Super Bowl XLII Star Spangled Banner

[voicegenius]

Was Jennifer Hudson live or pre-recorded? She sounded phenomenal either way...

[rmx16]

Originally Posted by voicegenius

Was Jennifer Hudson live or pre-recorded? She sounded phenomenal either way...

[voicegenius]

Originally Posted by rmx16

Ha! Wow... I thought she was great FOR THE NATIONAL ANTHEM!

[henryrobinett]

She was great for the national anthem. That was a great performance. What's wrong with you? But she lip sync'ed it. Still it was great.

[Umami Uni]

Don't know if she lipped it or not, but sounded great! **** the Superbowl though, I could care less.

[voicegenius]

Some people love to drink h8erade.. .

[Tony Shepperd]

I checked with my guy at the NFL... It was lip synced.

[henryrobinett]

Originally Posted by Tony Shepperd

I checked with my guy at the NFL... It was lip synced.

I could tell it was. She did a very good job of hiding it, but there were a few things that gave her away.

[bcgood]

Originally Posted by henryrobinett

I could tell it was. She did a very good job of hiding it, but there were a few things that gave her away.

Oh wow you guys are good. I thought it was live. Guess I wasn't looking close enough.

[tenor39]

She sync'd it. Heaven forbid a performer should have to sing it live, with the risk of it not being perfect. Why even have the person there? Why not just show a video of them? Almost every big name star I've worked with on music TV shoots does this because they really can't sing it that way live. "...and now singing our National Anthemn... recording software Pro Tools and Antares!". BTW, Springsteen was awesome! No faking there.

[mrufino1]

If I heard correctly, it was pretty well known beforehand it was lipsynced, people said they heard it a few weeks ago. It SOUNDED good, but I keep wondering why people insist on doing that song in 4? Why can't they just sing the national anthem instead of reinventing it (does it need reinventing?)? Just wondering.

[Shadow_7]

I've never been much of a sports fan. But watching it in HD for the first time was something new. That kangaroo has hair. Those old guys look OLD. And they're using some of the best recording gear (video & audio, mostly video) in the biz. Although I'm surprised I didn't see any Mino HDs taped to the front of helmets. Sort of that Nascar hot pass thing, that might have actually made it entertaining.

I missed the opening part due to the neighbor wanting help entering her FAFSA application. Which took over two hours, only to have her call back an hour later to have me "cancel" it. Wasn't XLII last years superbowl? I thought that this one was XLIII. Of course I googled for over an hour the day before trying to find out what channel it was on. It wasn't listed on NFL.com. At least not in such as way that it could be viewed in under 30 minutes on a dialup connection. I finally found it on a superbowl wiki page. Not that I couldn't channel flip when the event happened. But I normally only use the rabbit ears once a year, specifically for this. If only for the commercials. Not that I expected to see law firm ads at $2 million a pop.

Okay, it was THIS superbowl, XLIII. Google is my friend, YouTube is my friend. Although I hope the audio was better on the broadcast than the YouTube version. I probably should have turned the volume up in the other room. Tragic story, I'm so glad not to live in or near chicago at this point in my life. Although I suppose that could happen anywhere. What's up with the MIDI support track? I thought it was supposed to be a cappella? And where's the band of robots that are supposed to be "performing" the midi music? Sorry, pet peeve, being an instrumentalist.

YouTube - Super Bowl XLIII National anthem performed by Jennifer Hudson

[Cosmic Closet]

Although I didn't watch the Bowl, I couldn't agree more re: mangling of the anthem. Much like with Christmas hymns, it seems like it is now punishable by law to sing the anthem straight through.

It's not like it's an easy piece to sing to begin with, quite the range in it, but evidently that's not enough for some 'artistes.' tutt

I would rather hear a non-lipped version sung straight than a canned one with all the bs.

[mrufino1]

I am not much of a world traveler (sadly), so I ask of members from countries other than the US, do they fool with your anthems as well at events or is this an American thing? To be honest, I am not even a fan of the way Hendrix did it
(not sure how planned it was and since I am 34 I was not privy to Woodstock except through the movie, so maybe it was a more powerful moment than I think). By no means am I a traditionalist, but there are certain things I feel should just be left the way they are, maybe it was those days of playing tuba in marching band and having a director that hammered this point home to us. Anyway, just interested if this is an American phenomenon.

