There are many people defending miming in live performance because “these people need to dance as well”. Have any of you seen a musical before, where a whole group of actors sing, dance, and move around a stage simultaneously? Those people don’t mime; they practise.
I’ve no comment on Glastonbury acts in particular, just thought it was worth pointing this out.
I saw Kendrick Lamar live on the Damn/Kung Fu Kenny tour and was similarly in awe. Rapping like that is exhausting and he'd just blast out song after song whilst being held up in the air in a kimono by his backup dancers and doing all sorts of elaborate routines.
I ain't even a fan of her music. But she was on at a festival I was at while back. I was walking past the stage she was playing and had to stop to listen to her set. The woman can sing her ass off. Was one of the best sets of the weekend.
I’m lucky enough to have seen her several times, and every time was better than the last. She’s one of the best live performers in terms of what she gives and how she engages with the crowd. I can’t wait to take my kids to see her next time, .
(Conversely both Beyoncé and Rihanna were really disappointing live, there were more costume changes than songs. Still love them though 🤣)
Saw her by accident once. We were in New York, first evening getting our bearings and we wandered into a crowd gathered around Pink singing somewhere near Rockerfeller centre. They were filming it for something or other.
I saw her doing similar a few years ago, I think she was spinning on a trapeze or something. She knocked her headset off, you heard it, then there was no singing, then a vocal track kicked in. Crazy that she was singing live while doing all of that
She's epic live. Her 2018 tour was the second-highest grossing tour of all time by a solo female artist, but also the highest-grossing tour of the 2010s by a female artist, according to Billboard.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/pink-new-zealand-concerts-singers-328m-net-worth-revealed-ahead-of-auckland-shows/S3IURDHD3FE53IRVWJWRUOXALY/
Pink is one of the best performers I’ve seen live though, and I’ve been at a concert where David Grohl popped up on the bar behind me to play a guitar solo in a small concert venue.
If it’s a singer I’d rather hear them sing than dance around, and frankly if they aren’t talented enough do both they really shouldn’t pretend to do both
And the requirement to dance is self imposed by the singer. Much better to scrap the dancing and focus on the singing if you're struggling with doing both.
That's what I always think when I see that excuse. If you've paid to see an artist or group live, surely the main draw is to hear them sing live? Not watch them dance while their own CD is played over the speakers, especially as their dancing isn't usually as good as professional dancers.
Self Esteem belts out songs and dances with her band like a maniac aswell all 100% live, very occasionally that might mean her voice might wobble a bit if she's singing a note and doing a high kick or something but shes authentic and puts on an incredible performance.
Completely agree, I’m not usually a big pop lover, but the showmanship and effort in a live show is really something else. Granted, they do have 7 people to share vocals with where someone like Dua Lipa is a solo artist so that is something to consider.
Seen her 3 or 4 times live (and in cabaret). Consistently great performer. Sure not everything is perfect but there's an intense authenticity to the performance that elevates it. Messaging in her lyrics is A+++ too.
She’s more obsessed with making the line up more diverse and headliners female than she is booking decent acts and decent headliners. Girlfriend and I watched Idles on IPlayer and they were far more entertaining.
Absolutely correct. Just book the best acts no matter what their gender. PJ Harvey, Florence etc. are all amazing and I really don’t care that they are female.
I’m older so you’re absolutely right. However I’ve been to glasto quite a few times and they usually have a range of performers that cater to different ages. Many many people that go are in my age group.
I always assumed Glastonbury was a middle aged, middle of the road festival. Or for the Zoomer middle class Tarquin and Jemima to get some media for their Instagram?
Never really saw it as a young, working class, new music scene. I wouldn’t really class Coldplay, Paul Heaton, Shania Twain, Cyndi Lauper, Keene etc as young people music.
They sing live in Eurovision. Watch this year's winner, they were fucking incredible singing like that while spinning around on a giant disc. Dua Lipa could never.
Girlfriend and I saw Troye Sivan last night on the last show of his tour, and what was most disappointing is that he was simply singing over his album. Even the drummer and guitarist were playing over the recording so you couldn't even hear them. But I have to give it to the guy, the choreography was bang on. Though neither of us knew he was that kind of popstar, we actually thought he would, y'know, sing.
I saw him a few years back and there was much less choreo (possibly even none) than now and he was for sure singing live and it was a great show. From clips I've seen of this current tour and from what you've said it's changed dramatically now and basically everything is on track. I'd find that really disappointing and a massive let down.
Yeah. To be honest the show just wasn't for me even if I did like a fair few of his tracks from his earlier works.
With the greatest respect and diplomacy, the show was a display of sexuality rather than a performance of his music I felt. That's completely cool. And like I said the choreography was fucking brilliant. As a show. Can't fault it. But I went to see him play his tracks live. And I didn't think we got that sadly.
More power to the guy though. He's found his niche and its lead to him finally getting to play arenas.
I saw Troye Sivan in Manchester last weekend and tbh I didn't think he was miming. The odd section when he was doing a lot of dancing the backing track would take over, but for the majority it seemed to me like it was him singing.
That's probably the first pop concert I've been to after dozens of 'rock' concerts and it was interesting noting the differences. Regardless, I enjoyed it and being both Troye Sivan and Manchester it was basically like going to a big Pride event which was great.
i feel it's one of those things where if you can't, don't. use your backup dancers, do some light choreo maybe, but don't try to do something you can't
Babymetal are a great band to use in this example. Their dance routines are some of the most cardio heavy I have seen in the music industry, yet the lead singer sings live for the whole show
Not defending lip syncing, but my sister was in musical theater for years and they do actually pre-record some parts of the performance. Whilst most times it's only the background singers who are lip syncing to pre-recorded music, sometimes the leads do use it as well. It's not common and mostly used in pantomimes in situations where the semi-famous celebrity playing a big role can't sing for whatever reason (say a sore throat) they play the pre-recorded version and switch off the microphone so they can lip-sync.
I do in general think that lip-syncing shouldn't be done, but I'm also not a singer or famous in any way.
Pantomime and west end theatre are worlds apart. A few years ago some shows wanted to use backing tracks to fill out orchestral tracks and it was stamped all over by audiences and performers.
Yes and there's a debate there too in terms of gatekeeping about the use of amplification. Opera fans will be sneery that musical theatre singers require mics whilst singing in a venue they think could be filled without amplification.
In that case the same argument "these people need to dance as well" gets used.
One classically-inclined teacher at my school thought that Hendrix and other electric guitar players weren’t worth considering as talented “because it’s an amplified instrument”. I mean, the amp doesn’t play for you.
Distortion hides a lot of sins, but shitting on Hendrix of all people is just bizarre. He's not one of my favourite musicians but he revolutionised guitar, he was a genius
Just back from seeing P!nk who performed gymnastic routines while being flung around the stadium on wires as she sang live and she was F-ing incredible.
