After 38 years away from Saturday Night Live, maybe we should have anticipated Cher would court controversy. Last week, in her appearance on the Christmas episode of Season 51, the legend sang two songs.
Or did she?
The internet is abuzz, as only the internet can be, with rumors that Cher lip-synced her songs in the episode hosted by Ariana Grande.
But if the 79-year old iconic performer did lip-sync, does it matter? Would it make a difference if she wasn’t Cher?
SNL has a history with lip-syncing. In Season 30, on October 23, 2004, a technical glitch revealed that Ashlee Simpson was lip-syncing on the program. Many viewers were irritated at the incident, but it didn’t sink Simpson: she returned a year later to be the musical guest when Jon Heder hosted.
In defense of lip-syncing
A review of the video shows that it’s likely Cher lip-synced both of her songs last Saturday. But I’m not sure it really matters. Yes, she’s a Hall of Fame performer, beloved and award-winning. But it’s more than giving a senior citizen a pass.
For years, decades really, singers lip-synced on television regularly, and the world didn’t grind to a halt. There are good reasons for it, in some circumstances.
An artists may not have the vocal strength needed to project in a studio in a live performance. The sound system may not be well-suited for the performance. Or, in the case of Cher, it’s most likely that she prefers the sound of her voice pre-recorded, to preserve the quality. And what’s wrong with that?
Saturday Night Live isn’t always live anyway. Every week, we get pre-taped segments. In Season 51, I’d argue those pretapes have been the best part of the program.
So Cher made the decision to pre-record her songs and pipe the vocals in over the music for a live performance. It’s hardly the worst thing we’ve seen from SNL recently. Just this season, in the last two episodes, the production team has used artificial intelligence to create graphics for the show. The program also currently does not have a black female cast member. In addition, the level of satire and cutting-edge humor we once saw from SNL has essentially vaporized. Where SNL used to be anti-establishment, it’s now part of celebrity culture and firmly entrenched in the corporatism of media. In most ways, SNL has become the thing the show was created to mock.
Ultimately, it may be noteworthy that Cher lip-synced her songs, but it’s not troublesome. Social media needs things to be enraged about every 2-3 hours, until the next thing comes along. All I can say is…NEXT!
