Beyonce is embroiled in controversy over whether she lip-synced her beautiful rendition of the national anthem during President Obama's inauguration. But if she did, she's not the only one to have faked it.
Apparently, more and more artists agree. Lip-syncing, once considered an industry taboo, has become expected for pop stars like Britney Spears, who are perhaps better-known for their performances and personality than their singing ability. But, surprisingly, it has also become de rigueur for some of the best singers and musicians who perform at high-stakes live events such as the Super Bowl.
"That's the right way to do it," Rickey Minor, who has produced numerous Super Bowl pregame performances and is now the band leader on Jay Leno's "Tonight Show," told the Associated Press in 2009. "There's too many variables to go live. I would never recommend any artist go live because the slightest glitch would devastate the performance."
Top vocal coach Jan Smith, whose voice clients include Rob Thomas, Colbie Caillat, Justin Bieber, Usher and many other big names, told ABC News Radio that performing in cold weather can sometimes trip up even the best vocalists -- and it was cold in Washington, D.C. on Monday.
"The vocal cords, which most people don't know, are in the windpipe and so when a singer breathes in cold air, it's kinda like...jumping into cold water," Smith said. "It restricts the cartilage and can sometimes create variances that way, or difficulties for singers to be able to perform well outside."
In addition, Smith said, "The Star-Spangled Banner" is one of the most difficult songs to sing live, even for a Grammy-winning professional like Beyonce.
"[It's] a song that spans about 1.5 octaves, and it kind of scares most singers to death just because of where it hits them in their voice," Smith explained. "It usually splits their voice in half, and singers are not, typically, as comfortable in the high end parts or crossing over into falsetto. So, it's kind of a tricky song for most people."
"Being old school and really, you know, priding myself on great live performances, I encourage my artists to do that always," Smith added. "But you know, there are sometimes reasons that people have to choose to do otherwise, and it can vary from...[the] elements, to sickness, to whoever knows."
Ultimately, former Billboard executive editor Robert Levine believes not all lip-synching is bad, especially when it comes to the national anthem. "It's a prerecording of [the artist]," he told ABCNews.com in 2009. "The 'fakeness' is that it's not really live, not that it's not really [them]."
Jan. 23, 2013
By SHEILA MARIKAR (@SheilaYM) , LUCHINA FISHER (@luchina) and JENNIFER ABBEY
Source: http://abcnews.go.com