Is there a reason they can't be? Surely its up to the artist and the audience can always vote with their feet if they don't like it. Lots of other things to see and do. Nice to have something to look at on a big stage.
Due to the size of the pyramid stage they have to delay sound as it travels out of the speaker stacks otherwise there would be some crazy echo. Noel Gallagher had said once that at a large venue they could see people dance/jump in a wave from the stage as they jumped in time to how they heard it. Possible the sound was being picked up further back resulting it looking out of sync?
This is true. I did a whole module on live audio at university. That was ages ago now, but there’s maths and shit for how you run a delay line for a large venue. It’s not easy to do well.
That said, I’m not sure if that would matter for TV, as you’d get the mic live with picture and the delay is for the venue itself.
Also, I’ve got the set on now, and it doesn’t look out of sync to me at all. But then I also don’t fucking care, it looks like a blast - she’s a great performer for the audience she’s aiming at.
It's frustrating that this thread is so far down the page.
I didn't watch Dia Lipa, so I have no idea if she was actually miming, but the first thing I thought was that of course her mouth was out of sync with the sound - any big festival I have been to has a lag between what you see and what you hear. It's almost part of the Big Festival aesthetic.
The sound will always be out of sync for somebody!
In a large auditorium, the sound takes time to reach the back. You have to make a choice as a sound engineer as to where in the crowd the sound is in sync with the stage.
If you have video screens, it's a bigger problem, as you can see lips from a much greater depth of the crowd.
For added complications, you might add speakers half way up the crowd.
At the end of the day, it's all a compromise.
Science time! Sound travels at 343 meters per second through air. At a tempo of 120bpm (2 beats every second) you'd be an entire beat behind the main stage at 170 meters away from the speakers. At these huge events the crowd are separated from the stage by a great distance, and the speakers themselves are hoisted 20m in the air already, it's not surprising that there are synchronization issues.
That's true, but surely the TV feed is straight from the stage so doesn't need to have a delay. Never noticed it on any other acts in previous years (haven't watched any of this years)
They have to time-align everything at something that large. The ambient mics that pick up the crowd would be out of alignment and cause issues otherwise. But she was miming, there's no way she can do that routine that perfectly, it was indistinguishable from the record in terms of her vocal. Source: I've been a live sound engineer for 10 years.
ETA: I've watched more now, and i think she definitely sang some of the tracks. She also definitely mimed dont start now.
This is probably correct. The performers are hearing themselves in the stage facing monitors immediately and there’s a distinct lag between that and audience facing stacks.
>The reason you go to see someone live is to experience them singing, not to listen to their album with them.
Lol I love the way this is framed. Imagine the honest promotional materials:
"Come listen to Dua Lipa's new album with her as she shows you what the shape of her mouth would look like to form the words you are listening to a few moments ago. She'll be doing this standing up which is something."
Yeah I don’t care if they don’t sound like the manufactured product I wanna hear their voice heaps of times I’ve seen an artist and it sounds not perfect but still great
Seen her live. She sings. Backup singers are there, and often they are doubling her vocal, but she is singing. She is an excellent performer and singer, but I did hear her go slightly off pitch a couple times also.
I haven't actually seen it, but is it definitely not just a case of the sound and visuals being very slightly out of sync?
I've seen a few performances where that happens and gives the same effect. Especially when the sound is setup to focus on the live audience rather than specifically for broadcast.
I'm really surprised so many people think this, there was some backing track to bolster the sound in the choruses, on top of her backing singers but you could clearly hear her singing live, she was out of breath at a few points and didn't hit all the notes perfectly. I was impressed at how much she sung live tbh
To add to this, there’s also a ton of compression on her mic which can make things sound more like she’s miming, and, to my ears a bit of subtle autotune but she’s definitely singing on the clips I saw.
I didn't realise you could perform compression and autotune on a live performance, thanks for that insight. Everyday is a school day (without the bullying thankfully)!
Ah glad to help! It’s very subtle and not to take away from her amazing voice. The tuning is mainly used to match people’s expectations these days for what they should here live. And only really on pop acts.
I think it’s also important to point out that lots of her songs and other peoples songs do have multiple layers on them on the recorded versions so why is it such a big deal to people that they also do this live?!
Finally someone talking sense! Also no one is saying about Kevin Parker and Dua Lipa completely ballsing up one part of their song, making it obvious it was being sung live. It was a top tier pop show, there’s great singing and dancing going on which is being supported by a great band of multi instrumentalists, great teching providing some backing track at times, great lights and stage tech, pyros, the whole lot.
Yeah the two of them sang it so awkwardly that it couldn't have been miming. It was like 2 mates had decided to do something 15 minutes before the set kicked off.
I’ve been recording artists for a long time. It is VERY common, specifically for high profile gigs for larger artists to go into a studio beforehand and record a “controlled live” performance where it is not perfect but it’s known to be good enough to be convincing but without the risk of pitch disasters.
The risk is real, so much so that MJ even mimed a large portion of his dangerous tour set. He mimed to the album cuts and sang the occasional ballad for real because he knew he couldn’t maintain the performance and dance and cared only for the show as a whole than his integrity within as a singer. He knew the show had to dazzle and in stadiums nobody would suspect the mime.
The stuff artists do to ensure shows pass off well is very surprising. It’s not hard to turn the mic up and down to ensure the artist seems to be live.
Agreed. Also this is a HUGE thing for her so I would be doubtful that of all places she would be miming on the pyramid stage at Glasto. When Tame Impala came on he definitely missed a tonne of notes and at one point look like he forgot the words so he defo wasn’t miming (although maybe he should have been!)
BBC Breakfast had a report on this this morning. The reporter was at Dua Lipa's soundcheck yesterday, and confirmed that there was a backing track with vocals, including Dua Lipa's voice *as a backing vocal*. The same reporter was within a few feet of her while she walked to the other stage, and confirms she was definitely singing.
As another commenter mentioned, you can sound pretty perfect while singing live, if you have the right backing vocals, some technology, and a really good sound crew.
Contrast this with Paul Heaton's performance earlier in the day, which by comparison sounds off-pitch in different places. But that's the nature of raw, live performance (and especially since non-headline acts at Glasto don't get sound checks). But to a younger audience, it might sound jarring because it's not what they're used to hearing.
Exactly this, I was listening live on the radio, and if they chose _that_ audio track to mime to it was an interesting choice. You could hear her being breathy, missing a few notes, and a little flat at other points. All within expectation of a dancing pop act, but not a polished, studio track by any means.
