I watched that performance on Leno several times, and prince's vocals are just perfect, almost otherworldly. I have a hard time to believe this wasn't mimicked to a prerecorded track.

He sang live.

It was one of if not best live television vocal per4mances in his career!!!!

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

It was one of if not best live television vocal per4mances in his career!!!!

Yeah, but you would say that about any performance.

Prince dislikes lip synching. That is one thing I appreciate about him.

I wasn't there but I think it was 100 percent live. I can't recall if I've ever seen him lip synch at all--music videos not withstanding.

SeventeenDayze said:

I wasn't there but I think it was 100 percent live. I can't recall if I've ever seen him lip synch at all--music videos not withstanding.

He did it a few times at the very beginning of his career, at shows like Solid Gold that didn't allow live per4mances. He did it again in the 1990's on a few occasions, either totally lip-synch or partially (with vocals and some instruments live) but the interesting thing is that it most cases it was an alternate recording of the song in question. I don't think he ever did it again ever since.

databank said:

SeventeenDayze said:

I wasn't there but I think it was 100 percent live. I can't recall if I've ever seen him lip synch at all--music videos not withstanding.

He did it a few times at the very beginning of his career, at shows like Solid Gold that didn't allow live per4mances. He did it again in the 1990's on a few occasions, either totally lip-synch or partially (with vocals and some instruments live) but the interesting thing is that it most cases it was an alternate recording of the song in question. I don't think he ever did it again ever since.

Yeah you're right! I forgot about those shows I've seen the American Bandstand clip and def lip-synching there I've never seen his Solid Gold performance though. Well, those don't count because every singer had to do that on those shows

Heck no! If you think that amazing live performance was lip synced I suggest you clean out your ears!

He lipsynced on Soul Train in '93 (Acknowledge Me, and "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World: Mustang Mix)

And then at that award show in Monaco, he lip synced "The Most Beautiful Girl" again.

He lip synced his perfomance at the AMA show when he did the Gold Experience Medley.

And lip synced at the VH1 performance for "P Control".

He lipsynced a performance of "Emancipation" on some other big show.

90's... lots of lip syncing!

[Edited 6/26/14 11:55am]

One of his greatest TV performances. Elegant, classy and he absolutely killed it.

2funkE said:

One of his greatest TV performances. Elegant, classy and he absolutely killed it.

I remember seeing Bria in the background and thinking "WTF does this chick this she's arrived now?"

I think this performance ranks as one of his top 3 live vocal performances ever IMO.

ufoclub said:

artist76 said:

ufoclub said:

He lipsynced on Soul Train in '93 (Acknowledge Me, and "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World: Mustang Mix)

And then at that award show in Monaco, he lip synced "The Most Beautiful Girl" again.

He lip synced his perfomance at the AMA show when he did the Gold Experience Medley.

And lip synced at the VH1 performance for "P Control".

He lipsynced a performance of "Emancipation" on some other big show.

90's... lots of lip syncing!

[Edited 6/26/14 11:55am]

I wonder how many shows and performances he was doing around that time? I remember seeing a video of several of his performances from that era bundled together, and there would be a TV performance in the UK, then the next day in LA, then the next morning show in NY - it was a super packed schedule. Under those circumstances, I can understand lip-syncing. He was trying to dance during those days too. But there's no denying he can actually sing. And that Leno performance was gorgeous.

U can find the answer 2 that question on both my discography and Princevault

ufoclub said:

He lipsynced on Soul Train in '93 (Acknowledge Me, and "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World: Mustang Mix)

And then at that award show in Monaco, he lip synced "The Most Beautiful Girl" again.

He lip synced his perfomance at the AMA show when he did the Gold Experience Medley.

And lip synced at the VH1 performance for "P Control".

He lipsynced a performance of "Emancipation" on some other big show.

90's... lots of lip syncing!

[Edited 6/26/14 11:55am]

Yes! Great job!

Of note, as I said, is the fact that most of those per4mance were lip synched over rerecordings or remixes of the songs in question, so we weren't spolied

Not sure about that but wasn't there also a lip synched Love SIgn on Soul Train or something in 94?

