President Obama’s first day of his second term in office was already met with scandal – Beyonce’s dazzling rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” during the inauguration was a total fake.
While the Grammy-award winner has yet to comment on her performance (our witnesses spotted her in New Orleans looking unhappy), Aretha Franklin admitted to ABC News that she met the news with a hearty laugh.
Franklin, who performed live at Obama’s first inauguration ceremony in 2009, said, “When I heard the news this evening that she was pre-recorded I really laughed. I thought it was funny because the weather down there was about 46 or 44 degrees and for most singers that is just not good singing weather […] When I heard that I just really cracked up. I thought it was really funny, but she did a beautiful job with the pre-record.”
Franklin, who sang “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” live on a bitter cold day, said about her performance, “I wanted to give people the real thing and pre-recording never crossed my mind.”
Jennifer Lopez also addressed Bey’s performance during an interview on “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” last night.
When asked by Stewart on using a pre-recorded track for such a public event, she said, “Sometimes it happens when you are in certain stadiums and certain venues and things, they do pre-record stuff because you’re going to have that terrible slapback.”
She added, “If I remember right, Whitney Houston was also recorded when she performed at the Super Bowl. And it was an amazing rendition – everyone loved it and it became a huge hit.”
Destiny’s Child member Michelle Williams echoed Lopez’s statement and defended her band mate.
“I will say this, it’s not the first or the last time that someone has had to lip-sync…my greatest singer of all time, Whitney Houston, it came to light that her anthem was in fact lip-synced,” she said to “Entertainment Tonight” during an interview.
Williams will be reuniting with Beyonce and Kelly Rowland on the Super Bowl stage after a eight-year absence of the girl group. She added that artists use back-up tracks for live performances “as their personal preference.”
“With big crowds and echoes, you know when it’s a big historical moment, you don’t want any room for any mistakes so I can understand why it was done,” she said.
Here’s how other celebs reacted via Twitter: