When you are the queen of bees, when you have a website called ‘I am Beyonce’, you have to keep up with your inflated-ego image right? Well, Bey didn’t at the presidential inauguration. According to the NY Times, her performance of the national anthem was everything but live… I thought she had done an okay job, but I was watching with a very distracted eye, as I am not a fan of this kind of stereotyped rendition, however it was beyond this: she lip-synched the whole thing to a backing track she had recorded at a Marine Corps studio in Washington on Sunday night.
The spokewoman of the Marine band, Master Sgt. Kristin duBois, said they received orders to use a recorded version, without knowing exactly why. In fact, a recorded version is always available in case the weather turns bad, but nothing of this nature was in cause on Monday.
The Times is reporting that it is not clear who made the decision to ask Beyonce to lip-synch the anthem (or at best to sing over a pre-recorded track), but she is the only person of the entire performance who did not go live. James Taylor did, Kelly Clarkson did… I mean, the NY Times is cautious and is not pointing the finger at the diva herself, but who else could have made the decision? Was she afraid to mess up the anthem?
With this revelation, I am tempted to ask, has she done this before? May be she lip-syncs during her concerts too, I am going to start a rumor! Seriously, if she can’t sing live on this special day, when she has received the highest honor of singing the national anthem for the president she has supported so much, it looks very bad.
This woman is after perfection and flawless performance, that’s why she can’t take any risks, but this is the opposite of the role of an artist who has to constantly take risks. She is sacrificing authenticity for fake perfection. That's because she is a goddess, at least she thinks she is, and gods are the only ones who can reach perfection, aren’t they?
Now, here is the question, will she lip-sync again for her halftime show at the Superbowl in February?