These
are illustrations to sell-in the concept of an interactive display that
will hold exclusive DVDs of behind-the-scenes footage from Beyoncé‘s
Super Bowl performance for Walmart. And as you can see there’s a caption
that says “Hear Beyoncé’s New Hit Single” which means that the new
single is coming soon since these concepts have been already sent
to Walmart.
…she did sing along with a pre-recorded backing.
The video above clearly shows Beyonce singing live at President Obama’s inauguration, despite the fact that many news outlets are claiming she mimed.
You can also clearly hear the pre-recorded backing in the video, made earlier in case of technical problems. (Thanks to Daniel Holter for posting a heads-up on this video.) But the live vocal is the one most people heard.
The evidence
You can tell by listening carefully to the two performances audible in the video above and comparing them to this live feed:
For more clues that she sang live, listen for these points:
When she starts singing, her voice is hard to hear – the microphone gain is too low. The sound-man quickly corrects this – but if we were listening to a recording this wouldn’t happen – in fact back-up recordings are used to solve exactly this kind of problem.
At 1’16″ in the video above, she tilts her head slightly closer to the mic and the sound gets suddenly more bassy. This is because of an acoustic effect known as the “proximity effect”.
At 1’52″ she takes out one of her earpieces. Some people are citing this as more evidence she was lip-syncing, but in fact it’s what singers do when they’re having trouble hearing the pitch of their own voice through the earpiece. By taking it out, she can hear her own voice more clearly and sing in tune more easily. (In fact, if the pre-recorded vocal was going to her earpiece, she may well have been finding it distracting.)
At 2’17″ she smiles slightly, and you can hear this “smile” in her voice.
None of these clues are conclusive, but to fake all of them, plus the details of the performance itself, would make Beyonce the best lip-sync artist in the world !
And anyone who has heard her sing live knows that’s not where her true talents lie…
So why are people saying Beyonce mimed ?
Because the banddid mime.
Why ? Probably because it can be next to impossible for a large group of musicians to play in tune in extremely hot or cold temperatures – and it was cold at the inauguration.
The original “reports” were confirmed by players in the band, who said that Beyonce asked for the pre-recorded backing, and that’s almost certainly true. (The band has since issued a formal statement saying that “no one in the Marine Band is in a position to assess whether it was live or pre-recorded.”)
Any singer would find it seriously difficult to put on a great performance to a band that was struggling to play in tune, and for something this high-profile it’s understandable that you’d want the best chance to get it right.
But the video at the top of this post uses both audio feeds, probably by mistake, and combined with the other clues leaves me in no doubt that Beyonce sang live – and that her live performance is what most people heard.
Beyoncé performs the national anthem during the public ceremonial inauguration for Barack Obama. Photograph: Mark Wilson/Getty Images
And now the freshly-inaugurated President Obama goes off into the Captiol to sign the official nominations of John Kerry as secretary of state, Jack Lew as treasury secretary, and Chuck Hagel as defence secretary, among others.
As he does so, Obama jests that he is declaring "Peace on earth and goodwill towards men."
Official confirmation of Beyoncé's awesomeness, from Barack Obama's presidential election-winning strategist:
By word count, Pres. Obama's 2nd inaugural was longer than Bush's 2nd and shorter than Clinton's 2nd
Beyoncé is awesome. End of story.
The effect is broken – about three seconds after Beyoncé finishes – by the Marine band playing some Souza ompah stuff.
On C-Span's feed, Obama lingered on stage to take a long look out at the Mall. "I want to look out one more time because I'll never see this again," he can be heard saying. (Not true of course, I'm sure Malia will invite him to her inauguration in 2037.)
President Obama greets Beyonce after she performed the National Anthem Photograph: Win McNamee/Pool/Reuters
Updated
Beyoncé sings the national anthem
Now the moment we've all been waiting for: the first lady of music sings one of the hardest songs to pull off, the Star Spangled Banner.
It's almost impossible to do well but if anyone can it's Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter.
Singing “The Star-Spangled Banner” this time, she still inevitably stopped the show.
Whether at Glastonbury or her nation’s capital, Beyoncé’s performances are designed to be projected through big screens, allowing close-up shows of physicality and emotion. From the actorly glance of stern pensiveness before her muffled beginning, to the triumphantly tossed-back head as she bellowed her big finish, her gaze on the camera never faltered.
Preceding her, James Taylor’s “America the Beautiful” had a wandering, folk frailty – it could have been the veteran left-wing patriot Pete Seeger up there. Kelly Clarkson’s “My Country, ’Tis of Thee” was blowsily overblown in TV talent-show style, missing every mark of emotion.
They were all just warm-up acts for Beyoncé.
As her bold vocal surge subsided, Mr Obama must momentarily have felt like one too.
Beyoncé performed "The Star-Spangled Banner" at President Obama's second inauguration this afternoon, and it seems fair to take VP Joe Biden's delighted reaction as a measure of how well she nailed it. She earned her sister's respect anyhow: "I couldn't be more proud on this day," Solange tweeted.
But Beyoncé was the big name, and Beyoncé had the big, difficult song — which, being Beyoncé, she nailed, even as her earpiece malfunctioned halfway through.
