I know that many people are not bothered by the lip-syncing of the national anthem at the Inauguration — or at least not as much as some of us. I must confess that I am still ticked about the deception at a ceremony with a great deal of symbolism for the country’s democratic traditions. For constitutionalists, the ceremony represents the fulfillment of our commitment to peaceful transfers of power. For that reason, I was less than thrilled with Beyoncé’s effort (after weeks of silence) to rehabilitate herself at a press conference yesterday. Her public relations people appear to have read Othello and adopted the defense that Beyonce is not lazy or spoiled but “one that lov’d not wisely but too well.”
Many fans (including myself) do not want to listen to her sing at the Superbowl which appears to be important enough to her to actually perform as opposed to the inauguration. The press conference was meant to show that it was not that she did not care about the Inauguration but cared too much. I was not convinced. Indeed, I felt she doubled down on the lie.
Beyoncé began by singing the National Anthem at the press conference. This thrilled the largely enraptured reporters with the celebrity. No one asked why she could do that at a press conference but not the Inauguration. She however offered a spin that seemed well-constructed by her press people. First, she insisted that “Well, I am a perfectionist. I practice until my feet bleed, and I did not have time to rehearse with the orchestra.” Well, if you are such a perfectionist, how about showing up for rehearsal or taking the time to prepare. You clearly had the time for a press conference before a football game.
Then she added: “It was a live television show, and a very, very important, emotional show for me, one of my proudest moments. And due to the weather, due to the delay, due to no proper sound check, I did not feel comfortable taking a risk.” Really? Clarkson, Taylor and others are huge performers and yet made it to rehearsal and sang in the elements. They also viewed this as an important day. Indeed, the importance of the day is to have authentic performances — not pretend singing for a pretend event. She was not asked to lip-sync. She was given his honor to sing. That is particularly the case when it is our national anthem.
She then added “It was about the president and the inauguration and I wanted to make him and my country proud. So I decided to sing along with my prerecorded track, which is very common in the music industry. I am very proud of my performance.” Well, it was about the President until you lip-synced the anthem. It is common in the music industry until it is discovered on shows like Saturday Night Live –and then the performers are ridiculed like Ashlee Simpson. If she is proud of her performance (or non-performance), she appears alone. What she gave Americans is the thrill of watching her pretend to sing.
Once again, I know many people do not care. I do. I think her decision (and the Marine band’s decision to go along with her) is an utter disgrace. Her press conference (which seemed to lack any serious questions from reporters) sounded like the confession of a diva: you got to see me and no one promised you a real live performance. Like many, I will be grinding my teeth as Beyoncé sings live at the Superbowl because a “perfectionist” takes the time to rehearse for a football game.
Source: CBS
Marian Anderson — one of the most celebrated singers of the twentieth century — wore a fur coat when she sang her 1939 concert at the Lincoln Memorial, so I guess it was a pretty cold day there.
Yet, she managed to sing many songs — live — that cold, late afternoon.
Her voice was broadcast to millions across the nation, so I guess she had as much at risk to her reputation (and economic well-being) as Beyonce would have had if she had sung live.
Marian Anderson’s live outdoor concert was a sensation and has lived in memory as a great moment in time. There was nothing phony about it.
Time to pay the piper. (Pepsi is sooo not happy.)
She got lazy; she got caught … Destiny.
It was a song, period. As Frankly stated it is an non-issue.
Beyoncé’s lip-syncing is appropriate for an administration that pays only lip service to civil liberties.
T. Hunt,
Hear, hear.
“Shouldn’t we be more concerned with things like drone strikes, rendition, over zealous prosecutors and poorly written laws?”
Hell, yes… as well as what’s going on domestically. Most Americans have no idea…
Hints that are ignored…
http://rt.com/usa/news/kiriakou-torture-whistleblower-prison-term-211/ (“‘US a police state, Obama consciously allows torture’ – CIA veteran John Kiriakou”)
http://www.clevelandleader.com/node/20013 (“Iceland Kicked Out FBI Agents Who Flew in Unannounced to Investigate WikiLeaks Operations in the Country”)
Sadly, in spite of all the warnings, we’ll keep marching towards the abyss.
Time to get over it. The inauguration was Sunday. Monday was a show. Shouldn’t we be more concerned with things like drone strikes, rendition, over zealous prosecutors and poorly written laws? After all, she DID sing the recording that was played.
Much ado about nothing…
Tom
“Ceremonies are either important or they are just so much advertising for the performers”
Firefly,
In the (m)ad, (m)ad, (m)ad world of American commercialism much of what we’ve seen creeping into our our ceremonies and entertainment is the cross pollination between self promotion and ritual. While given an honor at a National ritual no doubt had some meaning to Beyonce, she had a brand to protect. A poor performance could have led to loss of fame status and actual income. Far better from her perspective to not gamble. “Lip synching” has become a norm for many in the music industry and the idea of seeing a “live” performance has become a hit or miss proposition. I agree that ceremonies have just become advertising for performers.
