Taylor Swift Accused of Lip-Syncing

Taylor Swift has been erroneously accused of lip-syncing during her shows, after a video clip of the pop star performing onstage went viral on social media.

The 34-year-old musician is currently in the midst of her highly lucrative Eras Tour, which has become the first tour to break the $1 billion barrier. Following a break, the Shake It Off hitmaker will perform in Tokyo on February 7-10.

Alongside the phenomenal success of her live shows, Swift has become a firm public talking point among NFL fans—for better and for worse—in recent months over her high-profile romance with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.

Even her political leanings have dominated headlines. As Americans prepare to vote this year in a presidential election showdown that’s likely to see incumbent Joe Biden facing off against erstwhile White House resident Donald Trump, Swift’s previous support of Democrats has seen her attacked by Republicans.

 Taylor Swift on August 3, 2023, in Inglewood, California. The star has been accused of lip-syncing by social media users. Emma McIntyre/TAS23/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management
Considering all that, it’s perhaps unsurprising that a 24-second video clip showing her performing her hit track Cruel Summer onstage has been viewed more than 50 million times.

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Shared by the account @Alphafox78 on X, formerly Twitter, an accompanying caption read: “What do you notice about this?”

The post was met with a flood of observations and opinions from social media users, including some who accused Swift of lip-syncing during the performance.

“Lip syncing for people that paid to see her ‘sing’ in person,” alleged one X user in a post that, as of press time, had been viewed more than 1.4 million times.

“The world’s highest paid karaoke singer. That is all she is,” opined another, whose post has also exceeded 1.4 million hits.

“Is she singing with her track playing?” asked another. “It almost looks like she is lip [syncing].”

Joining in on the swipes at Swift, one X user charged that the star was “not even singing. And the ‘dance moves’ are barely even second rate. 1000’s of people regretting their ticket purchase.”

Amid the flood of negative comments, a number of other X users pointed out that Swift was singing live, with the aid of audio assistance, a common practice during large-scale stage performances where dance routines are involved.

“She’s singing but there’s a recording on,” wrote one. “So many performers do it now. They can’t sing while doing all their performance.”

Another insisted that Swift was “singing live, she does a lot of note changes during her shows so [you know] she isn’t faking it.”

“I’m no Swiftie, but I was raised by sound technicians,” another commented. “EVERY SINGLE ARTIST uses Dat tapes. Period. Every single one.”

M. Brandon Lee, host of YouTube show This Is Tech Today, countered an assertion that all performers lip-sync during their performances.

“Only some [performances] are lip synced (the Super Bowl is a good example),” he wrote. “It is not uncommon to have supplemental tracks, but the main singing is real. The Grammys, all on stage performances, singer and band, are all real performances, live.”

With Swift embarking on her tour dates in Japan, all eyes are on the epic journey she is expected to take should she plan to support her partner Kelce in person during Sunday’s Super Bowl LVIII, where the Chiefs face the San Francisco 49ers.

Following her final Tokyo show on February 10, Swift would need to jump on a U.S.-bound flight soon afterward to make the 11.5-hour flight that should get her to the Nevada gambling haven with just a few hours to spare.

Helping Swift achieve this feat is the fact that Tokyo is 17 hours ahead of Las Vegas. Also, she will be crossing the International Date Line, which will essentially give her an extra day. The date line is a boundary in the Pacific Ocean where each calendar day starts. Also known as the “Line of Demarcation,” those traveling west essentially lose a day. Swift, who will be traveling east, will gain a day.

Should Swift take on the detour, she will need to depart U.S. soil soon after the Super Bowl, as she is scheduled to kick off the Australian leg of her tour on February 16 in Melbourne, before moving on to Sydney. She will then head to Singapore.

The international leg of the record-breaking tour will also see Swift make stops in several countries including France, Sweden, the U.K., Portugal, Spain and Italy, before concluding north of the border in Vancouver on December 8.