Barack Obama’s inauguration last week.
This definitely surprised me. I’m not a very effervescent Beyoncé fan, however, I definitely feel the regality and majesty with which Beyoncé presents herself and creates her music. Beyoncé’s image, unlike pop icon Britney Spears and infamous Milli Vanilli (both previous offenders of lip-syncing), is a rock solid one.
There have been many mixed opinions in regard to this scandal. Many people are infuriated, deeming her run with lip-syncing unacceptable and worthy of a public apology. On the other hand, people are cutting her slack due to the fact that she knowingly had a cold and sore throat and was bearing the frigid weather, as noted in the video above. Moreover, Beyoncé feels she did not have the proper time to rehearse. As argued in this video, Beyoncé, in a way, did push through and fulfill her duties on that emotional day dedicated to the president.
I’m not too sure how I feel about this occurrence. I feel that if it were any other celebrity-be it Justin Bieber, Britney Spears or Christina Aguilera, the criticism and public disapproval would be flying in from every direction. Are the people who are letting this scandal slide doing so because they feel Beyoncé had legitimate reasons for lip-syncing? Or are they doing so because they refuse to have their perfect image of this great musical icon tainted?
What are your thoughts? Was this a small blip in the world of Beyoncé’s career or could it have devastating and lasting effects like it has for previous stars? Does this bad move made my Beyoncé land her on the infamous list of “icon gone lip-syncer”?
This is so crazy! I saw an article somewhere that said she was so super nervous and everything to sing at the inaguration because she didn’t want to mess up and it sounded to genuine and everything… I can’t believe this!
I also thought this was shocking that she would lip sync, but when she explained it in terms of wanting to show everyone that she was ready for the Super Bowl it made more sense. I personally think that the inauguration is a bigger deal than the Super Bowl, so that should have been her first priority, but oh well! I also heard a comment from Beyonce explaining that it was really cold that day, and she had no practice time with the band to ensure that they were ready for the performance. I also agree though that if it were anyone else caught lipsyncing, the drama around the occurrence would have been much larger.
Every pop artist lip-syncs; and I don’t mean that as criticism towards the pop genre; what I mean is that every artist from Beyoncé and Justin Bieber, to ASAP Rocky and Kendrick Lamar, sing along with a recording of their voice. What people don’t realize is that in this age of advanced production-development, artists run the original recorded-track while performing along with a live vocal-track. Now, some artists choose to sing louder than their recorded-voice, some artist choose to harmonize with their recorded-voice, and some artists, like the previous unhealthy-cold-weathered Beyoncé, choose to sing very quietly (or not at all) with their recorded-voice, thus, making it lip-syncing. But I disagree with those who think Beyoncé should apologize; I don’t even agree with those who think what she did was wrong— I just think what she did was in her nature and happened to be a normal, melodic choice taken out of context. I don’t defend artists just because I like them (which I do Beyoncé), I defend them when I think they were in their moral right to make choices others might find ‘cheating’. In this case, Beyoncé did everything she could to please the President (everything performance-wise, that is.) and she felt that in circumstances like this, ostentatious measures – that don’t include her voice— had to be taken for professional-sake… The President lies to the American people almost every day, so why not lie back? Good for you, Beyoncé.
I feel bad for Beyoncé because most artists do lip-sync but that’s because most artists soundtracks have been changed so much that their voices are altered. They sound perfect on soundtrack, making the live version not as perfect. If she was sick this would be make it really hard for her to match her soundtrack voice, so I think she did make a smart decision by lip-sycning. Maybe she should have cancelled though I don’t know but she’s still awesome and has proved to have a good voice so I think this shouldn’t be as big of a deal as it is.