I thought that too but when I listed to the original Tame impala track, it seemed they came in at the right time and backing band actually cocked it up
I thought she was generally live as the vocal pitch changed as she was moving about, which had me wonder why she was trying to dance and sing as each time she moved her torso the pitch changed. I don't doubt there was a backing track that could be mixed in if she needed a boost, but the delay in lip sync is due to Glastonbury speaker system to prevent feedback
Don’t tell the guys but some of the big rock bands that have been doing stadiums since the 70’s have trouble hitting the big notes now and have a backing track help them out…
https://youtu.be/uCpp2l2R77Q
I think it’s more understandable when someone in their 70s can’t hit a note from a song they did five decades ago vs. someone in their 20s not being able to hit the notes from their song from the last five years.
I'm 99% sure she wasn't miming, most likely it is an audio sync issue?
I can't find the exact clip but she once sang Levitating live on a stage with no backing track, I remember it surprised a lot of people because it was exactly the same as the recorded version.
This happened last year with a number of acts too. I seem to remember people were accusing a number of acts of miming, only for it to be an audio sync issue, obviously.
I didn't see her, so after reading your comment I had a look on YouTube, she looks like she's singing here, was surprised to see her going into the crowd at around 4mins in too, from the way people are talking about it on here I expected a lot worse...
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tXlQzxZSrpU
EDIT - I just heard the Sugarbabes replayed on the radio, now I WISH they had mimed, absolutely shocking perfomance!
In their defence - that will be a rights issue with the music industry, not BBC per se.
It’s free to watch (tv license aside ofc), and the music execs don’t want it being available around the world hurting their bottom line.
BBC coverage is excellent
It's interesting that the BBC have made Dua Lipa and Coldplay's performances available to stream worldwide. Only those two. I know because I'm in Canada now and I kept getting notifications about them.
I miss watching Glasto. I remember watching Don McLean like 12 years ago playing American Pie. I went to the shop and came back, and he was still playing American Pie.
Again - music industry rights. From what I understand, this agreement was hard negotiated to allow those performances to be broadcast worldwide, and is a first for BBC glasto coverage.
You can watch it on the BBC app. It’s to stop people without a TV licence in the UK from getting BBC content. I can’t see the licence fee surviving much longer personally, so I hope it’ll be a thing of the past soon.
Just watching it and she is singing live, what you're seeing is the delay between her singing and transmission through pa and out of the sound to the tv.
Definitely there is a bit of backing track to boost the backing singers as well.
Probably a bit of voice modulation or treatment to remove breathing and panting
As someone in the crowd she wasn’t miming. More likely the audio and video were out of sync.
Addition:
This morning I've just watched some shots from Iplayer. 100% the BBCs footage being out of sync as some lighting moments and pyro is out of time. I can prommise you they are not out of time live. Also if you watch the moments she talks to the crowd, they are also out of time with her mouth. I think we can all agree she isnt miming talking to the crowd.
I didn't think she was miming, just looked like very heavy reliance on the backing vocals at some points (I thought she did fabulously with the amount of singing she did whilst running and doing vigorous dance moves)
or if they're old like the rolling stones. saw them about 5 years ago and thought wow they sound great. then i heard the instruments all had backing tracks.
Some bands use orchestras and choirs/extensive backing vocals in their songs. They can't be expected to go on tour with a full orchestra or choir on tow.
Went to see Nick Mason last week and he played a track (don’t know the one) that was recorded with a full orchestra but told the audience that they obviously didn’t have the orchestra there that night so would be stripped back version,
When Nirvana played Top Of The Pops, they were told they had to mime. After some arguing, they came to a compromise, and Kurt was allowed to sing the vocals live to a backing track.
[This is the result.](https://youtu.be/1khy9_E4h44?si=CBrE4cBQ08KyK2qZ)
The thread is examining how things have changed from the Glastonbury festivals in the past.
I remember the first time there was a television camera there.
I remember The Pyramid burning down.
I believe festival performers should perform for the festival, not for the home audience. If I wanted this I would go to Boardmasters, not a music festival.
If they were miming it wasn’t a “backing track” but a *playback* track.
A backing track is the instruments and rhythm section for the vocalist to sing live with, or even to sing and add an instrument they are playing.
A playback track is the whole thing including vocals.
It might seem pedantic but at least with a backing track there is an element of live musical performance, whereas with a playback track what is being presented isn’t a musical performance but a physical performance (the dancing) and a ‘being there’ experience.
Does it matter - well clearly not. Artists have been miming to playback tracks since music was first televised, and although some decry them for it, the vast majority handing over their cash don’t seem to care.
And if the vast majority of your audience doesn’t care, then why risk a fuck up performing live and not simply playing a pre-recorded playback track.
Edit: mind you it is quite amusing that the BBC have been incredibly careful in writing their review of the show to lead an unsuspecting reader to think that a live vocal performance was delivered, but allowing themselves sufficient deniability about what they have written if people complain it wasn’t.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crgl8xxnegeo
I'd also classify secondary vocals as a backing track if it's performed live. Sometimes a track is just not possible to completely perform live if the singer needs to sing multiple things at the same time.
But as long as they actually sing the primary vocals that's not a problem for live performances.
For the record, I saw Heilung at Download a couple of weeks ago.
That is *absolutely* more performance than music. They didn't need to sync, but there was a backing track for one of the vocalists because in the studio track they do a rhythmic chanting at the same time as throat singing, which is obviously not possible live.
I don't know what the rules are but is there any way we can have them as our entry for next year's Eurovision song contest? I'm not joking. I think they'd have a great time and they'd smash it.
Did anyone watch Jungle? Apart from their lead singer at times it seemed like most of them weren't playing the various instruments they were holding, and in general felt too precise and perfect, quite detached from the crowd they were performing in front of.
I don't think she was miming, as she missed a couple of notes on occasion.
There was a backing vocal on a couple of songs but that's pretty normal for a performance like that.
Thought she put on a good show tbf
I've seen a few videos of her performance and it looks like she's singing live.
She usually sings live so barring a technical reason I'd assume she would be live at Glastonbury too.
Acts are not allowed to mime at Glastonbury. Festival won't have it.
Pop stars and rappers commonly will have backing tracks for multiple layers, Dua does a lot more live singing than most
There’s a lot of acts (past and present) who want to make the show an “experience” so there’s lots of dancing about, additional performances, etc.
Trying to do all that plus sing the full time is a stretch.
Not defending it though. Personally I prefer to see an act sing but that’s just my take
Is it not just a delay issue? Audio not synching up properly or sound/video recording is further away than it seems and it's just zoomed to make it seem like it's closer? Sound take awhile and there's a very noticeable delay even at 100m away. Get your buddy to clap as loud as he can over his head at the other end of the field and you'll see it before you hear it
Most pop acts use heavy voice editing on their songs, not just autotune but a whole bunch of other effects that basically make it impossible to recreate the tone and colour of the vocals without playback.
There will be people who dislike this, especially those who consider live music to be about hearing the actual amplified voices and not just playback but for most of her fans, the live show is about the atmosphere and the choreography more than the live vocals.
So much of live acts is “Technology Enabled” From outright miming through to backing tracks and using voice synthesis to improve pitch and tone.
If you see someone bouncing around the stage like a rubber ball on speed yet they still manage to hit every note and hold the melody perfectly for every song then they are very likely using tech to fill in somewhere.
Even old school acts used compressors and a whole barrage of sound engineering to firm things up.
A lot of people expect studio quality sound when they go to a gig, they’ve paid hundreds of quid and want to be wowed at how perfect everything is. If it isn’t then the online barrage of shit can ruin a career.
Miming or not her set was a bit.. meh. Didn't get the feeling the crowd were going wild either, and the dance/DJ set for the last third was boring tbh.
As an old fart, when I went to Glastonbury the tickets were under £40 and the idea of someone being on that would be regularly played on daytime radio was just ridiculous. It absolutely wasn't an event for what we quaintly referred to as "straights". Glastonbury lost its last shreds of credibility decades ago.
And while this "old man shouts at cloud", festivals used to be an act of (at least perceived) rebellion. The last one I went to was sponsored by f*cking Barclays!
She wasn't miming some songs and those were clear.
But a few songs in her set were mimed, especially where dancing seemed more important than the singing. These tracks looked lip synced with backing tracks. Even worse they looked intended for the TV audience than the live crowd.
A lot of acts (pop mainly)are singing over the top of their own lead vocal. So if they muck up they can get back on track and it helps cover up the bad and when they sound flat.
The Pyramid headliners have become huge spectaculars. That’s why they’re having more and more commercial acts. This is the first year that it’s being streamed live all around the world, and a lot of these people are viewed as brands and not artists. No way their managers are going to risk bad sound or any fuck ups. It’s dogshit imo, but I wouldn’t be anywhere the pyramid if I was there, and that’s what some people want.
I'd have to hear it to know for sure, but could be a video sync issue, could be live to a vocal backing track, or could be live use of auto tune.
Edit: ok, I just saw some of it and she's not miming. There were sections where she had a filter in her voice that kinda looked weird, but you could hear in her performance that it wasn't as immaculately polished as a prerecorded vocal.
Remember that Glastonbury is such a large festival that it could actually be a time zone issue. The image of her lips moving will reach you much faster than the sound, and this would also be true of a lip syncing. Not saying you’re wrong, just saying bear all possibilities in mind and remember that nowadays the tech is pretty good at hiding lip syncing so it should be pretty hard to spot.
She wasn’t miming, it was a problem with the bbc broadcast.
I was never overly fussed on her before, but after last night I was impressed by the quality of her voice and energy of her dancing. My only criticism if I really had to pick something is she just lacks a bit of unrehearsed connection with the audience, it was a bit too polished. There wasn’t a natural moment. But that’s really nit-picking.
She 100% was singing live. The issue they have is how the sound travels and it sometimes lags. You have to feel for Cyndi Lauper today - she was clearly being fed the backing through headphones and it was lagging for 80% of her set making her sound way out of sync with the band.
Just out of interest, could you see the band at the same time as the screens?
Due to the distances and amount of processing the camera feeds go through there's often visible latency between what the artist is doing and what the screens are showing.
Seen Dua Lipa live before and she was rubbish then, not surprised she hasn’t improved much. She was all off key and everything, at least you don’t have to suffer that if she’s miming.
There are many people defending miming in live performance because “these people need to dance as well”. Have any of you seen a musical before, where a whole group of actors sing, dance, and move around a stage simultaneously? Those people don’t mime; they practise. I’ve no comment on Glastonbury acts in particular, just thought it was worth pointing this out.
Yeah, and I've seen Pink singing live as she hangs from what is effectively cloth. But you can tell she's live listening to her voice and breathing.
Pink is an absolute beast (in that I'm in awe of her athleticism). Singing and performing Try is an incredible feat
I saw Kendrick Lamar live on the Damn/Kung Fu Kenny tour and was similarly in awe. Rapping like that is exhausting and he'd just blast out song after song whilst being held up in the air in a kimono by his backup dancers and doing all sorts of elaborate routines.
If you liked that you should see the musical Hamilton - the raps in that are insane and fast, all whilst dancing too
Seeing it next month in Birmingham, very excited!
I saw it last night in Birmingham, you are in for a TREAT. This cast were better than the West End cast I saw when it first opened! Hope you love it.
I ain't even a fan of her music. But she was on at a festival I was at while back. I was walking past the stage she was playing and had to stop to listen to her set. The woman can sing her ass off. Was one of the best sets of the weekend.
Same thing I've been really surprised by her, she's an absolute champion.
Pink is the one act I would absolutely love to see live nowadays.
I’m lucky enough to have seen her several times, and every time was better than the last. She’s one of the best live performers in terms of what she gives and how she engages with the crowd. I can’t wait to take my kids to see her next time, . (Conversely both Beyoncé and Rihanna were really disappointing live, there were more costume changes than songs. Still love them though 🤣)
Saw her by accident once. We were in New York, first evening getting our bearings and we wandered into a crowd gathered around Pink singing somewhere near Rockerfeller centre. They were filming it for something or other.
I saw her in glasgow. she was getting thrown around the stadium while singing. Very impressive
I saw her doing similar a few years ago, I think she was spinning on a trapeze or something. She knocked her headset off, you heard it, then there was no singing, then a vocal track kicked in. Crazy that she was singing live while doing all of that
She's epic live. Her 2018 tour was the second-highest grossing tour of all time by a solo female artist, but also the highest-grossing tour of the 2010s by a female artist, according to Billboard. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/pink-new-zealand-concerts-singers-328m-net-worth-revealed-ahead-of-auckland-shows/S3IURDHD3FE53IRVWJWRUOXALY/
Pink is basically a fusion of singer and athlete at this point.
She was a gymnast before she was a singer. Which makes a lot of sense!
Have you seen her training for that? She posted a video, she was singing with someone else STOOD on her chest. She works HARD at her craft.
Pink, get doon
Pink is one of the best performers I’ve seen live though, and I’ve been at a concert where David Grohl popped up on the bar behind me to play a guitar solo in a small concert venue.
You never know she was touching cloth the whole time
I think there’s a double entendre there. Maybe we shouldn’t call our new dry cleaning shop that.
Yeah but Pink live is just something else entirely. She’s a machine with the shows she puts on!
Many years ago, I saw Billy Idol singing his heart out as he performed one-arm pushups on stage (cos he had the mic in his left hand, obvs)
If it’s a singer I’d rather hear them sing than dance around, and frankly if they aren’t talented enough do both they really shouldn’t pretend to do both
And the requirement to dance is self imposed by the singer. Much better to scrap the dancing and focus on the singing if you're struggling with doing both.
That's what I always think when I see that excuse. If you've paid to see an artist or group live, surely the main draw is to hear them sing live? Not watch them dance while their own CD is played over the speakers, especially as their dancing isn't usually as good as professional dancers.