[Franco]

I wouldn't go as deep as to call this a phenomenon; it's the superbowl - there are air force jets that fly by almost immediately after the anthem has been sung. Risking any sort of malfunction for the sake of getting a "real" performance isn't a high priority at this type of event.

That said, I have no doubt that she would be able to pull it off live, she's got a great voice.

[mrufino1]

Yes, and I think that is some of the argument- great voice isn't "good enough" anymore- it must be "prefect," which is not realistic. And I was at the Giants playoff game, and there was a flyover there as well- unfortunately due to incredibly poor planning at Giants' Stadium (as always), we were stuck in a security check for 45 minutes,so we missed the anthem. If I remember right though, it was a capella. At any of the regular season games, it was a capella as well and depending on who sang it it was quite good. At the Jets game I attended this year, a young girl from Long Island (I think, somewehre local) sang the national anthem and was fantastic- and real. I am sure Jennifer Hudson could do it live and quite well. I know why they pre-record, that isn't even so much my issue- it is more about why they have to mangle the arrangement (especially the time signature- reminds me of hearing take five- in FOUR- on the smooth jazz station once).

[henryrobinett]

Clearly she can pull it off live. She did that whole 'Merican Idol thing. She's got great pipes and a great ear. That's not the issue. The issue, I'm sure, is technical. Less problems -- less things to go wrong if they're just syncing. They can control the sound better, for such an important event, if they have fewer sources. I'm sure it was the producers call. But remember, she also had to pull it off. She had to convincingly sell the idea that she was singing. She did a good job. I mean I could tell, but I'm a maniac.

[tenor39]

Originally Posted by Franco

I wouldn't go as deep as to call this a phenomenon; it's the superbowl - there are air force jets that fly by almost immediately after the anthem has been sung. Risking any sort of malfunction for the sake of getting a "real" performance isn't a high priority at this type of event.

That said, I have no doubt that she would be able to pull it off live, she's got a great voice.

Then sing it live, as most broadway and opera singers do at such events. Pop singers are all about image and almost zero on ability. I sang the Anthemn live at a Chicago Bears game at Soldier Field in 1985 (Monday Night Football) with no "in-ears", no track, and a 3 second delay from the PA cluster at the far end of the field to deal with. I've sung it live at several Orlando Magic games with nothing but me and an SM58. Cry me a river on this one. I have no sympathy for studio edited and corrected versions of a person's voice being lip sync'd as though it were real.

Technical problems? Sheeesh. Springsteen had waaaayyyy more possible "technical problems" as possibilites and still did it live. Props to him and the crew for pulling that one off. It sounded great!

[smoke]

Mangle. Whatever.

She gave her own expression on a few lines a few notes. Get over it, the country is still the greatest. Some of yous really reach for ways to put someone down and divide.

Maybe we should hire robots to sing music from now on?

[soundsundergroun]

She and the producers should be charged with treason.

[mrufino1]

I hope I'm not misconstrued, I'm certainly not trying to cause the next Civil War! It was most definitely done in 4/4 time though, and the song is in 3/4 time. I just feel like there are certain songs that you should not "Add your expression." My rant is not against Jennifer Hudson specifically, especially since she probably did not arrange or produce it. I just feel like it is a sign of respect to sing the national anthem the way it is supposed to be done, and that is my position in general. To each their own, and that is what makes America great; opinions are OK.

[paultools]

Originally Posted by henryrobinett

Clearly she can pull it off live. She did that whole 'Merican Idol thing. She's got great pipes and a great ear. That's not the issue. The issue, I'm sure, is technical. Less problems -- less things to go wrong if they're just syncing. They can control the sound better, for such an important event, if they have fewer sources. I'm sure it was the producers call. But remember, she also had to pull it off. She had to convincingly sell the idea that she was singing. She did a good job. I mean I could tell, but I'm a maniac.

Why do you s'pose they didn't fix the iffy pitch areas?

[henryrobinett]

I didn't hear any significant pitchy areas. But I don't think the REASON for syncing was for her performance, but rather for technical reasons. If they changed her pitch, which I had absolutely no problems with, that would have indicated they did it to have a perfect performance, which I argue was not the primary reason.

[bcgood]

Well, I guess it's officially public knowledge now. I can honestly understand why they would do this. There are several performance and technical reasons. One to consider is the timing and ending of the performance has to be lined up perfectly so that it ends right before the F-16's of the Air Force Thunderbird's fly over.
Turns out, Jennifer Hudson lip-synched the national anthem before Sunday night's Super Bowl.

