Beyonce, moving her mouth convincingly for the President
At this point, I am resigned to being one of the last people on earth who still believes that when a live performance is advertised, we should get a live performance. Clearly nobody in the Obama Administration believes it, because for the second straight inauguration ceremony, a featured musical presentation introduced as a live performance was actually an elaborate fake. I was initially impressed that Beyoncé could sing The National Anthem so well live and in the open air—not quite Whitney, but still excellent. I’m not so impressed that she could do it in a studio, with sound balancing, multiple takes and editing. It does make a difference, you know.
I also assume I’m one of the last citizens who finds the beginning of new Presidential term being launched with a lie both symbolic and disappointing. Everybody does it, who is hurt, it’s trivial, things have changed…I know. Lots of rationalizations fit. I don’t care. Some things should be genuine and trustworthy, and the President’s inauguration is one of them.
Thus here again, slightly edited, is my protest against this deception in 2009, after the first time the American public was faked out. Looking back on what I wrote, and what the Obama Administration turned out to be, it really was symbolic after all. So it is this time around. It’s just not as much of a surprise.
“Why are there American citizens who stubbornly maintain that Neil Armstrong’s moon landing was faked? Why is cynicism becoming a crippling national malady? Look no further for the answer than the inaugural ceremonies of Barack Obama, where a U.S. Senator and a quartet of great musicians couldn’t bring themselves to avoid artifice and deception on the day America displays its democracy to the world.
“There were reasons, of course. There are always reasons for lying. The weather was too cold for the instruments, and the virtuosos Ma, Perlman, Montero and McGill feared that their rendition of a blah John Williams-arranged pastiche called “Air and Simple Gifts” would be out of tune. So they had a recording ready, and it was the recording of the four that was heard by the television audience around the country and the world, as well as the millions of assembled to see the ceremony in person.
“Senator Diane Feinstein, handling the introductions for the day, laid the groundwork for the fakery by introducing the performance as if it would be live. It all went off without a hitch. Three days later, everyone came clean: what was “played” was a recording. Just like Ashlee Simpson, who was pilloried for lip-synching on “Saturday Night Live.” Just like Milli Vanilli, the infamous band that was run off the record charts forever presenting other singers’ voices as their own.
“But hey, that was entertainment. This is just the inauguration of the President of the United States. You know…the one who is going to change the culture of secrecy, deceit and lies in government.
“I know what people are going to say: “Big deal. Who cares?” It’s just a piece of music, and a bunch of long-hairs were afraid of becoming the classical equivalents of Robert Goulet, botching the National Anthem while being broadcast to the world. But it wasn’t just another musical performance, was it? The performance was part of the swearing-in ceremony of President Barack Obama, and that meant that it could not, should not, must not be phony, faked, or a lie. I don’t buy the story being peddled by the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, whose spokesperson claimed, in revealing the scam, that the musicians were “very insistent on playing live until it became clear that it would be too cold.” Baloney. This wasn’t April, after all. It was late January, and the weather in D.C. had been hovering at or below freezing for a week. Everyone with a TV, a car or a thermometer knew that a quartet including string instruments wouldn’t work, not to mention that it is hard to play the violin, cello and piano in mittens. The musicians had the recording prepared, cued up, and ready.
“This was the plan all along: Fool everybody. The important thing, after all, was to make sure everything went perfectly. Next time, maybe we should try an audio-animatronic Chief Justice who won’t screw up the oath of office. Perhaps the president should lip-synch pre-recorded responses, just to be on the safe side. Or have a double stand in for the President during the ceremony…you know, for security purposes. Maybe we should have the inauguration produced in a studio against a green screen, so nobody has to be cold at all.
Just like the moon landing.
“No. This wasn’t just a quartet of musicians. Their performance was part of a sacred American tradition that evokes the best in our history and values. This was a ceremony that was supposed to symbolize, as it always should symbolize, hope, honor, freedom, public service, and American idealism. It was wrong, terribly wrong, to begin the next four years with one more casual blurring of reality because lying is easier than accepting consequences. The message of this administration was supposed to be that lying is not acceptable. If you are willing to applaud for live performances that aren’t live, fine: enjoy your Milli Vanilli. A United States presidency is not a musical performance, and must establish a higher standard than that.
“It would have been wonderful, refreshing, and, yes, symbolic, if Sen. Feinstein had said, “We had hoped to have a live performance by Yo-Yo Ma, Izhak Perlman, Gabriella Montero and Anthony McGill today, but unfortunately, the cold will not allow their instruments to play in tune. So here is a recording of a special selection John Williams composed for the occasion, as these wonderful musicians played it in a studio.”
What’s that I hear? The truth!
The sweetest sound of all.”
UPDATE: It’s hardly even worth giving links to this story, because it has been thoroughly muddled by reversals, spin, and denials. Initially a member of the Marine band revealed he was faking, that the Marine band and Beyonce were miming it all. Then someone in the high command told him to recant, then the spin started. The official line now is that the Band doesn’t know if she was singing or not, which seems unlikely to me. As far as I’m concerned, after the previous inauguration, the burden of proof is on the singer and whoever was in charge of this part of the program to show she was singing.
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Graphic: Us
Ethics Alarms 
Whitneys wasnt live either.
Do you have authority for that? Because while it was rumored at the time, she adamantly denied it, and if it was faked, she’s the greatest lip-syncer of all time.