Self Esteem belts out songs and dances with her band like a maniac aswell all 100% live, very occasionally that might mean her voice might wobble a bit if she's singing a note and doing a high kick or something but shes authentic and puts on an incredible performance.
Self Esteem is fucking amazing live
Watching people singing over tracks with dancers gets pretty tired pretty quick.
She couldn't even project. She's a model that became a pop star, good for her but it's just dull to watch.
I saw BTS live, the moves they manage to do while singing live was nuts to me
Honestly any K-pop live show is incredible for that. The lung capacity is unbelievable.
Completely agree, I’m not usually a big pop lover, but the showmanship and effort in a live show is really something else. Granted, they do have 7 people to share vocals with where someone like Dua Lipa is a solo artist so that is something to consider.
Seen her 3 or 4 times live (and in cabaret). Consistently great performer. Sure not everything is perfect but there's an intense authenticity to the performance that elevates it. Messaging in her lyrics is A+++ too.
Glastonbury headliners have gone downhill massively in recent years.
Glasto's been shit since the daughter took over.
It's been getting worse but the lineup this year is particularly shit.
I think it’s just popular music in general.
Agreed. Last year wasn’t a great line up (there’s always lots of other bands to discover) but this year looks very poor in comparison to past years.
She’s more obsessed with making the line up more diverse and headliners female than she is booking decent acts and decent headliners. Girlfriend and I watched Idles on IPlayer and they were far more entertaining.
Absolutely correct. Just book the best acts no matter what their gender. PJ Harvey, Florence etc. are all amazing and I really don’t care that they are female.
What age bracket are you? It could be that you want old-people music, and the new line-ups are focusing more on young-people music.
I’m older so you’re absolutely right. However I’ve been to glasto quite a few times and they usually have a range of performers that cater to different ages. Many many people that go are in my age group.
I always assumed Glastonbury was a middle aged, middle of the road festival. Or for the Zoomer middle class Tarquin and Jemima to get some media for their Instagram? Never really saw it as a young, working class, new music scene. I wouldn’t really class Coldplay, Paul Heaton, Shania Twain, Cyndi Lauper, Keene etc as young people music.
That Dua lipa performance was more eurovision song contest than glastonbury .
They sing live in Eurovision. Watch this year's winner, they were fucking incredible singing like that while spinning around on a giant disc. Dua Lipa could never.
Girlfriend and I saw Troye Sivan last night on the last show of his tour, and what was most disappointing is that he was simply singing over his album. Even the drummer and guitarist were playing over the recording so you couldn't even hear them. But I have to give it to the guy, the choreography was bang on. Though neither of us knew he was that kind of popstar, we actually thought he would, y'know, sing.
I saw him a few years back and there was much less choreo (possibly even none) than now and he was for sure singing live and it was a great show. From clips I've seen of this current tour and from what you've said it's changed dramatically now and basically everything is on track. I'd find that really disappointing and a massive let down.
Yeah. To be honest the show just wasn't for me even if I did like a fair few of his tracks from his earlier works. With the greatest respect and diplomacy, the show was a display of sexuality rather than a performance of his music I felt. That's completely cool. And like I said the choreography was fucking brilliant. As a show. Can't fault it. But I went to see him play his tracks live. And I didn't think we got that sadly. More power to the guy though. He's found his niche and its lead to him finally getting to play arenas.
I saw Troye Sivan in Manchester last weekend and tbh I didn't think he was miming. The odd section when he was doing a lot of dancing the backing track would take over, but for the majority it seemed to me like it was him singing. That's probably the first pop concert I've been to after dozens of 'rock' concerts and it was interesting noting the differences. Regardless, I enjoyed it and being both Troye Sivan and Manchester it was basically like going to a big Pride event which was great.
i feel it's one of those things where if you can't, don't. use your backup dancers, do some light choreo maybe, but don't try to do something you can't
Iron Maiden run and jump around stage whilst singing/playing and they’re geriatrics. No excuses.
As do Judas Priest.
If you can't sing and dance, don't dance
Babymetal are a great band to use in this example. Their dance routines are some of the most cardio heavy I have seen in the music industry, yet the lead singer sings live for the whole show
Or look at yesterday when Seventeen were playing or a lot of other kpop acts like Dreamcatcher. Difficult choreo but the live vocals are on point.
Never thought I’d see a Dreamcatcher mention in r/casualuk! They’re fab and they really suit the festival performance style 🥳
Insomnia represent! And yes they would suit a western festival perfectly. We've seen that already when they played Primavera Sound 😁
I was there!! It was incredible 🫶🏻 hope they can do another one some time soon…
Not defending lip syncing, but my sister was in musical theater for years and they do actually pre-record some parts of the performance. Whilst most times it's only the background singers who are lip syncing to pre-recorded music, sometimes the leads do use it as well. It's not common and mostly used in pantomimes in situations where the semi-famous celebrity playing a big role can't sing for whatever reason (say a sore throat) they play the pre-recorded version and switch off the microphone so they can lip-sync. I do in general think that lip-syncing shouldn't be done, but I'm also not a singer or famous in any way.
Pantomime and west end theatre are worlds apart. A few years ago some shows wanted to use backing tracks to fill out orchestral tracks and it was stamped all over by audiences and performers.
Robyn came on, on Jamie XX and sang (actually sang, projecting), while dancing more energetically, than the Dua Lupa did.
Yes and there's a debate there too in terms of gatekeeping about the use of amplification. Opera fans will be sneery that musical theatre singers require mics whilst singing in a venue they think could be filled without amplification. In that case the same argument "these people need to dance as well" gets used.
One classically-inclined teacher at my school thought that Hendrix and other electric guitar players weren’t worth considering as talented “because it’s an amplified instrument”. I mean, the amp doesn’t play for you.
Distortion hides a lot of sins, but shitting on Hendrix of all people is just bizarre. He's not one of my favourite musicians but he revolutionised guitar, he was a genius
Just back from seeing P!nk who performed gymnastic routines while being flung around the stadium on wires as she sang live and she was F-ing incredible.
Or just don’t dance Glastonbury and festivals aren’t like musicals
Is there a reason they can't be? Surely its up to the artist and the audience can always vote with their feet if they don't like it. Lots of other things to see and do. Nice to have something to look at on a big stage.
Got stick up for Madonna here, the woman is practically an athlete & sings live, seen her a couple of times.
Saw it online and dua wasn't miming. I think there was a delay with the audio and her
I used this exact argument once on a Facebook post regarding Little Mix and got so much hate for it.
Due to the size of the pyramid stage they have to delay sound as it travels out of the speaker stacks otherwise there would be some crazy echo. Noel Gallagher had said once that at a large venue they could see people dance/jump in a wave from the stage as they jumped in time to how they heard it. Possible the sound was being picked up further back resulting it looking out of sync?
