From The Times: “Beyoncé did not sing the national anthem live at President Obama’s inauguration. Millions of viewers around the world were stunned by the singer’s spectacular rendition of the anthem but The Times has learnt that she was lip-syncing to a pre-recorded backing track. A spokeswoman for the Marine Corp Band Kristen DuBois said it was standard procedure to record a backing track and Beyoncé decided shortly before her performance to rely on the studio version rather than risk singing it live on the Capitol. Yo Yo Ma pre-recorded his cello performance in 2008 because the cold weather and wind may have affected the acoustics of his instrument. Vocal performers, however, typically do perform live despite January’s icy conditions.”

So she was lipsyncing, was she? In which case, they should have got John Epperson for the job, don’t you think?