Whitney’s performance was lip-synced, as practically all major live events are, especially those held outdoors. All it takes is for one stray pigeon to coo too loudly near a mic,or a plane to go overhead, and the performance is ruined for all time. So a lipsynced version is insisted upon. The only controversy with Whitney’s version is whether she knew it was actually live or not at the time she was performing: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Star_Spangled_Banner_(Whitney_Houston_song)
The link you supply doesn’t answer the question. First, it’s Wikipedia. Second, I have no idea what it means to sing into a live mic while a recording is supposedly playing—that makes no sense at all. If Houston was singing and assumed she was, then she wasn’t deceiving anyone…and had a right to be pissed. Third–the controversy isn’t settled. “Practically all major live events” are NOT lip-synced, as I am close to the business and have reason to know. That’s just false. Was Cristina Aguilara lip-syncing at the Superbowl when she botched the words in 2011? So what if a pigeon coos…that’s what live performances are all about—they aren’t perfect, they are LIVE. Your article says Houston PERFORMED the anthem. If she wasn’t singing, she was NOT performing, because the performance required singing, not lip-syncing. Don’t trivialize this. If she’s going to sing, and is announced as singing, moving her lips is a lie, whatever the justification. “Beyonce will now move her mouth to a studio recording” is the only honest way to present such a non-performance, and if that won’t seem right, then really sing.
I liked to Wikipedia because it had a comprehensive array of primary sources to the controversy. So you can follow any number of links in the article to the source. What seems undisputed is that Whitney recoded a version before the Superbowl, and it was that version which played at the time. She denied knowing that she was singing along with the pre-recorded track, which is almost irrelevant. She may not have been fooling everyone, but everyone was fooled nonetheless, at least by the organizers of the event. Whitney can perform a song, without actually singing it live. So-called singers do that all the time, dancing, acting, and doing the pre-recording all can conceivably be called performing ( as long as they don’t call it singing).
1. Whitney wasn’t deceiving anyone if she was being deceived herself.
2. If the audience thinks “performing” means “singing,” then its a lie. A great singer isn’t presented because she’s a great lip-sync artist.
3. “They do it all the time”= “Everybody does it.” Not an excuse.
Her musical director at the time says so in a report about a year ago.
http://abcnews.go.com/m/blogEntry?id=15689014
Well, that’s authoritative. Another illusion down the drain, though I don’t recall why I’d have any illusions involving Whitney Houston. So I guess we can expect Beyonce to come clean in about 20 years. Can’t wait.
But the Inauguration was on Inauguration Day (January 20, Sunday). I saw it on TV. President Obama took the oath of office next to his daughters on Sunday. This entire Inauguration on Monday was also fake, it wasn’t just the one performance.
Well, I knew there was something wrong with that performance, but somehow I missed that it also happened in 2009 (must have been asleep). While that one is more understandable (given the problems with musical instruments in the elements), it is no less disturbing that they didn’t just come clean with it as you suggested they could have done. OTOH, unless Beyonce was too ill, I am less sympathetic to her lip-synching and am wondering if she thinks she will be able to get away with it at the Superbowl in a couple of weeks.
According to Whitney’s musical director at the time, the performance at the superbowl was pre-recorded.
Where do you get the info that Beyonce was lip syncing? I ask because the original source of the claim has since withdrawn the claim, and you don’t provide a link to your source.
Watching this video (from the Wall Street Journal), which has the camera’s audio instead of the network audio feed (or so I’ve read), it certainly seems that Beyonce is singing. The camera’s mic is catching a slight echo effect, because it’s picking up both her voice, and her amplified voice from the speakers. I can’t tell if the amplified voice is live or a recording.
Also, Beyonce gets annoyed with her earpiece partway through and removes it. That seems to me more likely to happen when someone is actually singing, but then again, it’s not like I have any clue what it’s like to perform at one of these events.
Don’t get me wrong; I think it’s a trivial issue either way. :-p
The most recent link is here
The fact that the song was pre-recorded in Houston’s case doesn’t mean it was used. if it was used, then her performance was not as impressive as I thought it was, and that’s not trivial. I care about performing, and I don’t like being fooled, lied to, or made to think a performance is more challenging than it is.
According to that link you provide, “A source very familiar with the situation tells CBS News that Beyonce performed the National Anthem live, but she pre-recorded a track of the song to sing over. The source said this is a standard performing practice.” That doesn’t match what you claim in your post.
Try this one. The initial reports say that the Marine told sources that the whole thing was faked, and now there’s a cover-up, or an alternate story. Naturally.
It sounds to me like there are conflicting reports, and you don’t actually know which reports are true.
Based on the video, I do believe she was singing, at least the first half. The first half was very breathy, consistent with it being cold outside. It suddenly became clearer at approximately “and the rockets red glared…”. Being sung over a prerecorded track seems most likely, as there seems to be warbling where the recording and performance conflict. They possibly adjusted the relative volumes of the audio feed to the camera mid-performance.
Ethically, this would be acceptable if they either said upfront this how the performance occurred, or at least clarified definitively after the fact. It is a shame we have to second guess what exactly is meant by “live” performance.
*clarified after the fact if the adjustment were unexpected
Yes, that’s the way to put it, exactly.
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I was only somewhat persuaded by your piece, so I asked a professional singer pal. She’s on your side:
” I think it’s a form of lying, or throwing a match. You’ve got a pre-determined outcome that the crowd isn’t privy to, and you are pretending you are giving something to the audience you are not. Plus, I think it’s a weakling thing to do. Weak. Imagine going to a ballet and watching a video instead?”
So I am too. I posted your piece on Facebook, and she liked it a lot.
Thanks, Bob…just in time for my interview on O’Reilly about this. A great analogy.
Great for me because i’m a balletomane.
Ewww. Is that anything like Le Petomane?
Only the language, not the odor.
Thanks, Jack. You keep me on my toes! As I am sure you probably know, James Taylor really was singing at the President’s inauguration. 🙂