BLACKPINK get accused of lip-syncing at 2022 MTV VMAs
BLACKPINK fans, also known as BLINKS, are blasting a recent Variety review claiming that the YG Entertainment girl group lip-synced their performance of “Pink Venom” at the MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) on Sunday.
Variety’s “The Best and Worst Moments of the 2022 MTV VMAs: From Taylor Swift’s Surprise to Johnny Depp’s Confusing Cameo” lists BLACKPINK’s performance under its “Worst” section with the subheading “Lip-Sync Snafus.” The passage reads:
“Live awards shows are tricky and there’s no denying the amount of work put in to make them work — dump button abuse aside — but it seems at this year’s awards, the most conspicuous blunder was the obvious lip-syncing. Among the repeat offenders are artists like Blackpink, Anitta and Flo Milli — who devoted attention to their killer dance routines but left little room for the actual singing.”
BLINKS were swift with “Pretty Savage” retorts on Twitter.
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Some users claimed it was evident the girl group's mics were on because of evident crackling sounds. They also pointed out that Lisa can be seen fixing her mic and Jennie can be heard shouting, “Let’s go!”
You can literally hear that there mic was on 😒
— Hailey sees DPR in Sept (@HaileyKammerer7) August 31, 2022
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Wait what? Are they kidding? I mean you could hear them clearly singing. Not to mention Lisa's part when she was rapping her hair got stuck on the mic and you could hear the noises of the mic while she was trying to fix her hair. You could hear them breathing.
— Flo (@flo_flo1802) August 31, 2022
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They were obviously singing live. Jennie literally screamed loud and clear "let's go"on the dance break. Find something else to justify your irrational hate on the girls
— Crathy ᵍᵒᵗ⁷🐥The other side (@rp_got7) August 31, 2022
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Lisa literally had to fix her mic on stage and you could hear the difference
— Koinz (@kpopkoinz) August 31, 2022
at this point I am certain @Variety was watching the performance on mute or an edited version cos Lisa adjusting her mic at 0:50 could be heard & she was mad as hell after that, Jenlisa rap part u can cleary hear their voices & the backtrack no lip sync, Jennie's lets go live too
— mother VENOMS 开 (@designercrimes) August 31, 2022
Others claimed that even if prerecorded vocals were used in some parts of the performance, this is not uncommon nowadays, even with K-pop artists.
So it doesn't get blown out of proportion. Scratch the never and insert rarely. Backtrack is used a lot in kpop when there's a lot of dancing involved. Prerecording vocals are also a thing. What I consider lip syncing is when you legit can't hear them at all over the backtrack.
— _iamluckyyy (@_iamluckyyy) September 1, 2022
@Variety learn the difference of backtracking and lip syncing. korean performances most of the time are backtracking. this industry knows no lip syncing. have some respect.
— batMNBN 🤍 BORN PINK VENOM (@laliliroses_m) August 31, 2022
For those wanting to assess the performance for themselves, a video of it is now on YouTube.
What isn’t up for debate, however, is how big of a night K-pop acts had at this year's VMAs. BLACKPINK won “Best Metaverse Performance” for their music video “Ready For Love,” a collaboration with PUBG Mobile. Lisa became the first K-pop soloist to win a VMA with her debut solo single “Lalisa.” She was up against BTS for “Yet to Come (The Most Beautiful Moment)”, ITZY for “Loco,” SEVENTEEN for “Hot,” Stray Kids for “Maniac” and TWICE for their first English-language single “The Feels.”
BTS won “Group of the Year,” which BLACKPINK were also nominated for. The recent victory marked BTS’ fourth consecutive “Group of the Year” win at the VMAs. BTS were also nominated for “Best Metaverse Performance” for their collaboration with Minecraft, “Best Visual Effects” for their “My Universe” collaboration with Coldplay and “Best Choreography” for “Permission to Dance.” Charlie Puth’s first collaboration with BTS member Jungkook, “Left and Right,” was nominated for “Song of the Summer.”
Meanwhile, SEVENTEEN received two other nominations besides “Best K-Pop”: “Best New Artist” and “Push Performance of the Year” for December 2021’s “Rock With You.” They won “Push Performance of the Year,” making history as the first K-pop act to win in that category.
BLACKPINK will have more opportunities to prove their live performance abilities during their world tour starting in October. YG Entertainment has called the upcoming tour “the largest world tour in the history of a K-pop girl group.” On Sept. 16, the “Pink Venom” singers will drop their new album “Born Pink” as well as a new music video.
Featured Image via MTV娛樂台