Jesus God, tell me it isn’t true.
Tell me that I didn’t just watch Aretha Franklin lip-sync the National Anthem before the beginning of Game 5 of the NBA Finals?
I’m stunned. 
I’ve heard that’s quite comon. The singer records it then lips to it.
And why is a big deal?
Cut her some slack.
I’m not.
The last time she got hired to sing the national anthem she sang “America the Beautiful.”
I figure the organizers were hedging their bets.
Ehh…it’s a better song. More fitting as the anthem IMHO.
I actually agree with you. That might be a better anthem.
But it’s not.
A surprisingly bad performance from the Queen of Soul. This wasn’t the same woman who wiped the floor with the so-called “Divas” a couple of years ago.
Why?
Because lip-syncing is BULLSHIT, that’s why. If you’re a world-class singer, then just sing the goddamn song, allright?
Lip-syncing - it’s an abomination. It’s fake. It’s WWF-style pretending, and yet, we’re supposed to be ENTERTAINED BY IT??. Hell - if it’s OK, then why not come clean and have the announcer say “…and here’s the Queen of Soul, disRESPECTing all 'a y’all with an animated lip-sync rendition of our National Anthem! Stand up and PRETEND to be entertained!”.
If Aretha isn’t up to singing a song in real-time anymore, well then hey, maybe she’s just getting old like the rest of us. That’s cool - age takes away your game sometimes. Learn to be OK with it.
But don’t get out there and act out the silly “I’m actually singing this song with FEELING!” body language.
Actually, it was probably some dipshit marketing dweeb that brought the idea to Aretha’s agent, along with a big check for enticement. Crap like this always leads back to marketers, lawyers, or insurance salespeople. 
Was she at least actually in sync with the music? I was at Game 4 of the NBA finals in 2001 when Destiny’s Child “sang” at halftime in Philly (Beyonce and one of the other ones wore Lakers jerseys) and they were completely out of sync so they were booed for that as well as their stupidity in wearing Lakers jerseys at a Philly home game.
It must horrify you to know that Whitney Houston lip-synched the National Anthem at Super Bowl XXV.
Oh no! She let you down. She’s human. Maybe it was an off night.
And besides, it wasn’t an Aretha Franklin concert she lipped to. The singing of the National Anthem is cerermony. Nobody needs to ask for their money back because someone you’ve placed on a pedstal didn’t didn’t live up to your expectations.
No, I don’t believe you are supposed to be entertained by a rendition of a national anthem. If her goal was to entertain you, she would have sung “A Rose Is Still A Rose.”
Don’t forget that at large stadiums there may well be a significant lag between you seeing a singer sing and the sound reaching your ears. Just because they appear to be out of synch doesn’t mean they are.
I agree that lip-synching is very bad form. Either record it and play it and let the artist have the day off, or just sing the tune live, it can’t be that hard.
I’m surprised by this, as Aretha is rather legendary for being a terrible lip-syncher, since she never sings a song the same way twice. John Landis had to shoot her musical number in “The Blues Brothers” live because she couldn’t sync it in rehearsal.
I don’t have a problem with the concept, as stadium P.A.s are terrible and the entire setting is not conducive to a good live performance in most cases. I’d rather have a lip-sync of a stirring rendition than a sub-par live one.
Nevermind Aretha-- I missed the Kid Rock rendition before Sunday’s game. How was that? My mom said, “At least Aretha was better than that abysmal performance by that band on Sunday.”
Was he really that bad? Or was he just typical Kid Rock?
I am not sure if it was typical Kid Rock but it was freaking terrible.
That would be typical Kid Rock, then.
I am amazed that anyone could agree to sing a song in public without first ascertaining that they do, in fact, know the melody to the song.
He wasn’t even in the ballpark.
Man, I hope the OP never finds out about Milli Vanilli.
According to this article, she denies the charge:
However, the fact that an unseen chorus joined her makes it highly dubious that she didn’t at least sing to a track - another charge that was denied so who can say?