Article of the week by Yasone

Beyoncé’s Inauguration Performance: Live or Prerecorded?

By JAMES C. MCKINLEY JR.

Beyoncé’s performance of the national anthem at President Obama’s second inauguration on Monday was everything it should be: soaring, moving, symbolic and musically superlative. But was it actually live?

A spokeswoman for the Marine Corps Band said early Tuesday that Beyoncé only pretended to sing, lip-syncing the words to a backing track. What the listeners heard was a version she had recorded at a Marine Corps studio in Washington on Sunday night, the spokeswoman, Master Sgt. Kristin duBois said.

Chang W. Lee/The New York TimesBeyoncé on Monday.

But by Tuesday afternoon, the Marine Corps had backed off Sergeant duBois’s statement, saying while the band had not played live, neither Sergeant duBois nor anyone else in the Marine Band was in a position to know if Beyoncé had sung the anthem live or not. Capt. Gregory A. Wolf, a Marine Corps spokesman, said the corps had determined that a live performance of the anthem was ill advised because its members had little time to rehearse with the singer.

A publicist for Beyoncé did not immediately return telephone calls and e-mail messages.

Earlier Sergeant duBois had said the weather was good and the Marine Band had no trouble with intonation during most of the prelude and ceremony, nearly two and a half hours of music. Still, at the last minute, she said, the band received word that Beyoncé would use a recorded version of the national anthem.

“We don’t know why,” Sergeant duBois said. “But that is what we were instructed to do, so that is what we did.”

Captain Wolf said it was standard operating procedure to record the music for the inauguration in advance, in case the weather is bad and it becomes impossible for musicians to keep their instruments in tune. Four years ago Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman and two colleagues used backing tracks during their performance at President Obama’s first inauguration because of the bitter cold.

Beyoncé had recorded the song in a studio at the Marine Barracks Annex on Sunday night, using tracks already laid down by the Marine Band, Sergeant duBois said.