What exactly are lip-syncing and over-singing? Why is this so controversial?

Even in the entertainment capital of the world – Hollywood, besides traditional live singing, the issue of lip-syncing or over-singing is equally controversial, lasting for many years with no end in sight. To better understand: what is lip-syncing and what is over-singing, we invite you to “admire” two “monuments” of each field: Britney Spears and Beyoncé.

Britney Spears – “Queen of lip-syncing”

In addition to the official title “Pop Princess”, Britney Spears is also associated with the title “Lip-Sync Queen” throughout her many years of career. Indeed, when it comes to Britney Spears, one of the most famous (but also most infamous) hashtags associated with her is lip-syncing. She lip-synced diligently and enthusiastically, God knows if she wasn’t good, lip-syncing was like a passion and something completely natural. The US-UK fan community even spread the joke: “If you’re not Britney Spears, then you have no right to lip sync!”. It took several long, rare years for her to “force her mouth” to sing live once, and fans were even happier than catching gold.

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Lip-syncing” here can be defined as moving your lips according to the melody and the available lyrics so that they are completely consistent, when on stage, without making any real noises from your mouth. Even in many cases, the microphone is turned off to… avoid risks during lip-syncing. This means that the sound the audience hears is entirely the sound of the studio, including the vocals Through editing, there is absolutely no noise. If the “lip sync” goes smoothly, there is no problem, but every time it “breaks” due to stage problems, the artist’s reputation is affected. serious, even dragging down your entire career.

Britney Spears’ scandalous lip-syncing at the 2007 VMAs with the song Gimme More.

Right from the early years of her debut, Britney Spears’ lip-syncing was heavily criticized. Even at the Grammy stage in 1999, she still faced accusations of lip-syncing. From then on, in almost 90% of the performance stages, Britney Spears lip-synced: from tours to award stages to music events. The peak was in 2007, when Britney Spears had her scandalous Gimme More stage at the MTV VMAs: not only was the lip-syncing obvious, many parts mismatched, her body was shabby, her choreography was awkward, and her charisma was lifeless. severely disappointed the audience.

Britney Spears performed I’m A Slave 4 U at the 2001 MTV VMAs.

But on the contrary, it was also Britney Spears, also the MTV VMAs awards ceremony stage, but the time was 6 years ago, at that time, the “Pop Princess” brought one of the top and most iconic stages. icon of popular music. And of course, this stage is also… lip-syncing! However, because the choreography was so fiery, the stage set was overwhelming with Burmese golden pythons, tigers, leopards, and lions appearing on stage, the charisma was so outstanding at the age of 19,… everything have all made public lip-syncing become a secondary thing, no one bothers to mention it. To be fair, with such extremely complicated choreography, singing 100% live is almost impossible, especially for a singer with a weak voice like Britney.

Beyoncé – Can’t help but sing over it

In the same generation as Britney Spears, while the “Pop Princess” has left her golden age, on the contrary, Beyoncé is increasingly powerful and majestic in the feminist empire built by herself. If Britney Spears’ performance style focuses on seduction and sexiness in every dance, gesture and eye look, then Beyoncé brings a strong, “heroic” style, rich in color and femininity. permission. Queen B always tries to sing live whenever she can, however, even though she has practiced and protected her voice carefully, Beyoncé is not a “god” who can sing live 100% in any situation. At some point, that’s why she chose to “sing over”.

Oversinging here can be understood as a singer still singing live with his or her real voice on stage, but the background music still has the singer’s own pre-recorded voice, so at the same time, the audience The audience will hear both the artist’s real voice and the studio sound. This is considered an extremely common stage “trick” all over the world, to ensure the quality of the performance. This is often used in many situations: long tours with dozens of songs sung each night, in important performances that are televised live, or performances that require complex choreography. miscellaneous.

Beyoncé used the over-singing technique to perform the US National Anthem at President Barack Obama’s second inauguration in 2013.

One of Beyoncé’s most famous “over-singing” performances is her performance of the US National Anthem at President Barack Obama’s second Inaugural Ceremony. On live television, the audience enjoyed one of the best performances of the American National Anthem in history with Beyoncé’s r&b-inspired tremors/riffs and word releases. However, after the performance aired, a large audience discovered: Beyoncé did not sing live in this performance. Afterwards, the powerful female singer also admitted: she sang over this performance, the pre-recorded vocals were recorded at a US military studio a few days before.

The reason Beyoncé had to sing over it is quite obvious: this is an extremely important political event, watched live by hundreds of thousands of people and broadcast live to hundreds of millions of people, so to mention To avoid any possible mishaps, the organizers of the Inauguration Ceremony chose to let the female singer sing over. Just a few days later, Beyoncé held a press conference on this issue, starting with a 100% live performance of the National Anthem, quelling all doubts and gossip.

Beyoncé performed Run The World (Girls) at the 2011 Billboard Music Awards.

Beyoncé then also had quite a few overdubbing performances, a typical example being the 2011 Billboard Music Awards stage when she had an extremely epic performance of Run The World (Girls). Not only is there a backup dancer of up to hundreds of female warriors, hologram and 3D techniques make the stage appear virtual and virtual, making the audience not know what is real and what is a fake image. To be able to fully interact with the screen and perform complex choreography, Beyoncé was forced to sing over complex parts, but her live voice could still be heard quite clearly.

In recent days, it seems that the issue of female singer Bich Phuong lip-syncing or over-singing is one of the most controversial topics in the Vietnamese online community. Bich Phuong’s defenders, including many famous colleagues, musicians, producers, and directors of Vbiz, affirmed that Bich Phuong used the technique of “over singing” on backing vocals, which is completely legal. Meanwhile, the opposing side, including a number of famous vocal instructors at the conservatory, affirmed that Bich Phuong’s work, no matter what term is used, is still lip-syncing. The controversy still lasts until today.