»Ronniesia Reed
–rreed24@my.apsu.edu
Recently, pop singer Beyoncé Knowles-Carter sang the national anthem at the presidential inauguration.
Not long after, the internet began to buzz about her lip-syncing the anthem. The idea of a Grammy award- winning artist lip -syncing the national anthem during the inauguration is disrespectful to some, and with her Super Bowl performance, many were wondering if she would do it again.
“Because she didn’t have time to rehearse with the Marine Band, she decided to use her recording with the Marine Band,” an unnamed source from the inaugural told CNN News.
Performers have busy schedules; for this reason, it is understandable Beyoncé lip-synced. If she would have done the performance without practicing, she could have gotten on stage and sounded terrible.
“There was no opportunity for Mrs. Knowles-Carter to rehearse with the Marine Band before the inauguration so it was determined that a live performance by the band was ill-advised for such a high-profile event, each piece of music scheduled for performance in the inauguration is pre-recorded for use in case of freezing temperatures, equipment failure or extenuating circumstances,” said a spokeswoman for the Marine Corp Band, Master Sergeant Kristin DuBois to the NY Times.
It would not have been fair to Beyonce or anyone else behind the performance if there had been a mess-up due to one of these circumstances.
“The weather down there was about 46 or 44 degrees and for most singers that is just not good singing weather,” said former Grammy award- winning artist Aretha Franklin, according to Us Magazine. Franklin is one of many celebrities who stood up for Beyoncé and admitted to lip-syncing the national anthem before herself.
If the “Queen of Soul” can lip-sync the national anthem, surely Beyoncé can do it too.
The fact is, everyone knows they are still great singers, so lip-syncing one time should not affect anyone’s opinion of them as artists.
“Even though Beyoncé got caught lip-syncing, she sings live at most of her performances and she’s still the ultimate entertainer,” said Kerry Marable, sophomore health and human performance major.
With so many people making comments about the situation, it seemed as though the one person everyone wanted to hear a statement from did not make one.
Beyoncé finally made her response during a conference for the Super Bowl, where she sang the national anthem again, except this time was live.
“I am a perfectionist, I’m very proud of my performance,” she said after confirming that she did use a backing track because she had not rehearsed prior to the performance and there were high stakes surrounding the event.
The inauguration should be remembered for way more than just whether or not Beyoncé was lip-syncing.
There are more important things to discuss, like how this presidential term will be different from the last.
