Lip syncing: a must for Olympics?

Just as nobody had predicted the magnificent opening ceremony at the Beijing Olympics Games, no one had expected that one of the low point of this Olympics is not doping but lip syncing by a 9-year old.

While most of people using this as their Olympic gossip, they didn't know the following fact:
First, it is the music director of the ceremony disclosed the lip syncing voluntarily as a "behind the scenes director's comment" as well as publicly giving credit to the girl who did the singing. What he didn't realized is that while he said "not perfect looking" was transformed by the media as "ugly". And this is the media claimed that they were worried about the psychological damage to both girls.

Secondly, it is common practice in Chinese and Hong Kong films to have a professional singer to sing for the picture perfect actors/actresses. Guess the director of "Momma Mia" didn't know this is an option. To many, this is a show that you want to be perfect for the audience to enjoy the performance. It turned out some (or most) of them may not care whose voice it is.

Thirdly, don't be surprised, this may be the Olympic tradition. In 2006 at Turin, the great Pavarotti was lip syncing to his tape; in 2002 at Salt Lake City, the televised opening ceremony was not live (except for the athletes), but a rehearsal taped earlier. What most shocking is that in 2000 at Sydney, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra was string-syncing to a pre-recorded symphony and, wait for this, part of the recording was done by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.

The amazing part is that all these facts at other Olympics were not disclosed voluntarily. The organizers admitted the syncing facts only after been caught. However, unlike the Beijing Olympics, none of these made to main stream news. No wonder the Beijing organizers and the Chinese felt they were treated unfairly.

Here is a blog on the Times: Sydney Comes Clean on Olympic Miming. Comparing to the front page coverage of the Beijing lip syncing, this is not even on the printed edition, but only on the web site.

The original source is from the Sydney Morning Herald:

"As a result, the Sydney Symphony's confirmation that it mimed its entire performance at the opening ceremony of the 2000 Sydney Olympics comes as something of a shock. Even worse, it admits the backing tape was recorded, in part, by its southern rival, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra."