For the past three days, Beyoncé has dominated the headlines for allegedly lip-syncing the “Star Spangled Banner” at the presidential inauguration Monday, inciting newfound pressure on her upcoming Super Bowl Halftime Show performance to appease the disenchanted.
Though many Super Bowl performers in the past have used pre-recorded tapings – Whitney Houston included – the 31-year-old superstar, who has yet to comment on the matter, could feel compelled to perform live at the event even if she had planned otherwise. It would be a way to silence those who felt deceived by this week’s scandal, but whether or not their demands are justified is debatable.
“If she’s an artist and she’s gallivanting around the stage for this short performance, dancing in four-inch heels with back-up dancers and sparkles and lights, she should lip sync,” Lauren Jones, celebrity social strategist of Jones Social PR, and former branding director for PerezHilton.com tells theGrio. “Or she should use half playback if she wants. The media, and social media particularly, make these situations unnaturally larger than life, and there could be more repercussions if she performs a certain way out of necessity.”
She adds, “The reality is, if she had messed up or does mess up, the public reaction will be even worse.”
A number of top news and televisions outlets have covered the lip-syncing story over the past week, from CNN to ABC to Comedy Central, and along with the scrutiny, the Internet peanut gallery has been ranting and raving over its subsequent disappointment. Vulture went so far as to question whether it was the singer or Lance Armstrong who had “betrayed the country more,” and Twitter fluttered with comments about Beyoncé’s inadequacy.
“People only care because Kelly Clarkson sang live,” music industry veteran and insider blogger Bob Lefsetz points out. “Beyoncé can sing. Only she didn’t want to take the risk of using someone else’s sound system, of screwing up. But if this causes everybody to sing live at these events, I’m all for it.”
Another consortium of commentators almost related to the singer’s debacle. Jon Stewart flashed to a news clip of one reporter commenting that this had “never happened before on an inauguration day” on The Daily Show Tuesday, only to follow it with his own apathetic thoughts on the matter.
“Look, maybe Beyoncé lip-synced, who gives a sh*t, she’s still a phenomenal singer,” Stewart said.
He later brought out pop star Jennifer Lopez, who addressed the controversy remarking, “You know, sometimes it happens. When you’re in certain stadiums and in certain venues, they do pre-record things because you’re going to have that terrible slapback… All performers do have to do it at some point.”
Anderson Cooper dedicated a segment on his nightly news show AC360 known as “The RidicuList” to the matter.
“I respond with a great big star-spangled, ‘So what?’” He announced Tuesday. “I’m releasing a statement right now saying, ‘I just don’t care.’ We got to look at Beyoncé’s beautiful face and hear Beyoncé’s beautiful voice singing the national anthem. There’s only one thing we should be saying today and that is thank you Beyoncé.”
Similarly, the Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin, who sang the national anthem at Obama’s first inauguration, told ABC News she found the situation to be comical.
“I thought it was funny because the weather down there was about 46 or 44 degrees and for most singers that is just not good singing weather,” she said. “When I heard that I just really cracked up. I thought it was really funny, but she did a beautiful job with the pre-record… Next time I’ll probably do the same.”
The only response from Beyoncé’s camp so far has been from an anonymous source telling Us Weekly that the star used a taped track for her performance because “she didn’t think there was anything wrong with it.”
Additionally the source explains, “Everybody uses these tracks, and the music director advised it. Any big outdoor live performance is almost always with some kind of track.”
Regardless of why, Beyoncé’s Super Bowl performance has no doubt been intensified, though perhaps without much merit. Historically, there have been a number of big-time lip-syncers at major events, some of whom suffered backlash and others who walked away unscathed. Luciano Pavarotti pre-recorded “Nessun Dorma” at the 2006 Winter Olympics opening ceremony due to sub-zero temperatures; Kanye West and Ashlee Simpson notoriously botched their Saturday Night Live performances with a hackneyed lip sync; Britney Spears is said to have lip-synced on her Circus tour; and other reports suggest that along with Houston, Faith Hill and Jennifer Hudson also lip-synced their national anthems at Super Bowls in the past.
According to ABC News, Ricky Minor, the Super Bowl’s pregame producer, even requests that artists tape their tracks in advance.
“That’s the right way to do it,” said Minor in 2009. “There are too many variables to go live. I would never recommend any artist go live because the slightest glitch would devastate the performance.”
Furthermore, he later confirmed that he and Houston decided to pre-record her 1991 national anthem performance in order to “give her a chance to phrase it in such a way that she would be able to take her time and really express the meaning.”
Beyoncé is reportedly in New Orleans rehearsing for her performance on Feb. 3 at the NFL championship game, and has the support of both her Destiny’s Child cohort Michelle Williams (who will perform alongside her) as well as Alicia Keys, who will sing the national anthem and has pledged to do it in a way “only I can do.”
As Jones sees it, the fallout will likely fade soon anyway.
“I’m not worried for her; she’s Beyoncé,” she says. “She can do what she wants. If she wants to lip sync at the Super Bowl, go for it. This performance is just fun. She has plenty of fans that support her.”
Follow Courtney Garcia on Twitter at @courtgarcia