How quickly things can change in a day. Yesterday saw Beyonce sing her heart out during the President's Inauguration and, as a result of it, gain worldwide acclaim for her stirring rendition of The Star-Spangled Banner.
There were murmurs that she in fact "lipped" the entirety of the anthem, but those who dared to say so were called out as haters and swiftly silenced with links to glowing reviews of the performance. After all, if major publications didn't comment on anything but the power of the rendition, who were you to say different!
However, those individuals have now been vindicated as it was confirmed, by a spokeswoman for the Marine Corp Band, that it was indeed playback B was miming along to;
...it was standard procedure to record a backing track and Beyoncé decided shortly before her performance to rely on the studio version rather than risk singing it live on the Capitol.
Source: Times
So how do you guys feel about this? I'm not overly bothered, as a lot of Divas have lipped the Star Spangled Banner. But I will now categorically say Kelly Clarkson slayed Beyonce with her live rendition of Country Tis of Thee [Here]. I'm also a little upset that the dramatic pulling out of the ear monitor- before Beyonce really ramped up the vocals- was all for show. That moment gave me chills originally, but now leaves me feeling slightly manipulated and complicit in this PR nightmare.
Beyonce, you are definitely one of the best/most convincing lip-syncers of this generation of vocalists! Kudos to you and your kin! And as this new era continues to get messier and messier, I say "Roll on Super Bowl 2013".
