Is it better to sing poorly or lip synch well? Ask Katy Perry!
Throughout the 2010 American Music Awards telecast over the weekend, viewers tuned in to see which performers were named the biggest music stars of the year. Unfortunately, those music fans were served a selection of musical performances that were faker than Cher’s lips. (Except maybe Katy Perry’s “Firework” performance…more on that below!)
Considering the amount of time people spend watching performance-oriented shows like American Idol, we wonder: Are fans angry when superstars show up at concerts and lip synch instead of actually singing?
(You can download music from your favorite stars at Kazaa and see if your lip-synching skills are better than theirs!)
At the 2010 AMAs an array of pop groups performed songs which were typically arranged as mini-medleys offering a shuffled mix of new single/old hit—an arrangement which came across as a desperate way of saying “Hey! You used to like our music, remember? Buy our new album!”
Train and Bon Jovi both fell into the cheesy medley trap, while for her part Taylor Swift used the medley format to offer up a he said/she said mash-up of her “sorry I broke your heart” new single “Back to December” which transitioned into her cover of OneRepublic’s “sorry isn’t good enough” hit, “Apologize.” (It wasn’t as good as Springsteen’s cover of “Whip My Hair” on Fallon, but still pretty good by popstar standards.)
With the best-selling album in recent history, Swift was likely more free in her medley choices since her albums are charting well without the extra, desperate, publicity push.
Days before her 18th birthday, Miley Cyrus attempted a more mature makeover and wore a modest/frumpy black dress while singing her new song “Forgiveness and Love.” Cyrus reportedly abandoned plans to play her headline-making cover of Posion’s hit “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” amid rumors that singer Bret Michaels had an extra-marital affair with her soon-to-be-divorced mom. It was less cringe-inducing than “Can’t Be Tamed,” but the song mostly just reminded us that Cyrus has been a drag ever since “7 Things.”
A pregnant Pink pretended to sing most of her recent hit “Raise a Glass,” while Christina Aguilera displayed her lip synch skills throughout her partly-live set as she was clearly less concerned with singing than with showing off the dance moves sure to take center stage in her upcoming film with Cher, Burlesque.
Party girl Ke$ha took the musical charade a step further and even pretended to play a guitar, that she later smashed. (Similarly, Justin Bieber pretended to play the piano during the opening of his hit “Pray.”)
Of course, some singers might be better off faking it next time around, ahem, Katy Perry.
Newly married to comedian Russell Brand, Katy Perry squawked through her new single “Firework”—a song she just can’t seem to sing well, ever. The beginning of the song was almost tolerable—if absurdly cheesy—as Perry sang over, and was drowned out by, a children’s choir. But once her voice came to the foreground, it was all over (fittingly, the more she sang, the more undressed she got—an excellent way to distract some viewers, we’re sure). It seems likely that Perry’s yelping vocal lines are meant to recall the weird twists of Alanis Morissette’s voice, but it just doesn’t work.
Although he was the king of the AMAs, taking home an armful of prizes, including Favorite Male Artist, Favorite Album for My World 2.0, and Artist of the Year (really?), Justin Bieber’s voice didn’t quite stay on track during his performance of “Pray” either. (Luckily, he also had an entire choir backing him up.)
The debate over whether or not it is ok for music stars, especially pop stars, to lip synch live because they’re focused on dancing (or simply can’t sing well), has been going on for ages. For what it’s worth, we’d rather see a singer struggle through a song they’re actually singing than simply fake their way through a flawless dance routine.
