It all started with Milli Vanilli.
Remember them? They were the late ’80s pop duo whose Grammy Award was revoked when it was revealed they lip synched their hit “Girl You Know It’s True.”
It was shocking at the time. The public felt duped. Betrayed. “You mean we like a song that you don’t even sing?”
Fast forward to President Barack Obama’s 2013 inauguration. The fabulous Beyoncé steps up to the mic and belts out a stirring rendition of the United States national anthem.
Or so we thought.
Now, unless you’ve been living under a rock, the story du jour is that she may have lip synched.
People are outraged. It’s the hot topic on every news program across the dial.
There are two schools of thought: “She looked good and she sounded good, what does it matter?” And this one: “It takes away from the authenticity of the inauguration.”
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Beyonce lip-synching: What stars including Destiny’s Child’s Michelle Williams, Aretha Franklin, Jennifer Lopez, have to say (Photos)
10 PhotosThis synching issue also occurred during Obama’s last swearing in, when cellist Yo-Yo Ma and violinist Itzhak Perlman (and other instrumentalists) finger-synched (yes, that’s a term) their performance. Cold weather and fluctuations in instrumentation were to blame. Instead they played in synch with a back track recorded earlier.
“This occasion’s got to be perfect. You can’t have any slip-ups,” Perlman told the New York Times.
“I think having a back up track is understandable,” says New York power blogger, Rebecca Levey. “Honestly, I think people should realize this is now standard for live musicians at this level. Plus, our anthem is the hardest song in the world to sing. I don’t blame her.
“Also – that’s the last thing I care about from the inauguration!”
Even the great American musician Aaron Neville weighed in with his two cents on NBC’s The Today Show. “Who cares? I was there and she was amazing.”
You may also be shocked to learn that Whitney Houston’s much lauded national anthem performance at the 1991 Super Bowl was also sung along to a back track.
Should Beyoncé have come clean and admitted she sang along with a back track? Would we have felt differently about the stirring performance had we known? After all, she was singing along to her own voice.
The underlying notion of course is all about the lie. And the blame. And how we expect those who have celebrity status bestowed upon them never, ever to lie. Or to slip up. Just be perfect.
Lying is playing pretty big right now. Lance Armstrong. Manti Te’o.
It seems that we, the public, have no tolerance for any sort of lie. We lump them all together under the category of ‘betrayal’ and let the public humiliation begin.
Is there a point where we draw the line? Is our demand for perfection realistic, when we ourselves are not perfect?
We need to ease up a bit. We need to better define what is a lie and what type of lie is worth taking to task. As kids, our parents often tell us we don’t need to be perfect.
Well, apparently we do.
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