Fake Idols

Some of the guest stars that have appeared on the Wednesday results show of "American Idol" this season prerecorded their performances. There have also been questions about lip-synching some of the performances. In the case of Idol judge Paula Abdul and her performance during rock week it would appear that both of these instances occurred.

"American Idol" is very careful of which shots are used of the stage and audience when a performer tapes an appearance in advance for a later telecast. Paula's performance focused exclusively on her almost as if it were a music video and not a "live" performance.

Artists who sing and dance use the headset wireless microphone so that their hands are free and there are no wires to trip over. Many of those microphones are small and can be almost invisible except for a close up shot. Paula's performance was suspiciously lacking in any head shots - which is also an indication of a performance being lip-synched. The only evidence of a microphone on Paula's performance was when she "sang" into a stand microphone. If Paula was using a headset microphone then why did she need to use the stand microphone?

Many of the more recent pop, hip-hop, R&B, and urban artists today use a variety of electronic equipment to "aid" their singing (If it wasn't for those electronics some of those artists couldn't even carry a tune). But when those same electronic tricks are used an artist cannot reproduce the sound live, like a number of the "American Idol" guests who have appeared this season.

In her heyday Paula Abdul was a good performer; she got her start as a dancer for the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team dancers. Her two most recent singles were both about dancing and earlier this season on "American Idol" Paula choreographed a dance routine for the contestants; so why did Paula feel the need to "fake" a performance and on the most popular television show at that?

Earlier this season it was revealed that the group sing-a-long is lip-synched while the solo portions are sung live. Each week Ryan Seacrest boasts about how the show is live but with all of these prerecorded and lip-synched performances it lead to speculation as to just how much of the show really is live.

Note to musicians: If you are going to fake a performance at least make sure that you make it LOOK real. If you can't even properly lip-synch your own songs then perhaps you should find another profession.