The United States Marine Corps band, which played throughout the pomp and ceremony of Obama's historic inauguration, said Beyoncé lip-synched her way through a stirring rendition of The Star-Spangled Banner.
The news, revealed by The Times
and rapidly confirmed by such august news outfits as ABC News, was
greeted by howls of dismay on social media. Beyoncé's performance had
attracted rave reviews, and there was widespread disappointment that she
had relied on a studio version rather than attempt a live rendition.
"We don't know why Beyoncé decided to use pre-recorded music," a spokesperson for the band told the Washingtonian blog.
"All music (for inaugural ceremonies) is prerecorded as a matter of
course, and that's something we've done for years and years," the
spokesperson added. The band played live for the rest of the ceremony,
but was asked to use the pre-recorded track for Beyoncé's performance.
Later in the day, the Marine Corps backed away somewhat from
the band's earlier statement. Captain Gregory Wolf, a spokesman for
the Marine Corps, confirmed that while the musicians did indeed mime the
national anthem as requested, "no-one in the Marine Band is in a
position to assess whether it was live or prerecorded".
Colonel Michael J Colburn, the band's conductor, told the Washingtonian
that although he could not confirm whether Beyonceé sang live or not,
the band and the singer had decided on Sunday night to use a recorded
track because they had not had time to rehearse together. "She wasn't
comfortable performing without a rehearsal, and I wasn't comfortable
that either," he said.
The news of Beyoncé's apparent decision to
shy away from a live performance, which rapidly began spreading on
social media, appeared to explain why she had sent out a photo of
herself on Instagram several days ago in which she sat in a recording
studio holding a piece of sheet music with the lyrics of the American
national anthem on it. It also explained why Beyoncé at one point during
her performance was able to dramatically remove her ear-piece.
The Star-Spangled Banner is a notoriously difficult piece to sing, as it spans a huge vocal range. It was also bitterly cold in Washington DC on Monday. The combination of nerves and the cold may have influenced Beyoncé's decision to rely on the pre-recorded track.
In
another development, ABC News revealed that Kelly Clarkson, a former
star from the reality show American Idol, had sung her song, My Country,
Tis' of Thee, live. On a day when Obama laid out a bold liberal agenda
for the country, that news was likely to have been the only bit of cheer
for his Republican opponents. Clarkson has said in the past that she is
a supporter of former Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul.
However,
as it seems Beyoncé is set to take a – very minor – spot in the list of
presidential scandals, she is far from the first major star to get
caught in a moment of high profile fakery. In 2009 acclaimed violinist
Itzhak Perlman and cellist Yo-Yo Ma "finger synched" their inaugural
performances as cold weather made performing live extremely hard in the
face of frozen strings and hands.
And in 1991 Whitney Houston's
dazzling performance of The Star-Spangled Banner at that year's Super
Bowl was also later revealed to be lip-synched.
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