I agree with JT and I find “lip synching” disturbing, whether at an inauguration, at a super bowl, or even a TV awards show. Part of enjoying listening to a musical performance that gives it excitement, is that it is “live” and not pre-recorded. The National Anthem is a difficult song to sing and so our judgment of a particular performance has to be based on its quality. With taped performances one can jigger them around to assure perfection, but that perfection is phony and thus disturbing.
As a musician this does bother me. Why? Because there are countless, trained and practiced vocalists who prepare for live performances like the professionals they are, and then there are pop idols like Beyoncé that we treat as if they are real musicians. If we wanted a real musician to performs at this event, Obama would have gotten a real one. But we wanted a pop idol, a symbol of mass consumption and not actual music culture, and so that’s what Obama got–which says so much about our national politics, by the way–and so, of course, we shouldn’t expect her to be able to perform like an actual, trained and practiced musician. You can buy a tin can and tell yourself it’s made of gold, but it doesn’t make it gold.
This is the nature of our consumerist culture. It’s the bed we’ve made for ourselves.
I feel exactly the same way. What a self important person.
There is nothing unusual about January having a 45 deg. day, so if what’s-her-name thought that the weather might be bad for her voice she should have declined the honor.
The point is that the weather was not her problem, her unwillingness to show up at the agreed-upon hour to rehearse was her problem. I guess it was important enough to her ego to be asked to sing and then to agree to sing — outdoors in January — but not important enough to her to arrange her schedule so she could rehearse.
There is no shortage of singers — as good as Beyonce – who could and would have sung the Star Spangled banner as well as and even better than she did.
Her excuse is just baloney.
Ceremonies are either important or they are just so much advertising for the performers
This was a non-issue when it came out & even less of one now.
There are a lot of excuses she could give. Maybe she was scared she would pull a John Roberts, maybe she was saving her voice for concerts. But really who cares? Absolutely nobody was there to see and hear her. On Sunday almost nobody will care about the pointless half-time show at a pointless football game. If she lip syncs there it will not matter a bit.
People that showed up for the inauguration and those that will be glued to the TV SUnday are not drawn to those events to hear her live or memorex
AP,
“anonymously posted1, February 1, 2013 at 8:26 am
If the foundation is crumbling, why fret about the facade?
==============
So appropriate.
But it is his blog, but getting hung up on the small stuff is a bit demeaning.
Even to us also. But WTF, nobody’s perfect. Professor Turley takes his sports and ceremonies seriously, which is his right, and all young men’s duty to protect. Only old farts like me may protest, quietly.
Huh, I don’t watch your TV, but I always assumed that all singing artists lip-synced at any major event. So in keeping with the American way of life. 🙂
In all fairness to her and artists in general, nobody does a live audition to get a contract. Is is always, demos and promos.
If I was P.O.’d, then it was at the cost of it all, and the 1776 clad puppet soldiers. If it is to be soldiers, the how about some in wheelchairs, and prosthetic limbs riding down the avenue.
Or even better, a whole honor guard armed with M16’s, loaded.
If the foundation is crumbling, why fret about the facade?
“She did a beautiful job with the pre-record. . . Next time I’ll probably do the same.” -Aretha Franklin
Quoted: Aretha Franklin defends Beyonce lip-sync
By The Reliable Source
01/23/2013
— Aretha Franklin weighing in on the Beyonce lip-sync controversy, in an interview with ABC. The Queen of Soul made it clear that her performance of “My Country ’Tis of Thee” at the 2009 inauguration was live, not Memorex — but says the cold weather was rough on her voice that day and that the younger diva made an arguably shrewd choice. (Assuming Bey did actually lip-sync. Still searching for answers.) “The weather down there was about 46 or 44 degrees and for most singers that is just not good singing weather,” Franklin added. (UPDATE 1/24, read more: Other stars defend Beyonce; questions remain)
——-
“Everyone weighs in on Beyonce lip-sync controversy — except for Beyonce”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/reliable-source/post/everyone-weighs-in-on-beyonce-lip-sync-controversy–except-for-beyonce/2013/01/23/003e89e6-65b7-11e2-85f5-a8a9228e55e7_blog.html
what, no rehab?
If you knew America, like I know America…
I am concerned about putting up a front too, because fronts are phony.
However, there are major fronts and there are minor fronts.
The greatest front our nation has put up has been going strong and growing, and it is a gross violation of the Establishment Clause.
It is The Spiritual-Industrial Complex, the military religion that promotes major league holy wars.
The song that is lip-synced by military “holy warriors” is “With God on Our Side”.
The implication is that the military does not need the people because it has a much higher calling … exorcism of evil.
It is the most dangerous madness on the planet at this time in history.
Well,….. Newt cheated on his 2nd wife because he was filled with “Patriotism”. I think Beyonce and Newt are both filled with something.
Patriotism is not my first guess.
…… maybe Newt meant Priapism. 🙂
Like I, you don’t have to watch…