Boyz II Men Pull an 'Ashlee Simpson' During Christmas TV Special

By Jett Wells Posted Dec 1st 2010 10:53AM

Boyz II Men Caught Lip Syncing During Christmas TV Special

Note to musicians performing on live television: Beware the lure of lip syncing because eventually you may get caught. Boyz II Men got busted using a pre-recorded track during their mini set on Tuesday's live NBC special at the tree lighting ceremony in Rockefeller Center.

The R&B group was exposed after an awkward transition to the next act. After Boyz II Men finished performing 'This Christmas,' the show transitioned to a duet by pop singer Charice and pianist David Foster, who were supposed to sing 'Jingle Bell Rock.' But then the Boyz II Men song replayed for more than 12 seconds. The music turned off and on again as one could tell the sound engineers were struggling behind the set. Watch, via Mediaite, after the jump.

All this reminds us of another backing track debacle on NBC, meaning of course the 'SNL' flub by Ashlee Simpson in 2004. Relive that magical moment here.

Tags: boyz ii men

Comments

(59)

Wednesday 01 December

By BTDT

Highest Rank Vote down Vote up Report this

Boyz 2 Vanilly.

Thursday 02 December

By yohan

Rofl

By notre

Who the hell took 12 seconds to figure out this mistake!
Asleep at the wheel!

By John

Caption said: "Band caught lip-syncing on tv". This would lead one to believe the article was about a REAL musical group. Sucked in again...

By HG in MN

Vote down Vote up Report this

BTDT, that was great! Made my morning.

I saw this (and oddly, the SNL) debacle both as they happened. I thought to myself, "Ashley Simpson all over again," and waited for the funny jig to begin. NBC should train all of their live guests to do that jig to cover up for their mishaps. Perhaps that live 30 Rock could have been livened up a bit by it, and Al Roker would be as funny as he thinks he is (no, seriously, we love Al.)

By bep

they have 2 lip sync...they lost their voices in the 90's!!!

By TamiHunter45

They had voices?

By Crys

High Rank Vote down Vote up Report this

It sounded like more of a mixed-lip-sync. The backing harmonies were pre-recorded. lead vocals were done live. You can hear that on the special. There used to be four of them, but now there are 3. So, it does make me wonder if they did the backing vocals on the track just to be safe. The lead vocalists did sound good though. It is a little disappointing since they are such talented men. Who knows though?

By Ken

I agree. This was a typical backing vocal track. They cut it off before we could see if the solo voices were also tracked. But, if anyone's surprised, why? This is the norm these days.

By lesbasbleu2010

I'm sure other singers were lip syncing too, and just weren't caught. Some of Mariah Carey's notes looked a little suspicious as well.

By jessie

I guess no one really notices that MOST MUSIC STARS LIPSYNC. Most music stars have to analyze and fix their voices in the studio before making a CD. No one can truely sing perfectly. DUHHHH.

By Matt

There's a huge difference between fixing in a studio and lip syncing. Most artists do have good voices and use auto-tune for slight corrections to make the performance perfect. Then there are some who over use auto-tune. Still, they're singing, not mouthing to a track.
There definitely are people who sing perfectly. Listen to all music pre-auto-tune. Steve Perry, Jeff Buckley, Marvin Gaye, too many to name.

By Owen

I think most lip-sync..we as the audience have accepted a bunch of just average,mediocre singers. What a joke. Boring boring

By Drue

Not true. I heard Amy Lee from Evanesence warming up back stage before a concert. Believe me, she doesn't need a machine to help her sing.

By chantel

OH GEEZ AND THIS IS THE BIGGGGGGGGG NEWS?!!!!!!!!!!! AND BEACAUSE.............

By d ray

most holiday specials are lip synced... does anyone watch those thanksgiving parades and believe those are real... i agree a lot of backing vocals are dubbed and played for live shows because a lot of vocals overlap in the studio... singers have been lip syncing on tv for years

By jonnathan

i saw that last night i think mostly everyone was lip synching i thought anne lennox was, she definetly was actually

By tangilct

All you heard before the got the Cherise track together was the pre-recorded background vocals. Other groups had live background people to sing, but Boys II Men are known for it being just the 4 of them, but since their 4th member is sick, they have to stick to pre-recorded background tracks.
The lead singing was all live. Wanye cannot lip-synch those runs he does on every note.

By missy

They may have been lip syncing BUT at least they really can sing.
That is far more than some who are caught can say!

By JoeyO'H

tangilct: You must be a fan. None of the vocals were live from Boys. Yeah, most of these shows use prerecorded vocals. But please, don't make excuses for Boys 2 Men, that's what they pay their publicists for.

Page 1 of 3