Read My Lips

At one point, Bieber turned to wipe his face and the song went on. One wonders if the pretence of singing it right could have made the situation better. “Generally pop artistes who have heavy choreography tend to lip sync in their concerts. But it was not like he was lip syncing throughout. But when he had to dance, he wasn’t even trying to sing. He was just concentrating on the choreography,” said Prachi Biswal, a Bieber fan who attended the concert. One of the few times he did sing was during his acoustic set, where he sang Cold water and Love yourself. Many remembered the Coldplay concert, where most of the songs were sung live, the cracks and chokes heard and yet Chris Martin was the star of the show.

Plus one, or lip-synch, as it is commonly known, isn’t new. Bieber isn’t the first artiste to do it and certainly won’t be the last. The Beatles, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Beyonce, Jennifer Lopez, Pink, Nicki Minaj — powerful performers and musicians, have all done it. Ashlee Simpson’s lip-synch on Saturday Night Live in 2004 remains one of the most infamous ones. Several artistes have been embarrassed when the lip-synch went wrong, and very few (Beyonce, who lip-synched at Obama’s inauguration at 2013) have owned up. If we look closer home, Lucky Ali, Sukhwinder Singh, Mohit Chauhan and Shaan, among others, are all doing it. Looking at it broadly, there are too many variables at play in live singing. The weather, the noise around and the health of the artiste. Production companies choose plus one over live so that nothing goes wrong. The problem is, if you miss your cue, there’s no returning to the docks. “You possibly didn’t expect Bieber to sing all the songs and dance around, all at the same time. He’s just human,” said Vipasha Sharma, a Bieber fan.

Now, if so many artistes do it, why is everyone rattled when there is disclosure? For many in the audience, what rankles is that the current standards discriminate against talent. If one prides himself/herself in being a singer, the least they can do is sing. Millions are spent in bringing these artistes, on production and sound facilities. In all of this, after charging a hefty fee, how can the artiste get away without singing? “I spent a huge sum of money for the ticket and travelled from Delhi. For him to just lip-synch sets a very bad precedent,” said 20-year-old Diljeet Singh.
In the much-hyped concert, those who came, paying between Rs 5,000 and Rs 76,000, saw technology transform the new idiom of popular culture. Bieber’s final song on Wednesday, Sorry, an apology for his misdemeanours in the past few years, doesn’t even begin to cover it.

With inputs by Benita Chacko