Milli Vanilli - Lip-syncing actually ended this duo's career, and revoked their Grammy! Their supernova success was foiled with the revelation that they never sang live, or even on their own records. It all began during a performance of 'Girl You Know It's True' on 'Club MTV' in 1989, where a skipping record exposed them, and they ran offstage.

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Mariah Carey -

The famous 2016 in-ear monitor malfunction heard (and seen) around the world—and narrated by the diva herself—will be remembered for many New Year's Eves to come.

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Ashlee Simpson - Simpson's horrendous 2004 'Saturday Night Live' performance began when the wrong track was played. It was made worse when she decided to deal with it by dancing furiously, running offstage, blaming her band, and then later blaming acid reflux.

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New Kids On The Block - From 1990-1993 the boy band was under scrutiny, specifically from a former associate producer, for allegedly lip-syncing. After a lawsuit was filed, they arranged a live performance on 'The Arsenio Hall Show,' following which they admitted only to singing with a backing track during live performances.

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Katy Perry - One of the worst lip-sync moments was Katy Perry's performance of 'Roar' at the 15th annual NRJ Music Awards. Her vocals started without her, and things got so bad that the host asked her to stop and restart.

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Red Hot Chili Peppers - When the band played the Super Bowl XLVIII halftime show, people quickly noticed that their guitars weren't even plugged in. The band later said the vocals were live, but that they weren't given a choice on the guitars by the event's producers.

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Victoria Beckham - Rumors that Posh Spice can't really sing were amplified in 2016 when Beckham admitted that at many of their live shows the producers would turn off her mic and let the other girls sing, forcing her to lip-sync the entire concert.

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The Smiths - The BBC's weekly 'Top of the Pops' was notorious for its prerecorded performances, most notably when, during the Smiths' 1984 performance of 'This Charming Man,' Morrissey "sang" into a fern instead of a microphone.

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Nirvana - The most rebellious 'Top of the Pops' occasion took place in 1991. Nirvana didn't even pretend to play their instruments on the show, and Kurt Cobain sang his number in a deep-voiced style apparently inspired by Morrissey.

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Muse - The alt-rock band was told they had to lip-sync on the set of an Italian TV show in 2009, so they decided to have fun with it by putting the front man on drums and letting the drummer fake the vocals. It was hilarious, but the producers were not happy.

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Public Image Ltd. - Johnny Rotten's second band played a famously wild set on 'American Bandstand' in 1980, abandoning any pretense of live instrumentation to mix with the crowd and mess around on set.

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Jennifer Hudson - Hudson, like many others, was reportedly given no other choice but to lip-sync her performance of 'The Star-Spangled Banner' at the 2009 Super Bowl.

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Vanessa Williams - Williams performed at the 1996 Super Bowl. Years later, after Beyonce's inauguration lip-sync scandal, she admitted that her own performance of the American national anthem was prerecorded, but at the request of producers.

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Rascal Flatts - When the band played at the Country Music Awards in 2014, fans noticed that their performance sounded a little too much like the album. The band quickly admitted on social media that front man Gary Levox had lost his voice.

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Cher - In 2013, Cher went on 'The Ellen DeGeneres Show' show with her mother to promote her mother's new album, and it was clear they were both lip-syncing. Cher lashed back at critics by explaining that her mom was battling pneumonia and was exhausted, and that they were lucky she could perform at all.

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Jennifer Lopez - After Queen Bey admitted to lip-syncing, Lopez voiced her solidarity, emphasizing that every performer has to do it at some point in their career.

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Nicki Minaj - The rapper has faced a couple lip-syncing accusations in her time, including after the 2010 BET Awards for which Minaj blamed the sound man. Similar lip-sync charges were thrown at her following high-profile performances on 'American Idol' and at the Super Bowl XVLIII halftime show.

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Justin Bieber - The young pop star puts a lot of work into his choreography, but he's been repeatedly called out for pulling the mic away from his face before the verse is over, leaving his canned voice playing on the speakers.

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Eminem - Nearly a decade after the Ashlee Simpson incident, Eminem was accused of lip-syncing on 'Saturday Night Live,' making headlines after his renditions of 'Berzerk' and 'Rap God' produced moments when you could hear his voice even though his lips weren't moving.

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The Beatles - The legendary band performed on the 'Thank Your Lucky Stars' show in 1963, without any of their guitars plugged in and with no microphones. The show was cancelled a few years later as a result of viewer dissatisfaction.

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Jay-Z - Performing 'Picasso Baby' for hours inside New York's Pace Gallery necessitates some lip-syncing. The "performance" ended up becoming the celebrated music video 'Picasso Baby: A Performance Art Film.'

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50 Cent - The rapper was caught lip-syncing onstage at the BET awards in 2007. Partway through his hit 'Amusement Park,' the instrumental started to play. He tried to walk it off and wait for the song to cue back up, but his audience had already checked out.

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Janet Jackson -

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette called Jackson "one of pop's most notorious onstage lip-syncers" in a 2001 article, which also revealed that Jackson conceded to using "some" taped vocals. But she puts on such an amazing show that people have never cared to make a big deal of it.

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Getty Images

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Rita Ora - At the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in NYC, in 2018, Rita Ora was notably lip-syncing off beat, which surprised many people. However ...

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Michael Jackson - Michael Jackson premiered his soon-to-be-trademark moonwalk before famously miming along to his hit 'Billie Jean' at Motown's 25th Anniversary concert.

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Whitney Houston - The star unleashed a prerecorded version of the American national anthem at Super Bowl XXV, which actually became so popular that it hit the top 10 Billboard Hot 100 as a single.

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Mariah Carey -

The famous 2016 in-ear monitor malfunction heard (and seen) around the world—and narrated by the diva herself—will be remembered for many New Year's Eves to come.

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Jennifer Hudson - Hudson, like many others, was reportedly given no other choice but to lip-sync her performance of 'The Star-Spangled Banner' at the 2009 Super Bowl.

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Jennifer Lopez - After Queen Bey admitted to lip-syncing, Lopez voiced her solidarity, emphasizing that every performer has to do it at some point in their career.

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Janet Jackson -

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Stars who’ve been caught lip-syncing

And others who’ve owned up to it!

12/06/22 | StarsInsider

CELEBRITY Lip sync

The history of faking it with all your might to a prerecorded track is long and spans several genres. In fact it's a very common phenomenon, so much so that artists like Ed Sheeran have supported a “Live Means Live” movement. Whether some artists prefer to lip-sync while dancing, or simply because their voice just isn't up to it, there are a few miming stars who've become cult favorites for their most-feigned performances.

Check out this gallery to see the many musicians who have been caught, or admitted to, lip-syncing, and indulge in some cringeworthy blasts from the past.