Lip-Syncing and AutoTune and Editing, Oh My!
As a society, we love to speculate about celebrities, including singers and musicians. Accusations of lip-syncing and auto-tuning are levied with the same contempt as speculation about plastic surgeries and cheating. The implication is often that the singer is a faker, relying on prerecorded tracks to mime having talent. In the summer of 2024, the internet went wild over lip-syncing at the Olympic ceremony by artists like Lady Gaga and Celine Dion.
There are ethical issues with using tools like lip-syncing and autotune, but they’re far from the villainous gadgets they’re made out to be. In fact, they have a place in many talented pop singers’ tool belts.
The Good
First, let’s bust the myth that singers use autotune to fake the ability to sing. Most pros who lip-sync a performance are miming over a recording of themselves. Sometimes, this recording has been edited and perfected but, often, it's an earnest, live rendition captured just before the performance.
So then why lip-sync at all? There are two reasons most pros will turn to this particular tool: technical issues and performance quality.
In the case of Lady Gaga’s 2024 Olympic performance, it was for the safety of the performers and technicians. Her performance, which included choreographed dancing with multiple performers, took place on a floating platform in the river Seine. With rain in the forecast, event organizers decided to have Gaga lip-sync to lessen the risk of a dancer slipping or electronics being exposed to water. The track she used had been recorded less than 24 hours before she took to the stage and was as close to a live performance as possible.
Singers whose acts include complicated choreography or moving set pieces might also choose to lip-sync. We expect big pop concerts to be as stunning to watch as they are to listen to. Artists might have to perform athletic choreography, do quick costume changes, or even perform aerial stunts all while singing - often multiple nights a week. Imagine sprinting across a stage while belting out high notes; chances are it wouldn’t be your best performance. Pre-recording their vocal performance allows them to focus on dancing and makes things easier for the technicians who help bring their concerts to life.
The Bad
Another reason pros might lip-sync is to make sure their live performance matches the recorded version of their songs. But if they sang on the recording, shouldn’t the live performance be the same? The truth is that most modern pop recordings are edited to an inhuman level of perfection that few if any singers can reproduce live.
Singing in a studio is all about the quality of your vocal performance, both technical accuracy and emotional delivery. Singers will perform multiple takes until they get it just right. These takes will then be cut up, moved around, put back together, compressed, EQ-ed, and tuned. Despite all this chopping and tweaking, these changes are nearly (or entirely) imperceptible when done by an experienced recording engineer or producer. This level of editing has become the norm to the point that we expect recordings to sound “perfect.” Any “imperfections” are either intentional stylistic choices or perceived as a mark of poor quality.
Unfortunately, many students assume that the level of perfectionism we hear on recordings is achievable for live performance. Aspiring singers will often view this as a personal failing when, in reality, even the stars they idolize can’t sing that flawlessly. The increasing use of tools like live autotune, where a performance is tuned while it’s happening, only adds to the impression that singers should be able to perform perfectly every time as performers using live autotune can honestly say they aren’t lip-syncing.
Even professional singers can fall into this trap. Like Lady Gaga, Celine Dion’s Olympic performance was also lip-synced. Unlike Gaga, however, Dion’s performance didn’t include extensive dancing and choreography. Instead, the vocal track she lip-synced to was highly auto-tuned, suggesting Dion was more concerned with projecting perfection than accommodating tech needs.
Vocal coaches can occasionally fall for the perfection trap as well. While performing Katy Perry’s “Firework” during a high-paid corporate gig, Zelda experienced the dreaded voice crack while trying to hit the big third-chorus money note. It was a stark reminder that it’s nearly impossible to achieve a “record-like” performance when singing ‘live’.
So, are highly edited recordings inherently bad? Not necessarily. Editing can be a stylistic choice, like T-Pain’s intentional use of autotune to give his vocals a robotic, futuristic edge. If singers are well-informed and understand the power of editing, they can avoid falling into the perfection trap. There’s a discussion to be had on whether the normalization of perfect recordings is problematic, but that’s a whole other article.
The Ugly
We can’t write an article about lip-syncing without mentioning the Milli Vanilli scandal, arguably the most famous and cut-and-dry example of lip-syncing being used unethically. In fact, their use of lip-syncing was so extreme that the duo and their record label found themselves on the wrong side of U.S. consumer protection laws.
