Ashlee Simpson Singes Live
Pop starlet Ashlee Simpson is trying to move past her recent
lip-syncing debacle on Saturday Night Live this past
weekend. Last night at the Radio Music Awards in Las Vegas, host
Carson Daly introduced the pop singer’s performance as “Live, yes,
live.” Simpson took the stage, and, as her band began playing her
hit album’s title track “Autobiography,” she quipped, “It’s the
wrong song! Only kidding,” and continued with an otherwise seamless
performance.
Simpson’s father and manager Joe Simpson stated yesterday that
the pop singer had lip synced during her appearance on SNL
because acid reflux disease had made her vocal cords swell up,
leaving her voice hoarse. “Just like any artist in America, she has
a backing track that she pushes so you don’t have to hear her croak
through a song on national television,” Joe Simpson told Los
Angeles’ KIIS-FM. Ashlee Simpson walked offstage during the
broadcast when recorded vocals for a different song started playing
as she began performing, and NBC quickly cut to a commercial.
At the close of the show, guest host Jude Law stood beside
Simpson and said, “What can I say? Live TV.” The singer, trying to
explain the misstep, sweetly said, “My band started playing the
wrong song.” Monday on her Web site, Simpson blamed her hectic
schedule: “I can’t cancel something like SNL,” she wrote.
“You and I know that even if I synced on it or not, I’d still get
seen by millions, maybe even make a few more fans…I don’t think
it did me much harm.”
In an interview with Katie Couric this morning on the
Today show, Simpson explained that she had been fully
prepared to sing live on Saturday. “I was so ready to go,” she
said. “Saturday night came at six o’clock. I have severe acid
reflux. It started acting up and I could not speak or talk . . . My
voice was not strong enough to hold up the song alone.” Simpson
claimed her doctor had insisted that she could not sing on her own,
saying it would “ruin your vocal chords.” Simpson also revealed
that she has avoided reading postings in her Web site. “I get
comments like now [I’m] Milli Vanilli. I write all of my own music
and perform it from the heart . . . I hope my fans know, especially
the ones that come out to my shows, they know it’s live.”
Above all, Simpson did her utmost to deflate the episode: “I am
not anorexic. My boob didn’t pop out. I am not on drugs. I had a
bad performance and I got sick . . . You can’t help it if you lose
your voice.”