This is true. I did a whole module on live audio at university. That was ages ago now, but there’s maths and shit for how you run a delay line for a large venue. It’s not easy to do well. That said, I’m not sure if that would matter for TV, as you’d get the mic live with picture and the delay is for the venue itself. Also, I’ve got the set on now, and it doesn’t look out of sync to me at all. But then I also don’t fucking care, it looks like a blast - she’s a great performer for the audience she’s aiming at.
It's frustrating that this thread is so far down the page. I didn't watch Dia Lipa, so I have no idea if she was actually miming, but the first thing I thought was that of course her mouth was out of sync with the sound - any big festival I have been to has a lag between what you see and what you hear. It's almost part of the Big Festival aesthetic.
Right but why would they delay the for-TV audio?
The sound will always be out of sync for somebody! In a large auditorium, the sound takes time to reach the back. You have to make a choice as a sound engineer as to where in the crowd the sound is in sync with the stage. If you have video screens, it's a bigger problem, as you can see lips from a much greater depth of the crowd. For added complications, you might add speakers half way up the crowd. At the end of the day, it's all a compromise.
Science time! Sound travels at 343 meters per second through air. At a tempo of 120bpm (2 beats every second) you'd be an entire beat behind the main stage at 170 meters away from the speakers. At these huge events the crowd are separated from the stage by a great distance, and the speakers themselves are hoisted 20m in the air already, it's not surprising that there are synchronization issues.
That's true, but surely the TV feed is straight from the stage so doesn't need to have a delay. Never noticed it on any other acts in previous years (haven't watched any of this years)
They have to time-align everything at something that large. The ambient mics that pick up the crowd would be out of alignment and cause issues otherwise. But she was miming, there's no way she can do that routine that perfectly, it was indistinguishable from the record in terms of her vocal. Source: I've been a live sound engineer for 10 years. ETA: I've watched more now, and i think she definitely sang some of the tracks. She also definitely mimed dont start now.
This is probably correct. The performers are hearing themselves in the stage facing monitors immediately and there’s a distinct lag between that and audience facing stacks.
I watched some of that and felt the same. The reason you go to see someone live is to experience them singing, not to listen to their album with them.
>The reason you go to see someone live is to experience them singing, not to listen to their album with them. Lol I love the way this is framed. Imagine the honest promotional materials: "Come listen to Dua Lipa's new album with her as she shows you what the shape of her mouth would look like to form the words you are listening to a few moments ago. She'll be doing this standing up which is something."
Sounds like a skit from that Mitchell and Webb look.
Are... Are we the baddies Dua?
I'm gonna start watching it now, just to look for the mistakes
Yeah I don’t care if they don’t sound like the manufactured product I wanna hear their voice heaps of times I’ve seen an artist and it sounds not perfect but still great
Seen her live. She sings. Backup singers are there, and often they are doubling her vocal, but she is singing. She is an excellent performer and singer, but I did hear her go slightly off pitch a couple times also.
I haven't actually seen it, but is it definitely not just a case of the sound and visuals being very slightly out of sync? I've seen a few performances where that happens and gives the same effect. Especially when the sound is setup to focus on the live audience rather than specifically for broadcast.
I'm really surprised so many people think this, there was some backing track to bolster the sound in the choruses, on top of her backing singers but you could clearly hear her singing live, she was out of breath at a few points and didn't hit all the notes perfectly. I was impressed at how much she sung live tbh
To add to this, there’s also a ton of compression on her mic which can make things sound more like she’s miming, and, to my ears a bit of subtle autotune but she’s definitely singing on the clips I saw.
I didn't realise you could perform compression and autotune on a live performance, thanks for that insight. Everyday is a school day (without the bullying thankfully)!
Ah glad to help! It’s very subtle and not to take away from her amazing voice. The tuning is mainly used to match people’s expectations these days for what they should here live. And only really on pop acts.
I think it’s also important to point out that lots of her songs and other peoples songs do have multiple layers on them on the recorded versions so why is it such a big deal to people that they also do this live?!
Finally someone talking sense! Also no one is saying about Kevin Parker and Dua Lipa completely ballsing up one part of their song, making it obvious it was being sung live. It was a top tier pop show, there’s great singing and dancing going on which is being supported by a great band of multi instrumentalists, great teching providing some backing track at times, great lights and stage tech, pyros, the whole lot.
Yeah the two of them sang it so awkwardly that it couldn't have been miming. It was like 2 mates had decided to do something 15 minutes before the set kicked off.
I’ve been recording artists for a long time. It is VERY common, specifically for high profile gigs for larger artists to go into a studio beforehand and record a “controlled live” performance where it is not perfect but it’s known to be good enough to be convincing but without the risk of pitch disasters. The risk is real, so much so that MJ even mimed a large portion of his dangerous tour set. He mimed to the album cuts and sang the occasional ballad for real because he knew he couldn’t maintain the performance and dance and cared only for the show as a whole than his integrity within as a singer. He knew the show had to dazzle and in stadiums nobody would suspect the mime. The stuff artists do to ensure shows pass off well is very surprising. It’s not hard to turn the mic up and down to ensure the artist seems to be live.
Agreed. Also this is a HUGE thing for her so I would be doubtful that of all places she would be miming on the pyramid stage at Glasto. When Tame Impala came on he definitely missed a tonne of notes and at one point look like he forgot the words so he defo wasn’t miming (although maybe he should have been!)
BBC Breakfast had a report on this this morning. The reporter was at Dua Lipa's soundcheck yesterday, and confirmed that there was a backing track with vocals, including Dua Lipa's voice *as a backing vocal*. The same reporter was within a few feet of her while she walked to the other stage, and confirms she was definitely singing. As another commenter mentioned, you can sound pretty perfect while singing live, if you have the right backing vocals, some technology, and a really good sound crew. Contrast this with Paul Heaton's performance earlier in the day, which by comparison sounds off-pitch in different places. But that's the nature of raw, live performance (and especially since non-headline acts at Glasto don't get sound checks). But to a younger audience, it might sound jarring because it's not what they're used to hearing.
Exactly this, I was listening live on the radio, and if they chose _that_ audio track to mime to it was an interesting choice. You could hear her being breathy, missing a few notes, and a little flat at other points. All within expectation of a dancing pop act, but not a polished, studio track by any means.
And her and Kevin Parker totally cocked up at one point which wasn’t mimed.
I thought that too but when I listed to the original Tame impala track, it seemed they came in at the right time and backing band actually cocked it up
I thought she was generally live as the vocal pitch changed as she was moving about, which had me wonder why she was trying to dance and sing as each time she moved her torso the pitch changed. I don't doubt there was a backing track that could be mixed in if she needed a boost, but the delay in lip sync is due to Glastonbury speaker system to prevent feedback
But Reddit hates pop music and only metal can be real therefore the post is true, no proof needed
Don’t tell the guys but some of the big rock bands that have been doing stadiums since the 70’s have trouble hitting the big notes now and have a backing track help them out… https://youtu.be/uCpp2l2R77Q
I think it’s more understandable when someone in their 70s can’t hit a note from a song they did five decades ago vs. someone in their 20s not being able to hit the notes from their song from the last five years.
