I don’t know about your Super Bowl party, PopWatchers, but at the one I was at, it took my friend Meagan about five seconds to point out that Jennifer Hudson was not singing "The Star Spangled Banner" live. (Producer Rickey Minor confirmed to the Associated Press that Hudson sang to a backing track at his request.) For the record, it took readers of Michael Slezak’s rave review ofJ. Hud’s take on the national anthem about 28 minutes to point out the Oscar winnerwas singing to a backing track, and then y’all were off to the races, some calling the decision disappointing, some wondering what the big deal is. I pretty much side with the latter camp. Unlike Bruce Springsteen, who did sing live during his halftime show, J. Hud was out there by herself, and with a song as deliberately paced and aggressively melodic as "The Star Spangled Banner," the echoes bouncing through that stadium would’ve been all kinds of distracting.
Not to mention the fact that, you know, she’s singing in front of something like a billion people, and for the first time since suffering unfathomable personal tragedy — which is to say, the national anthem is supposed to be a moment of uplift and goosebumps, not a global televised gauntlet thrown down to test a singer’s nerves. Hence, why pretty much everyone who sings the national anthem at the Super Bowl sings it to a backing track. Besides, the cries of "she was lip syncing!" and "Milli Vanilli!" ignore that (a) we were always hearing Hudson’s voice, not some anonymous singer’s, and (b) she definitely was singing — we just couldn’t hear it.
And yet…and yet. J. Hud’s performance truly would have been far more impressive, even legendary, if she’d done it live, and it’s not like they don’t have ear monitors to help solve the reverb issue. But ultimately I think I’m going to cut the woman some slack, if for no other reason than, live or not, that was one of my favorite versions of "The Star Spangled Banner" I’ve ever heard. But what do you think, PopWatchers? Vote in our poll below, and then give us your two cents in the comments!
UPDATE: Hudson’s manager, Damien Smith, confirms to EW’s Simon Vozick-Levinson that Hudson used a pre-recorded backing vocal track at Super Bowl organizers’ request. "Any time you perform the pre-game event, you’re required to give them backing tracks," says Smith. "It’s nothing out of the norm. [But] it definitely was Jennifer singing live — that was her voice."
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Not a big deal at all, she was still amazing. I believe the decision to lip-synch probably has more to do with the producers of the Super Bowl entertainment than anything else. They want the show to go flawlessly to ensure the best possible publicity. The entertainment portion of the event drives ratings among the casual sports fan so the producers want to put a great product out there. Little things like a flubbed lyric, cracked voice, etc. detract from that and, ultimately, the producers want people buzzing about the great performances and not the screw ups. Ultimately, it’s about managing the Super Bowl brand – and avoiding another publicity nightmare like “Nipplegate”!
I find it really disappointing. I do every time that I hear someone has lip-synched at events like this. I have no doubts about Jennifer Hudson’s talent, let’s get that straight first and foremost. But she’s a singer. She should sing. Obviously, there would have been echoes in such a big stadium, but I don’t think people were expecting it to be slick and over-produced. There really was no reason to do it, in my eyes, unless they felt she couldn’t pull it off. It made everything fake and contrived.
Just to add to that…why have anyone there “live” to perform at all? Springsteen did it, and while he wasn’t note-perfect the whole way through, he was fantastic. The small deviations from the recorded versions of songs is what makes live performance great. Hell, I could come up with a great ‘performance’ given adequate studio time. Sorry, rant over.
Hands down, one of the best versions of the Star Spangled Banner anyone has ever sung, anywhere. Can someone remind me again, who won the year she was on American Idol, b/c I don’t know of any idol contestant or winner that could have sung that song as powerfully as she did. Just flawless.
So what?
Whitney Houston also lip synched the National Anthem….they all do it
no big deal at all.. it was still her voice…
Also remember, they have to time the jets flying over the stadium at the end pretty exactly. If she sang live and was too fast or too slow, it would kind of ruin the moment. Plus, she sounded amazing, and it’s not like she can’t sing live – she was on American Idol, for crying out loud!
It was so obvious that she was lip-syncing (to herself mind you). I mean her body language was so calm yet she was hitting these astronomically crazy notes. It just didn’t add up. Bottom line though, I would much rather hear a pitch perfect studio recording than a flat live one.
Why don’t they just do away with the singer live. Just have a recording. That way they could save a bunch of money. Who needs to see the singer if he or she is going to lip sync?
