Did she learn nothing from Rascal Flatts?
Of course lip syncing at awards shows is nothing new, unfortunately. A lot of artists do it, and a lot of times it’s pretty obvious.
Back in 2014, Gary LeVox found himself in hot water after he was accused of lip syncing during Rascal Flatts’ performance of their then-single “Rewind.” After getting called out, the guys were forced to admit that they weren’t performing live, blaming it on LeVox losing his voice after performing several shows and what he called “Vegas throat.” (What happens in Vegas…)
All that to say, it’s not uncommon for artists to lip sync during televised performances, usually over a live recorded version of the song. It’s not really as frowned upon as it should be in a genre that’s supposed to be built on three chords and the truth, not three tracks and a production booth.
And tonight during the ACM Awards, we’ve already had one artist who’s being accused of lip-syncing during her performance.
Kelsea Ballerini, who’s nominated for both Female Artist of the Year and Entertainer of the Year, took to the stage to perform her fan-favorite track “Baggage.” And when I say track, some folks are convinced she actually did use a track, because folks quickly took to social media to call Ballerini out for lip-syncing her way through the performance:
Of course others weren’t convinced and believe she was actually singing live:
Now, Kelsea clearly doesn’t make a habit of lip-syncing her performances. In fact, she recently had to cut a show short because she couldn’t finish due to being under the weather. If she DID use a track, she clearly didn’t need it, so it may have just been because it was televised or something with the venue – or it may have actually been live and just appeared she was lip-syncing on the broadcast.
To me it certainly sounded like she was singing live but that doesn’t stop people from firing off tweets.
Of course the debate over backing tracks and lip-syncing is far from a new one. In fact, even Alan Jackson was forced to use a backing track way back in 1994. Alan had been asked to perform his then-current single “Gone Country,” the third single from his fourth studio album Who I Am, which would eventually reach the top of the Billboard country charts.
But ACM producers had a request that Alan didn’t like: Instead of doing the song live, they told him that he had to perform to a pre-recorded backing track.
Of course Alan was (and still is) an old-school entertainer. You don’t lip sync, you don’t use pre-recorded tracks… live music is live music and there is no faking it. So when it came time to perform, Alan wanted to send a message to voice his displeasure.
When AJ took the stage with his band, he sent his drummer Bruce Rutherford out to perform with no drumsticks. Just waving his arms like a madman, wailing away on the drums as he played…absolutely nothing.
It was the perfect protest. Subtle yet effective, and drew attention to the fact that the awards show was using backing tracks instead of having artists perform live.
It ended up not being the only protest Alan would make during an awards show: A few years later, AJ would throw shade at the CMA Awards when they wouldn’t allow George Jones to perform his full song “Choices,” asking him to perform only a 30-second clip and resulting in George declining to perform altogether.
Alan abruptly stopped his own performance and launched into “Choices” himself, showing his support for Jones and expressing his displeasure with the awards show’s treatment of a country music legend.
Gotta love artists who aren’t afraid to take a stand. But unfortunately, here we are 20+ years later and still having debates and discussions about artists using backing tracks. I guess you can’t win ’em all.