The reason?

"This was such an important performance, because it's the first time everyone has seen Jennifer," the show's producer, Ricky Minor, said of Hudson, who marked her first public performance on Sunday since her mother, brother and 7-year-old nephew were fatally shot in October. "But she's in such a great place, with such great spirits, and time can heal her wounds. She's on fire right now and totally grounded."

Before her performance, Minor insisted that Hudson sing to the prerecorded track.

"That's the right way to do it," said Minor, who also produced Whitney Houston 's powerful 1991 rendition of the anthem. "There's too many variables to go live. I would never recommend any artist go live, because the slightest glitch would devastate the performance."

After the performance, Minor said Hudson asked him, "How did I do?"

"I told her, 'Touchdown!'" he said.

He said her two cell phones also lit up "like slot machines" after her performance. She even got a text message from her Dreamgirls costar Jamie Foxx .

"His text said 'Amazing. It brought tears to my eyes,'" Minor said. "She's just getting so much love."

Why Jennifer Hudson Lip-Synched at Super Bowl - omg! news on Yahoo!

Here's the video, (The one on YouTube was taken down).

Jennifer Hudson - Super Bowl » idolbloglive.com

[paultools]

Mostly in the "bridge"... nit-picky stuff for sure but also easy fixes that wouldn't have sounded gimmicky... 60 seconds worth of work in AT, or a few extra takes for "purists"

rocKITS
GAVE proof
STILL there

It's all subjective, of course...



It was still a good recording of a good rendition

[voicegenius]

Originally Posted by henryrobinett

Clearly she can pull it off live. She did that whole 'Merican Idol thing. She's got great pipes and a great ear. That's not the issue. The issue, I'm sure, is technical. Less problems -- less things to go wrong if they're just syncing. They can control the sound better, for such an important event, if they have fewer sources. I'm sure it was the producers call. But remember, she also had to pull it off. She had to convincingly sell the idea that she was singing. She did a good job. I mean I could tell, but I'm a maniac.

+1... Do people forget that she ACTUALLY CAN SING??

[henryrobinett]

Originally Posted by paultools

Mostly in the "bridge"... nit-picky stuff for sure but also easy fixes that wouldn't have sounded gimmicky... 60 seconds worth of work in AT, or a few extra takes for "purists"

BUT WHY???? This is the shit that drives me crazy and wrings the life out of really spectacular human performances! I would NEVER nit pick a performance like that to make it PERFECT pitch wise. Never. That's why there's so much F**KED up music nowadays IMHO. Too many engineers are too busy being busy and missing the entire point.

[joelpatterson]

That's a dangerous line of thinking, to take your eyes off the inconsequentially trivial and start worrying about the point!

[paultools]

Originally Posted by henryrobinett

BUT WHY???? This is the shit that drives me crazy and wrings the life out of really spectacular human performances! I would NEVER nit pick a performance like that to make it PERFECT pitch wise. Never. That's why there's so much F**KED up music nowadays IMHO. Too many engineers are too busy being busy and missing the entire point.

No, I think you are overlooking MY point:
Let her go Aretha Franklin (if she can) and let's hear the soul-providing "mistakes" and hear her go for the money notes and take some chances...
BUT if that is too much of a challenge artistically or technically and you are gonna pre-record it, then make it right! Obviously, that performance was not a first-take vocal, and there were certainly other things that were repaired. I didn't intentionally nit-pick it. The mistakes were apparent to me since this is my profession. I'm sure most people didn't notice. But if that rendition was spectacular, taking 60 seconds to fix those notes among the others that were fixed would not have detracted from the "performance" one bit.

I don't understand why ALL performances like this can't be live.
Marvin Gaye did it 25 years ago. What makes it so impossible now?


Using your words, let's have REAL LIVE "really spectacular human performances", and if that's not possible with today's talent and state-of-the-art technology, and we are thus regulated to playing pre-recorded performances, let's just keep playing Marvin's.

[paultools]

Originally Posted by voicegenius

+1... Do people forget that she ACTUALLY CAN SING??

Then let her sing!

Maybe they will soon play the Super Bowl "virtually" or pre-record that so that they don't miss any shots and can fit in all the commercials.

In the domed stadiums, they can do the F16 flyover with lights like they do on Fremont Street in Vegas.