Idle Hands — The year that Hudson got booted off of AI early and Fantasia won is the season I quit watching the show. I still say that Fantasia makes Macy Gray sound like Pavarotti and no one will ever convince me that her voice is anything but off-key noise.
Please be advised that Faith Hill also sung to a track. No big deal!
Can we talk about something meaningful! We should be welcoming her back with open arms, not criticizing her. It does not matter if it was pre recorded or not pre recorded. It was her voice. A beautiul one! Simple as that!!!
People People — almost all events (from my understanding) are lip synched and in that type of venue, you MUST have great acoustics and sound system. Someone singing live to that big an audience won’t get heard; second, Ricky Minor said all the singers sing the NA recorded, even Faith Hill’s was recorded. So why is everybody picking on Jennifer. Whitney did it too. Stop picking on Jennifer.
Not disappointed at all. And…SHOCKER, PEOPLE…the national anthem at the Super Bowl has been lip-synced for years! That’s just the way it is.
ooooo good freaking lord you try going up there and singing half of you people you would pee your self!!
next time you think of opening your mouth about someone lip singing (to their own voice) think if you were doing it. And maybe she is such a good singer that she was really singing (there was no lang between her lips and song as fare as i could tell) and she was out of breath in the in of the song! People stop looking for things that make a persons popularity go down its freaking sad! and if she was
GET THE FREAK OVER IT!!!
seriously, it was no big deal. we all know jennifer can sing live. it’s just regulations.
Jennifer’s rendition of the national anthem left my husband in tears – even though he hates American Idol and had never seen her before. Not only she has an incredible voice, but there’s something beautiful about her face and personality, it just makes you want to root for her.
She was fantastic! Give her a break, please. It was her voice and it was not her decision to have a backtrack. It was the producer’s decision. Welcome back, Jennifer. You nailed it!
who care’s . We all know she have the best voice
I disagree. You’re being paid a lot of money to showcase your talents live. If you can’t handle it, don’t take the $$. For example, Beyonce sang “At Last” live for the Obama’s first dance, and it was beautiful.
I say get a life there are bigger things to worry about in this country then if a song was sang live or not. Jennifer touched me with her rendition of the anthem and the game was great…let us continue to lift her up not tear her down.
I still thought she was awesome. I thought the procedure was they create a track of them singing and decide that day whether to sing live or use the track. Whitney Houston sang live, for example, but could have used the tape she made a few days before.
Why does anyone care either way? Many have lip-synced before, many will lip-sync after, and at the end of the day she’s still just singing someone else’s words. Let’s concentrate our musical criticism on MUSICIANS (like Bruce Springsteen) whose work will outlast our obsession with ‘American Idol.’ Hudson is an enormously talented singer, but her work hardly deserves this kind of attention. Of course I’ve just written a paragraph doing just that… Damn you, Pop Culture.
EVERYONE pre-records the National Anthem before the Super Bowl and lip syncs. EVERYONE. This is not newsworthy AT ALL. She was fantastic and we should not be talking about this.
I was afraid she would start crying. Imagine the pressure and how fragile she must be, half her family is gone. I would have done the same thing.
Let’s cut the woman some slack. After what she’s been through, it’s amazing that she was willing to appear at all.
I read an interview with the producer of the Super Bowl and he confirmed that he required both Jennifer Hudson and Faith Hill (who sang “America the Beautiful”) to sing to pre-recorded tracks. This is standard practice for these types of events. Even Whitney Houston sang the National Anthem to a pre-recorded track several years ago – and later released her version of the song as a single and put it on her greatest hits cd. This is not a story and unfair to Jennifer Hudson. I wish that EW did some simple fact checking before putting this story on their home page.
Whoa, there. Vocal performance is a skill in and of itself — and a lot of work, if you’re going to do it well! Just because Ms. Hudson isn’t a songwriter doesn’t mean she is not a musician and an artist in her own right… and a damned good one at that. I am NOT an AI fan (because I think it makes a mockery of the art of vocal performance), but I have to admit, she’s great. And this was an excellent performance.
Then don’t call it a live performance. You’re misleading the audience. My heart goes out to Jennifer Hudson and her family, but it was not really a live performance. Bruce Springsteen did a nice job, and it was truly live! P.S. Ashlee Simpson anyone. She was raked over the coals for deceiving the public.