There have been some hilarious call-outs for people using lip syncing in award shows in the past. The Top of the Pops was so bad for it, and even the ACM has been accused of it before with Rascal Flatts. But this year, Kelsea Ballerini has also been accused of lip syncing her song "Baggage."
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There are always speculations about whether artists lip-sync at award shows. For some reason, they seem to be a hive for it. My favorite example, by far, is Nirvana playing the Top of the Pops 1991, where they obviously lip-synced "Smells Like Teen Spirit." Kurt Cobain put the microphone in his mouth and faked his strumming in a protest against the show.
But, usually, lip syncing is frowned upon and it's a point of embarrassment when people are caught out. So, for Kelsea Ballerini to be accused of it at the ACM awards is not good. Social media blew up with accusations after her performance with wild claims.
"Can y'all please tell Kelsea Ballerini we know she isn't actually playing the guitar?!!!" one X user posted. Others mirrored the thoughts, with claims that she was also not actually singing. "Kelsea Ballerini was no doubt just Lip Syncing her own song... no defending her on that one. That was too obvious. Not Good."
An Expert Opinion On The Ballerini Lip-Syncing Issue
I am the expert. I watched her performance, and I have to say, I think the claims are baseless. She sings incredibly well live, and honestly, if she needed to mime playing the guitar for all three chords she used in 'Baggage', I would be shocked.
Lip syncing is much cleaner than the sound Ballerini produced for the ACM awards. And I don't mean she sounded bad, she sounded fantastic. But, moments when she moved away from the mic has audible volume dip, her smile could sometimes be heard, and she wasn't perfectly on track.
I think the fact that she was able to belt out her track so cleanly had people wondering. It's not every artist that is able to sound so powerful on stage and perform so cleanly. "Not random men trying to say Kelsea was lip syncing when you can tell she wasn't with how it was sung compared to her recorded version," an X user shared.
I think she has a little too much pride for that.