Beyoncé was among those honoring Barack Obama's second term at today's 57th Presidential Inauguration, delivering a graceful version of "The Star-Spangled Banner" at the Inaugural Ceremony. The singer kept it airy and soothing for most of the song before bursting open for a powerful finish. Beyoncé dealt with some sort of technical difficulty, removing her earpiece, though she recovered nicely.
As much as we’d like to pretend that we were tuning into President Barack Obama‘s Inauguration Ceremony for the pageantry and the historical significance…well, we’re gonna be honest. We probably would’ve slept in and missed the whole thing if it weren’t for the fact that Beyonce was scheduled to sing the National Anthem.
But after Bey gave such a walloping performance of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” we felt OK about our lowbrow tendencies. She struck that delicate balance between restraint and runs, and you could appreciate the power of her performance from the faces of VP Joe Biden and others seated behind her. Clearly, we weren’t the only ones who loved it. Head below to see how the rest of the web reacted.
:: Rolling Stone lauded the unflappable B: “The singer kept it airy and soothing for most of the song before bursting open for a powerful finish. Beyoncé dealt with some sort of technical difficulty, removing her earpiece, though she recovered nicely.”
:: Vulture thinks it was a top-tier performance of the difficult song: “Beyoncé had the big, difficult song — which, being Beyoncé, she nailed, even as her earpiece malfunctioned halfway through. In the pantheon of Great National Anthem performances, it wasn’t close to Whitney (what could be?), and it wasn’t as cool as Marvin Gaye, but by the time Bey got to ‘waaaaave,’ with the melisma and the ‘I did it’ smile? And the entire National Mall cheering? And Biden making Biden faces? Yeah, this has to be top five.”
:: Spin seems to agree with Vulture: It was “a suave, evocative rendition of a notoriously difficult tune — not quite Whitney-Houston-in-1991 levels of superlativeness, perhaps, but definitely part of the same conversation.”
:: MTV called it an “emotional, diva-fied version of the national anthem.”
:: Across the pond, the Guardian said Bey “roused the Washington crowd…with a soaring performance.”
:: BuzzFeed summed it up thusly: “Wow, just wow.”
:: And, finally, we have TMZ. The site facetiously asked “Did Beyonce Butcher the National Anthem?” To which they answered, “NO. OF COURSE NOT. IT WAS F**KING AWESOME.”
After President Obama was sworn in for a second term, Beyonce showed why she’s Queen B with a flawless rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
Her style stunned too: She was impeccably glam in a Christian Dior coat and shoes, flowing Pucci gown and Lorraine Schwartz emerald earrings. Hubby Jay-Z, — watching proudly from the front row — wore head-to-toe Tom Ford.
The anthem was something of a repeat performance, since Beyonce sang “At Last” for the first couple at a 2008 inauguration ball.
Beyonce drew a loud cheer from the audience Monday even before her impressive rendition of the national anthem.
The applause started when she took her place with Jay-Z at the Capitol to watch President Barack Obama take the oath for his second term in office. The two stopped to chat with the Rev. Al Sharpton.
Beyonce had a definite fan in Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who applauded eagerly after she finished singing the national anthem. She offered R&B-esque vocal riffs as she sang on and the crowd seemed to love it, cheering loudly as she finished. Clarkson, too, hit high notes.
Washington’s power brokers were star struck yesterday —
not by the president or first lady but by the entertainment world’s
first couple, Beyoncé and Jay-Z.
Fawning politicians scrambled for the their cellphones to snap photos of the sexy siren and her hip-hop-mogul hubby at President Obama’s inauguration.
It was as if Obama was playing second fiddle at his own party.
Among
those swooning was Rep. Peter King, the Long Island Republican who
normally spends his time railing against terrorists. He was caught
snapping Beyoncé as she and Jay-Z strolled out of the Capitol — right
past him — to take their seats.
REUTERS
STARS & STRIPES:Jay-Z and Beyoncé steal the show yesterday while heading to their seats outside the Capitol.
PHOTOS: OBAMA'S SECOND INAUGURATION
“She’s been after me for years,” King joked.
“I was in a
good location, and just for historical record, anybody who looked
important I took a picture of,” said King, who was using his BlackBerry.
“I didn’t know the guy beside her, Jay-Z.”
Likewise, Sen.
Debbie Stabenow of Michigan and Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California posed
for pictures with Beyoncé and Jay-Z on the dais.
But it was the crowd in the cheap seats outside the Capitol that set the tone, greeting the stars with a loud cheer as they came into sight.
And
when Beyoncé walked to the front to sing “The Star-Spangled Banner,”
Vice President Joe Biden gave her an appreciative look up and down.
Behind Biden, ex-President Bill Clinton craned his neck to get a better look at her.
Twitter
exploded with Beyoncé-mania as she belted out the anthem, leaving
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas clapping vigorously and fans on
the Mall demanding an encore.
“One nation under Beyoncé,” tweeted Ronan Farrow, son of actress Mia Farrow.
“American Idol” alumnus Todrick Hall posted, “How nice of Obama to show up to the Beyoncé concert.”
Beyonce’s
performance came after James Taylor sang “America the Beautiful,” and
Kelly Clarkson gave a rendition of “My Country ’Tis of Thee.”
“Wow
....I was incredibly nervous and cold ha! I just wanna officially thank
President Obama for opening for me haha! Just kidding :),” Clarkson
tweeted afterward.
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