I bet they made Roberts lip-synch the oath, too, since he fucked it up last time.

(Seriously, though...it is REALLY hard to sing in that big of a venue with the kind of delay you are going to experience. It makes perfect sense.)

this surprised me, (callow twit that i am). it was the ear-piece rip-out that had me convinced. perhaps she's a better actor than singer?

I am among the mourners. I don't mind that she lip synched, I mind that it wasn't Beyonce who told us that she had lip synched. And to leave Kelly ("I like Ron Paul") Clarkson as the only performer who actually sang - these are stones upon my heart.

Then why have Beyonce there at all? Why not just a cardboard cutout and play the music?

Oh hey, the President himself had to read the oaths live and make all his speeches live, verbal typos and all, but nooo, Beyonce's under too much pressure and can't be expected to go without her vocal track.

It sounded live to me. I don't care what the reality was, I enjoyed what I saw and heard. And at least she sang the recording herself, she wasn't lip synching to someone else's voice. I'm fine with it.

I miss the days of feedback.

I also miss the days when people just sang the national anthem, not turned it into a torch song.

There is lip synching that drag queens do and then there is singing along with your own recording with the mic turned off. She sang the song. My problem is the needless changes made to a song that has more than enough range to be impressive. Stop pimping the national anthem.

Just so long as Whitney Houston's epic rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner" at the 1991 Super Bowl was performed live, our republic will survive.

It's not as if there is anything actually spontaneous about her anyway. Contrived, would be the best applicable word.

@10, you had to dredge that up? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Star_Sp…

Oh hell no. Jen Hudson didn't seem to have any trouble belting out Lets Stay Together live. Suck it Beybey.

Why Beyonce is a bigger name than her is beyond me.

They should have gotten Lady Gaga.

Who knows what the challenges are singing at the Inaugural - lousy acoustics, 30-degree temp, being able to hear the band? But it is still a rip-off to go and lip-sync at a function as momentous as this one was. A poor choice, for sure.

Granny Smith - I completely agree. Enough is enough!

http://megastarcomedy.blogspot.com/2013/…

@9 - Yes, Granny Smith. Both Clarkson and Beyonce ruined these songs although Clarkson was beyond horrible in that she rendered 'My Country Tis of Thee' practically unrecognizable. The only thing worse was 4 years ago when Aretha stood there and screamed for 3 minutes.

The point is that the inauguration is supposed to all go off without a hitch. It's about pageantry, not improvisation.

Beyonce Armstronged the anthem. I've sung it in a couple stadiums, and it's challenging, but a pro should deal with the crazy echo and bad acoustics. They are realities in the world of live performance. She had the benefit of an in-ear monitor too. Come on. I thought she was supposed to be the shizzle. Obama didn't Armstrong the election. B should have taken a queue from the Commander in Chief and kicked it live.

@17. You take that back about Aretha. Blasphemer!

It really really really doesn't look lip-synched. I don't buy it.

Reportedly, she did it for a recording made by the Marine Corps Band, which likely puts it in the public domain. Michael Morisy at MuckRock filed a FOIA request for it yesterday.

Lip-synched or not, she sang it in 4/4 time, an irritation which should be a punishable offense. In doing so, she effectively taught a generation the wrong version of the national anthem. Way to go, Pepsi's Child.

The only encouraging thing about her performance, is that she resisted the temptation to "embellish", a temptation which Clarkson was unable to resist. I thought, "Yay! Maybe the era of urban yodeling is finally over!" Wishful thinking, I know.

Honestly, I can forgive the instrumental portion being pre-recorded, since brass instruments are very temperamental in freezing temperatures—though it wasn't all that cold, really. But Beyond-Say could easily have sung it live. And just as easily in the correct 3/4 time.

Even if she actually sang, what gets me about this is the Velveeta artificiality. Guess what? It IS an outdoor event in 19 degrees. Outdoors does not sound like indoors or like a recording studio. The sound of outdoors is, and SHOULD BE, part of the experience. And yet we Americans have to have everything mixed, balanced, perfected, and with reverb added. I, for one, would like to hear reality-- the way it would have been, say 100 years ago. I want it to feel like what and where it is. That is- or should be-- part of the event. (But... not like that's going to be happening anytime soon.)

Some say she did sing it live:
http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/cultu…