In the late 80s/early 90s, the German duo was exposed when the track they were lip-syncing over skipped mid-performance. It was later discovered that neither of the members of Milli Vanilli, Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus, had performed on either the tracks they were lip-syncing over or their studio album. When Fab and Rob demanded to sing on their next album, their producer, Frank Farian, fired them and finally exposed the deception to the world. The pair, along with their record label, Arista Records, had several lawsuits filed against them, including a class-action lawsuit that resulted in a humiliating settlement entitling 10 million purchasers of recordings and concert tickets to refunds.
One might assume that the Milli Vanilli duo Morvan and Pilatus were talentless hacks, but the pair had already released an album with a small label in Germany that sold a few thousand copies. They worked as backing vocalists. The duo could sing.
The decision to use session vocals was made by Farian when the handsome, young singers didn’t perform up to his standards in the studio. Maybe their vocal abilities were subpar, or their lack of English-language proficiency hindered their ability to deliver the English lyrics convincingly.
Despite their dramatic fall from grace when caught miming over other vocalists’ performances, the two musicians went on to have moderate success in the music industry. Morvan and Pilatus rereleased the album with their original vocals - just not in the U.S. - and even planned to release a comeback album. Unfortunately, Pilatus passed from a suspected drug overdose shortly before the album's release, and the project was shelved. Morvan went on to have a relatively successful solo career as a singer and radio DJ.
Lip-Syncing, Autotune, and Your Singing Journey
Let’s now put the spotlight on you and your singing, and why the subject of lip syncing, autotune matters. Knowledge is power when it comes to editing, lip-syncing, and autotune. Just knowing that your favorite artists’ vocals are edited on their albums or lip-syncing during their live performances can help you sidestep the perfection trap. Lip-syncing can be difficult to spot, especially if the performer is a pro. If a singer is using a handheld mic, pay attention to whether the volume and intensity of their voice changes when they move the mic closer to or farther from their face. If the volume doesn’t vary at all, there’s a good chance they’re lip-syncing.
Learning more about the recording and editing process will make you a more informed listener and is a great way to prepare for recording yourself. YouTube is a great resource if you want to learn about how studios and editing work. We recommend seeking out videos focused on the technical side of recording rather than the polished “behind-the-scenes” content many artists share if you want to develop a genuine understanding of singing in the studio.
However, the real key to a happy and healthy singing journey is to be careful comparing ourselves to others. The saying “comparison is the thief of joy” is especially true when it comes to our voices. Even without lip-syncing and editing, our instrument will always differ from our favorite artist - and that’s a good thing. Our voices are as unique and individual as fingerprints; it’s part of what makes singing so amazing.
We’re not suggesting you avoid comparison altogether; it can be a great learning tool to have on your singing journey. Rather, we suggest being mindful of what aspects of your singing you’re comparing to others and what kind of self-talk this comparison elicits. For example, comparing recordings of previous practice sessions or performances to more recent ones is a great way to track your growth as a singer. Even comparing yourself to your favorite artist can help you decide what skills you want to build. Just be careful that you’re comparing skills (pitch accuracy, flexibility, rhythm) rather than quality (e.g., “I don’t sound as good as her,” “My voice isn’t cool and raspy like his”).
We also recommend being patient with your progress. There may not be a dramatic difference in your singing ability day-to-day or even week-to-week, but that doesn’t mean you’re not improving. Similarly, if you’re only a few months into your singing journey, it’s unreasonable to hold your singing to the same standard as a seasoned pro. Remember that even your favorite singing star was a beginner once; it took them years to reach their current skill level. Even tools like lip-syncing are usually only accessible to stars with a team of engineers and technicians behind them. Those celebrities had to fine-tune their expression, pitch, stagecraft, and other technical skills to achieve that level of success.
Despite their bad reputation, lip-syncing, autotuning, and editing are tools like any other. They aren’t inherently good or bad, but they can be used unethically and often set an unattainable standard for aspiring singers. By understanding how and why this technology is used, we can avoid the perfection trap and love our voices just as they are.
Do you want to love your voice?
Want to know if vocal coaching is right for you?
Zelda offers a complimentary 20-minute Discovery Call where you can chat about your voice issues. Click here to get started.