REAL Fans Should Be Loyal But Critical

Photo via Stan Honda/AFP/Getty Images

I want to preface this post by saying that I have been a fan of Beyonce' since the beginning and I respect her as a consummate artist and performer.

I do NOT, however, attend the "Church of Beyonce'" nor do I "worship" her in order to call myself a fan.

My initial reaction to the whole thing was that I was not surprised if she was lip-synching. I even gave her props initially on Facebook and Twitter because I thought the performance was subtle and she could have gone MANY different ways with that performance for that Inauguration moment with the whole world watching. There is no doubt that what we heard was Beyonce's voice nor am I questioning if she can really sing.

I guess that my issue was that the performance was widely thought to be the HIGHLIGHT of the entire Inauguration, not the second swearing-in of the first black President. All of the entertainment blogs, shows and even the talk shows led with Beyonce's performance being the best part of the day.

Beyonce' is a PERFORMER so she knew every cadence of the pre-recorded track and faked it to PERFECTION. She looked AMAZING, flailed her arms and even took out the earpiece during the performance as if she were really singing. However, singing for the President should be done LIVE out of respect especially when you are close to him like she and Jay-Z are to Barack and Michelle.

Beyonce' has some of the most devoted and unwavering fans in the music industry but sometimes I think that they make excuses for her as if she can do NO wrong. If I were Beyonce', I would want to be transparent and be open if and when my REAL "fans" tell me when they didn't like a performance.

I understand that Beyonce' is in the middle of a whirlwind comeback, with the Superbowl coming up and the GQ photo shoot. Honestly, I am glad to see her back but I just wanted it to be more authentic. As fans of Beyonce' or any other artist or athlete, we should be able to make comments about their performances because they are public figures and that is what they're paid to do (and chose to do).

The biggest excuse that was made was that the cold weather made her decide to use the pre-recorded track. However, if it was so cold, then why didn't she perform in the fur coat that she walking out wearing? Yes it was around 45 degrees and any artist would be worried about their voice in that weather, but if she would have sang live and not sounded perfect, I would have given her the benefit of the doubt because of it.

It's not that I'm upset that she lip-synced because it's supposedly a "standard industry practice" and because the "Star Spangled Banner" is not the easiest song to sing...I would have just rather have had a more authentic performance for that moment.

It was also brought up that Whitney Houston lip-synched her iconic Superbowl performance back in 1991. I didn't want to bring up Whitney because she died BUT Whitney also did drugs...would it be okay for Beyonce' to do drugs too because Whitney did it? NO!

I even had a falling-out yesterday with a friend over this situation which is absurd because I really didn't take it that seriously. I just wasn't surprised that she did it.