Also, when he did about 724 TV shows per4ming TGRES in fall 1999, the basic tracks were prerecorded and only horns and vocals were reportedly live. 4 some odd reason when it came to Baby Knows, often per4med during that "TV tour", it was full live.

Anyone who thinks this wasn't a live performance needs their eyes, ears and head examined.

I was just looking for that performance. It's one of the best things Prince has ever done live. I thought I'd saved an HD copy somewhere, but I can't find it. Life would be so much better if Prince would stop taking things off Youtube, which is the modern day equivalent of taking your songs off the radio.

his guitar and vocals were live for the super bowl but the rest of the band are miming to a pre-recorded track as is the case with all superbowl halftime shows. it apparently can't be done in the 12 mins that they have to put together the stage and entire spectacle of it all, as Flea and the RHCP's demonstrated last year with Bruno Mars.

anyways, if you watch it again keep your eyes on Cora, it's evident.

oh yeah, and there's guitar coming from nowhere at the start of the foo fighters cover, then he starts playing over top.

electric said:

his guitar and vocals were live for the super bowl but the rest of the band are miming to a pre-recorded track as is the case with all superbowl halftime shows. it apparently can't be done in the 12 mins that they have to put together the stage and entire spectacle of it all, as Flea and the RHCP's demonstrated last year with Bruno Mars.

anyways, if you watch it again keep your eyes on Cora, it's evident.

Interesting, thx

Genesia said:

Anyone who thinks this wasn't a live performance needs their eyes, ears and head examined.

Lipsyncing back in the 80's (American Bandstand, Soul Train, etc) was common practice but when he did it in the 90's it was so confusing! Like when he lipsynced to Billy Jack, Eye Hate U and 319 at the AMA's.. why? It was still an epic performance, though, if only for the dancing (those splits!)
I definitely agree that SHOE was live, though, and apparently so does Prince Vault- http://www.princevault.co...e_On_Earth

Hmmm, I'll have to give it another watch/listen, if I can find it somewhere. I remember at the time, thinking "Man, his falsetto ain't what it used to be," but since everyone on here unanimously loves it, maybe I had an ear infection or something and didn't hear it right.

theblueangel said:

Hmmm, I'll have to give it another watch/listen, if I can find it somewhere. I remember at the time, thinking "Man, his falsetto ain't what it used to be," but since everyone on here unanimously loves it, maybe I had an ear infection or something and didn't hear it right.

I liked the way he sounded that night but I thought I heard either from Prince in an interview (not likely) or read on the Org (likely) that he had a cold.

Either way, I liked it!

luv4u said:

Prince dislikes lip synching. That is one thing I appreciate about him.

BUT he did an awful lot of it on shows where others were "live" most during the emancipation era.

"Face Down" Chris Rock show, was from the "live single from 1-800-new funk"

The infamous AMA performance with Purple Medley, I hate U, 319 etc... was all mimed

His performance of Emancipation on the Naacp awards? I think it was that show, either way that too was mimed. He did alot of it during that era, not sure why mostly in that era.

90's were a huge era for lip synching for him, as noted. For shows like Bandstand and Solid Gold those were always mimed because you gotta pay artists more to plug in and play. And little variety shows like those had NO budgets. Award shows are a different story because they have budgets, to me NO excuse for anyone to not sing live on an award show.

[Edited 6/29/14 16:15pm]

ufoclub said:

He lipsynced on Soul Train in '93 (Acknowledge Me, and "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World: Mustang Mix)

And then at that award show in Monaco, he lip synced "The Most Beautiful Girl" again.

He lip synced his perfomance at the AMA show when he did the Gold Experience Medley.

And lip synced at the VH1 performance for "P Control".

He lipsynced a performance of "Emancipation" on some other big show.

90's... lots of lip syncing!

[Edited 6/26/14 11:55am]

Yes he did.

I think he also did it on the Chris Rock show as well (when he performed "Face Down.") I remember reading that somewhere.

lastdecember said:

His performance of Emancipation on the Naacp awards? I think it was that show, either way that too was mimed.

He performed Emancipation on two tv-shows, the NAACP awards and at the Brit awards. Both performances were lipsynched.

And the whole Soul Train - performance in the 90ies was also mimed.

[Edited 6/29/14 18:26pm]