Beyoncé didn’t lip-sync says expert
An audio engineering expert may have just cleared the name of one of the world’s biggest stars after she was accused of lip-syncing her inauguration performance. As previously reported, Beyoncé wowed millions when she belted out a pristine version of the national anthem at President Obama’s swearing-in ceremony. Unfortunately for her, however, a rep for the U.S. Marine Corps band 0uted her for lip-syncing to a pre-recording. “We all know Beyoncé can sing, we don’t know why she chose to use the pre-recorded track,” said the rep.
Now, British audio engineer Ian Shepherd is dishing on the controversy and offering his expert opinion. According to Shepherd the Destiny’s Child star was indeed singing live — over a pre-recording of her voice.
In a post on his blog, Shepherd writes that “you can … clearly hear the pre-recorded backing” and Beyoncé singing over it. He also notes that the singer removed her ear piece to allow her to”hear her own voice more clearly and sing in tune more easily.” Another point Shepherd presents is that at one point Bey smiled while singing. “You can hear the smile in her voice,” says Shepherd. The audio expert notes that the mic was indeed live because at the :38 second mark the singer’s scarf is heard blowing in the breeze. Shepherd also says that when she starts singing, her voice is hard to hear because the microphone gain is too low. “The sound-man quickly corrects this — but if we were listening to a recording this wouldn’t happen — in fact back-up recordings are used to solve exactly this kind of problem,” writes Shepherd.
If you need more proof that Bey did not fool us all with a phenomenal lip-sync, check out Shepherd’s blog in full here.
Below is Beyoncé’s performance once again. Can you tell if she was singing live? –danielle canada
