BBC - get it right; was Beyonce's performance LIP SYNC as you keep announcing or was she singing LIVE to a backing track? There is a massive difference (which media and general public are probably too dim to understand).

My understanding is that it was lipsync and that the band was also pre-recorded.

Singing to a pre-recorded track more like, ghosting.

No; if she sang along live to a pre recorded track AND vocal, we'd have heard it (double tracking always quite clear).

Just let me be clear - LIP SYNC is MIMING.

Singing along to a pre recorded track is NOT lip sync unless a vocal was also recorded with the backing track and BOTH vocals are heard.

JK2006 wrote:

LIP SYNC is MIMING

and that is what she did. Just heard an article on Radio 5 and she justified it because of weather and respect for the ocassion and fear she might fluff it. She then did an unaccompanied version or Star Spangled banner and there is certainly nothing wrong with her pipes so I tend to believe her.

Nope - this is the confusion; she said she DID sing along to the track. In which case it wasn't miming. Unless her mic was turned off. In which case she was quite marvellously accurate.

The exact BBC words "she admitted she had at least sung along to the backing track".

A backing track is not a vocal recording.

Backing backs a vocal.

You should remember this punctiliousness, JK, the next time you happily use political terms in a loose, lax and sometimes downright incorrect manner. Try checking on 'democracy' for a start.

So are we all agreed she was lipsynching/miming and on this ocassion the media used the right terminology?

Nope; I reckon she was singing live to a pre recorded backing track and did it bloody well.

JK2006 wrote:
Nope; I reckon she was singing live to a pre recorded backing track and did it bloody well.

Nope,I disagree. She had a perfect opportunity to say clearly 'I was singing live' and she didn't do so. If she had sung live, why was she talking about weather conditions?

Personally I like what Marc Almond said on Twitter:

'So Beyonce DID mime! So what! Very sensible in the circumstances. She doesn't need to prove she can sing.'

That is the point.

This is the most pointless debate ever.

david wrote:
My understanding is that it was lipsync and that the band was also pre-recorded.

Even Obama was "pre-recorded" in that he was actually sworn-in the previous day !

JK2006 wrote:
Nope; I reckon she was singing live to a pre recorded backing track and did it bloody well.


So you believe that she (and her advisors) decided they should admit to a crime she didn't commit.

What she did at the inauguration was sing live with the microphone turned off. When Lip-synching some performers "mouths" the words while others sing the words with the knowledge the only people who can hear are those within a few feet, If you sing the track and do it well it can be almost impossible to tell the difference. At the inauguration ceremony the microphone had a very large windshield so it was difficult to study her mouth too closely.

If the vocal that is broadcast is not coming live from the performer featured on camera then that performer is lip-synching/miming.

I feel sorry for Beyonce on this occasion as she didn't sing live for very honourable and understandable reasons. As I said in my previous post she sang Star Spangled Banner acapella at her press conference and there is certainly nothing wrong with her voice. Unlike some others she can sing and can sing very well.

No: I can't find her exact words; all the reports I can see are edits and have her saying she did "sing" - but to a backing track. If she sang to a fully pre recorded (with vocal) track and the mic was turned off, then that is - to my understanding - lip sync.

But it looked and sounded very much like a live vocal to my eyes and ears - and I've heard and seen (and done) enough of all types to be pretty good at spotting it. You don't tug out the earpiece if you're trying to match a pre recorded vocal.