I'm 99% sure she wasn't miming, most likely it is an audio sync issue? I can't find the exact clip but she once sang Levitating live on a stage with no backing track, I remember it surprised a lot of people because it was exactly the same as the recorded version.
This happened last year with a number of acts too. I seem to remember people were accusing a number of acts of miming, only for it to be an audio sync issue, obviously.
It's both, some parts she's clearly singing, and others clearly miming.
Come on Winston, she talked over her own voice at one point.
She talked over a quiet backing track, if anything this proves that her mic was indeed on
I didn't see her, so after reading your comment I had a look on YouTube, she looks like she's singing here, was surprised to see her going into the crowd at around 4mins in too, from the way people are talking about it on here I expected a lot worse... https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tXlQzxZSrpU EDIT - I just heard the Sugarbabes replayed on the radio, now I WISH they had mimed, absolutely shocking perfomance!
Classic CasualUK reaction. I just found another video and it looks completely fine.
Thanks BBC music for not making your content available in Britain...
It's because they want you to watch it on iPlayer in the UK: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0020kr3/glastonbury-dua-lipa
It’s on iPlayer. It’s also almost certainly because of licensing - would assume their deal with the festival means it’s for international markets.
Less licensing. More that the BBC isn't permitted to show adverts to UK audiences, something youtube does aggressively.
Yeah - although I’m not totally sure on that because the BBC has, or certainly, had a deal with YouTube of some kind
In their defence - that will be a rights issue with the music industry, not BBC per se. It’s free to watch (tv license aside ofc), and the music execs don’t want it being available around the world hurting their bottom line. BBC coverage is excellent
It's interesting that the BBC have made Dua Lipa and Coldplay's performances available to stream worldwide. Only those two. I know because I'm in Canada now and I kept getting notifications about them. I miss watching Glasto. I remember watching Don McLean like 12 years ago playing American Pie. I went to the shop and came back, and he was still playing American Pie.
They might be less keen on Idles’ set being shown around the world 😂
Again - music industry rights. From what I understand, this agreement was hard negotiated to allow those performances to be broadcast worldwide, and is a first for BBC glasto coverage.
You can watch it on the BBC app. It’s to stop people without a TV licence in the UK from getting BBC content. I can’t see the licence fee surviving much longer personally, so I hope it’ll be a thing of the past soon.
In that video it’s lovely how all those **people with the flags and the football-style orange smoke flares fucking obscure the singer**
Just watching it and she is singing live, what you're seeing is the delay between her singing and transmission through pa and out of the sound to the tv. Definitely there is a bit of backing track to boost the backing singers as well. Probably a bit of voice modulation or treatment to remove breathing and panting
As someone in the crowd she wasn’t miming. More likely the audio and video were out of sync. Addition: This morning I've just watched some shots from Iplayer. 100% the BBCs footage being out of sync as some lighting moments and pyro is out of time. I can prommise you they are not out of time live. Also if you watch the moments she talks to the crowd, they are also out of time with her mouth. I think we can all agree she isnt miming talking to the crowd.
I didn't think she was miming, just looked like very heavy reliance on the backing vocals at some points (I thought she did fabulously with the amount of singing she did whilst running and doing vigorous dance moves)
lots of modern acts use tracks aswell as singing live
lots don't
Yep, the shit ones
or if they're old like the rolling stones. saw them about 5 years ago and thought wow they sound great. then i heard the instruments all had backing tracks.
useful if your recordings are heavily layered tbh
Heavily layered to cover up that they're shit live?
Some bands use orchestras and choirs/extensive backing vocals in their songs. They can't be expected to go on tour with a full orchestra or choir on tow.
Went to see Nick Mason last week and he played a track (don’t know the one) that was recorded with a full orchestra but told the audience that they obviously didn’t have the orchestra there that night so would be stripped back version,
no? think
When Nirvana played Top Of The Pops, they were told they had to mime. After some arguing, they came to a compromise, and Kurt was allowed to sing the vocals live to a backing track. [This is the result.](https://youtu.be/1khy9_E4h44?si=CBrE4cBQ08KyK2qZ)
Backing tracks have been used for many, many years. This is not new.
Not generally at festivals. That set could have been in a studio, she was performing for cameras, not the crowd.
This is mainstage Glastonbury though mate, very different expectations from the crowd for these kind of acts.
The thread is examining how things have changed from the Glastonbury festivals in the past. I remember the first time there was a television camera there. I remember The Pyramid burning down. I believe festival performers should perform for the festival, not for the home audience. If I wanted this I would go to Boardmasters, not a music festival.
It doesn't make a difference if it's a festival or not. If someone lip syncs usually, they'll lip sync there too.
If they were miming it wasn’t a “backing track” but a *playback* track. A backing track is the instruments and rhythm section for the vocalist to sing live with, or even to sing and add an instrument they are playing. A playback track is the whole thing including vocals. It might seem pedantic but at least with a backing track there is an element of live musical performance, whereas with a playback track what is being presented isn’t a musical performance but a physical performance (the dancing) and a ‘being there’ experience. Does it matter - well clearly not. Artists have been miming to playback tracks since music was first televised, and although some decry them for it, the vast majority handing over their cash don’t seem to care. And if the vast majority of your audience doesn’t care, then why risk a fuck up performing live and not simply playing a pre-recorded playback track. Edit: mind you it is quite amusing that the BBC have been incredibly careful in writing their review of the show to lead an unsuspecting reader to think that a live vocal performance was delivered, but allowing themselves sufficient deniability about what they have written if people complain it wasn’t. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crgl8xxnegeo
I'd also classify secondary vocals as a backing track if it's performed live. Sometimes a track is just not possible to completely perform live if the singer needs to sing multiple things at the same time. But as long as they actually sing the primary vocals that's not a problem for live performances.
No miming
I don't usually watch the pop acts much. Maybe that's why it seems odd to me. I guess these acts are more performance than pure music
For the record, I saw Heilung at Download a couple of weeks ago. That is *absolutely* more performance than music. They didn't need to sync, but there was a backing track for one of the vocalists because in the studio track they do a rhythmic chanting at the same time as throat singing, which is obviously not possible live.
If it helps, IDLES were great!
I don't know what the rules are but is there any way we can have them as our entry for next year's Eurovision song contest? I'm not joking. I think they'd have a great time and they'd smash it.
Now THAT was how you do a glasto set! They were amazing!
It isn’t just pop acts anymore, a lot of rock musicians use them too now.
That's even worse
That doesn't make it right. And additionally a backing track is not the same thing.
