Millions of people tuned in yesterday to watch President Obama's inauguration ceremony, which began with a rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner" performed by superstar Beyonce. Her performance was praised by many people, blogs, and media outlets alike-- however now it is reported that the singer was actually lip-synching.
This comes as a surprise as Beyonce is known for her strong and powerful voice, so why would she chose to lip-synch? The London Times reports that a spokeswoman for the Marine Corps Band confirmed that Bey's was going in over a pre-recorded version of "The Star-Spangled Banner." The spokeswoman said it is "standard procedure to record a backing track and Beyoncé decided rather shortly before her performance to rely on the studio version rather than singing it live on the Capitol."
This isn't all that uncommon, at Obama's first inauguration ceremony in 2009 Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman and colleagues performed with a backing track, however this was because of cold and windy weather.
Although it has been rumored that the Marine Corps Band was also pretending to play their instruments, a representative for the Marine Corps Band told the Washingtonian that they were indeed performing live, even though Beyonce decided not to sing. "We don't know why Beyonce decided to use prerecorded music," the rep said. "All music [for inaugural ceremonies] is prerecorded as a matter of course, and that's something we've done for years and years. The Marine Band did perform live throughout the ceremony but we received last-minute word that Beyonce wanted to use the recording."
Check out footage of Bey's performance below.What do you guys think of this? Do you let Beyonce slide or is this a big no-no?
[via Complex]