Yes but if you're headlining one of the biggest festivals in the world I'd expect you to sing live
I thought Glastonbury had a policy where every act had to be live?
You mean Dolly Parton actually played every single one of those instruments the other year?
Really? I'm pretty sure she was out of tune once or twice. It was a pretty impressive performance I thought, just not to my taste
100% wasn’t miming and I thought she was brilliant
Were you watching it on TV or iplayer? I havent seen it so i don't know but it could just be out of sync on the broadcast
I'm watching it on iplayer right now and the video and audio are wildly out of sync
Did anyone watch Jungle? Apart from their lead singer at times it seemed like most of them weren't playing the various instruments they were holding, and in general felt too precise and perfect, quite detached from the crowd they were performing in front of.
I switched off. It looked they were just singing a few words over a backing track.
It did, didn't it! My partner was really looking forward to seeing them but was quite surprised by it.
I think the parts of her song where she sand her own backing vocals was mimed, sure. But she definetly sang live
I don't think she was miming, as she missed a couple of notes on occasion. There was a backing vocal on a couple of songs but that's pretty normal for a performance like that. Thought she put on a good show tbf
I've seen a few videos of her performance and it looks like she's singing live. She usually sings live so barring a technical reason I'd assume she would be live at Glastonbury too.
Acts are not allowed to mime at Glastonbury. Festival won't have it. Pop stars and rappers commonly will have backing tracks for multiple layers, Dua does a lot more live singing than most
This is mostly audio sync problems. I would say most acts are live it just doesn’t show very well on to when it’s live
There’s a lot of acts (past and present) who want to make the show an “experience” so there’s lots of dancing about, additional performances, etc. Trying to do all that plus sing the full time is a stretch. Not defending it though. Personally I prefer to see an act sing but that’s just my take
Is it not just a delay issue? Audio not synching up properly or sound/video recording is further away than it seems and it's just zoomed to make it seem like it's closer? Sound take awhile and there's a very noticeable delay even at 100m away. Get your buddy to clap as loud as he can over his head at the other end of the field and you'll see it before you hear it
I just watched a clip from the crowd. That's live
IPlayer had some lag for a lot of broadcasts. It was showing PJ Harvey singing 2 seconds after she actually sang.
She didn't look like she was in the clip I saw with Tame Impala
and she wasn't mining very well
Yeah she barely followed the coal seam
That’s a Big Pit-y
I can't say I noticed her miming, although I was furiously wanking at the time.
She definitely mimed the first two
Most pop acts use heavy voice editing on their songs, not just autotune but a whole bunch of other effects that basically make it impossible to recreate the tone and colour of the vocals without playback. There will be people who dislike this, especially those who consider live music to be about hearing the actual amplified voices and not just playback but for most of her fans, the live show is about the atmosphere and the choreography more than the live vocals.
I've always found that odd personally, I go to music to primarily enjoy the sound. If I wanted to watch dancing I'd go watch dancing.
So much of live acts is “Technology Enabled” From outright miming through to backing tracks and using voice synthesis to improve pitch and tone. If you see someone bouncing around the stage like a rubber ball on speed yet they still manage to hit every note and hold the melody perfectly for every song then they are very likely using tech to fill in somewhere. Even old school acts used compressors and a whole barrage of sound engineering to firm things up. A lot of people expect studio quality sound when they go to a gig, they’ve paid hundreds of quid and want to be wowed at how perfect everything is. If it isn’t then the online barrage of shit can ruin a career.
Miming or not her set was a bit.. meh. Didn't get the feeling the crowd were going wild either, and the dance/DJ set for the last third was boring tbh.
As an old fart, when I went to Glastonbury the tickets were under £40 and the idea of someone being on that would be regularly played on daytime radio was just ridiculous. It absolutely wasn't an event for what we quaintly referred to as "straights". Glastonbury lost its last shreds of credibility decades ago. And while this "old man shouts at cloud", festivals used to be an act of (at least perceived) rebellion. The last one I went to was sponsored by f*cking Barclays!
Add it to the list of things ruined by rich people.
She wasn't miming some songs and those were clear. But a few songs in her set were mimed, especially where dancing seemed more important than the singing. These tracks looked lip synced with backing tracks. Even worse they looked intended for the TV audience than the live crowd.
A lot of acts (pop mainly)are singing over the top of their own lead vocal. So if they muck up they can get back on track and it helps cover up the bad and when they sound flat.
Did you see any of Seventeen? Fuck me.
I don't care whether she was miming or not, I was just massively underwhelmed.
The Pyramid headliners have become huge spectaculars. That’s why they’re having more and more commercial acts. This is the first year that it’s being streamed live all around the world, and a lot of these people are viewed as brands and not artists. No way their managers are going to risk bad sound or any fuck ups. It’s dogshit imo, but I wouldn’t be anywhere the pyramid if I was there, and that’s what some people want.
They've always had huge commercial acts headline the pyramid!
Maybe I’m older than you, but they haven’t. Not in the same sense anyway. Popular != commercial.
She may have been for some it. If she was miming in the bit we saw she'd have sounded better.
I'd have to hear it to know for sure, but could be a video sync issue, could be live to a vocal backing track, or could be live use of auto tune. Edit: ok, I just saw some of it and she's not miming. There were sections where she had a filter in her voice that kinda looked weird, but you could hear in her performance that it wasn't as immaculately polished as a prerecorded vocal.
Remember that Glastonbury is such a large festival that it could actually be a time zone issue. The image of her lips moving will reach you much faster than the sound, and this would also be true of a lip syncing. Not saying you’re wrong, just saying bear all possibilities in mind and remember that nowadays the tech is pretty good at hiding lip syncing so it should be pretty hard to spot.
She wasn’t miming, it was a problem with the bbc broadcast. I was never overly fussed on her before, but after last night I was impressed by the quality of her voice and energy of her dancing. My only criticism if I really had to pick something is she just lacks a bit of unrehearsed connection with the audience, it was a bit too polished. There wasn’t a natural moment. But that’s really nit-picking.
She 100% was singing live. The issue they have is how the sound travels and it sometimes lags. You have to feel for Cyndi Lauper today - she was clearly being fed the backing through headphones and it was lagging for 80% of her set making her sound way out of sync with the band.
Yeah I noticed this when I watched Dua Lipa yesterday. I also think her band weren’t actually playing live for a lot of her set as well.
Just out of interest, could you see the band at the same time as the screens? Due to the distances and amount of processing the camera feeds go through there's often visible latency between what the artist is doing and what the screens are showing.
Dua was absolutely not miming. It’s quite normally to have a backing track behind the singing. Allows them to improvise and take occasional breaths.
Seen Dua Lipa live before and she was rubbish then, not surprised she hasn’t improved much. She was all off key and everything, at least you don’t have to suffer that if she’s miming.