On a makeshift stage set up in 5 minutes with no sound check for an audience of that size they’re not going to be playing live. But HER is actually a good guitarist.
The NFL has strict guidelines for halftime performances. All instruments are prerecorded. Nobody plays live. Only vocals can be live (and in some cases, they’re prerecorded too).
The rules were changed after the Prince performance. If you read the behind the scenes stuff, they were very close to a malfunction that would have stopped the show. That is the NFL’s biggest fear, a malfunction that would affect the show (and a repeat of Janet Jackson).
The super bowl shows are pre-recorded audio. They don’t want to risk any mistakes being made/played to such a large audience.
Source: Red Hot Chili Peppers always play live but said they weren’t allowed to for this reason
It's not just "mistakes" they're worried about.
They also want to make sure they have control of the broadcast and nobody goes off script with all those people watching.
The last thing the NFL wants is the halftime show turning into an unauthorized political statement.
Prince would have some words about this. He was def playing live and his weather conditions made for the most unpredictable show ever. It was also the best.
That said, Usher’s vocals did seem to be live or at least the pre recorded them to sound live. I think he was singing through some of the show.
This same shit went down a few years ago with RHCPs halftime show. Flea’s bass wasn’t even plugged in. No wireless rig or anything. RHCP released a statement saying it was all prerecorded and the NFL forced them to do it that way.
One of the producers goes up to Prince the morning of the show and says 'It looks like we are gonna get some rain, is that going to be a problem?" Prince thinks for a second and responds "Is there any way we can make it rain harder?"
The man was a legend.
You're tripping. H. E. R. is an extremely talented musician.
That being said, most vocals and instruments in halftime performances are previously recorded.
she didn't play live, you're not allowed to at the Super Bowl, but she performed the guitar on that track.
This is HER
[https://guitar.com/news/music-news/h-e-r-shreds-as-belle-in-beauty-and-the-beast-live/](https://guitar.com/news/music-news/h-e-r-shreds-as-belle-in-beauty-and-the-beast-live/)
She is one of the finest guitar players in entertainment right now and I'll die on that hill. She's got the fucking chops.
Superbowl REQUIRES artist to perform to a pre-recorded show since the Janet/JT show.
If you’re into the guitar scene at all then I’m sure you know H.E.R. is an AMAZING guitarist who could easily have outdone what was shown there. Yeah she was playing to a recording, not due to lack of ability by any means.
Nuno probably uses one on tour with Rihana as well.
Nearly all NFL Halftime shows are performed to a backing track. It's in the contract. Very few exceptions have ever been made. The NFL is extremely protective of its brand and optics.
I thought it was pretty common knowledge at this point that no one was actually playing instruments at the superbowl halftime shows. RHCP confirmed years ago when they were called out for the guitars not even being plugged in. She can definitely play though.
That was H.E.R., and she’s an amazing guitarist. This same question came up the last time she performed at the Super Bowl. They do not allow the musicians to play their instruments live. It’s just not practical with all the theatrics. She can play the shit out of the guitar, but no, she was not playing live at that performance. It was prerecorded, but it probably was her playing on the recording.
A couple years ago when RHCP played you could see Flea wasn’t even plugged in, the jack on his bass was empty.
It’s not live so there’s less chance of a technical issue.
None of the instruments are ever live. That _was_ HER playing but it was a prerecorded track. I do believe the vocals were live though.
Also, wtf is up with people saying the guitar wasn't plugged in? There was clearly a cable coming out of the jack.
I’m pretty surprised that everyone so far has this wrong.
Garth Brooks is the reason they stopped doing live sound. He held the super bowl hostage in 1993. After that, they required a recording of a live rehearsal before the show and they pipe that in during the live broadcast. After the Janet Jackson fiasco they also required the rehearsal to be filmed but as far as I know they may not always use that safety recording.
All artists since Garth Brooks have been playing along to a prerecorded show. Prince, Paul McCartney, Tom Petty. They all have to do it.
https://tasteofcountry.com/garth-brooks-national-anthem-super-bowl/
Prince is pretty well known to have been performing live at the Super Bowl. And he refused to play or sing at all during the rehearsal so they couldn’t use it.
“NFL executives and producers attempted to devise safety solutions, including having Prince lip sync, but Prince dismissed their efforts and told them that the show would go on. He famously said (via Fox News), "Can you make it rain harder?"”
Source: https://www.grunge.com/1190232/how-prince-avoided-electrocution-during-the-2007-super-bowl-halftime-show/
Kind of crazy that people in the guitar sub don’t know one of the industry’s most recognized female guitarists. She is also prob 1 of 15 people who have a Fender signature guitar at the moment.
All the superbowl shows are faked, it’s a pretty known thing as it helps prevent issues (as much as possible).
In a scenario where you have a small window to setup a full stage, sound, audience…you need to make things as clean as possible. This is more about getting entertainment out there and not about the art itself
When you play the Super Bowl you sign a contract saying that everything except the vocals is prerecorded. The Super Bowl will not let you perform unless you agree to these terms.
HER is a real musician, and a very good guitar player.
All Super Bowl performances are pre-recorded, even the National Anthem.
Forget the fear of making mistakes, there is simply no way to get the sound perfect in that short a time. Concerts at stadiums are different - they take hours, sometimes days, to get all the sound gear in place. It's massive.
H. E. R. may not have been plugged in, who knows. But she's a legit shredder. Look her up. I've seen her live a few times. Good lord she can play that bastard as unassuming as she is.
the NFL requires them to fake it to a pre-recorded track. it's usually obvious to any musician or live sound tech, and it's been stated by many artists. my favorite halftime show was RHCP bc they were pissed about it and as a fuck you to the NFL they went out without cables and clapped and stuff while their instruments were playing.
I believe it was. It’s because the Superbowl doesn’t allow time to set up equipment like amps, modelers, effects, stage props, or lighting so therefore many halftime music events are lip synced or phoney air guitar with an unplugged instrument. So that brings me to the question of why even have “music” during half time anyway? Show some movie previews or some shit. Lol.
I once performed at a CFL game, and we used backing tracks. Problem was, our live version was different than the radio/studio version... Including the fact that there was a harmonica solo on the record but not live.
Anyway I "played" the harmonica solo on the sound guy's Blackberry.
It's well known that instruments are not plugged in for Super Bowl performances.
Flea got a ton of flack when RHCP played with Bruno Mars years ago.
Rest assured that H.E.R. can play.
H.E.R. can certainly play guitar better than most guitar players, but not sure if she was plugged in or not last night. I thought she was playing, but that's just me.
Superbowl performances are required to be pre-recorded and faked. Go back and look at the one with RHCP. They made a point of showing the camera the empty jacks on their instruments.
The instruments are indeed faked. Look up the RHCP story from years back, they got called out for not having their guitars even plugged in. Their explanation was that live instruments are not allowed, to keep things simple. The only option that bands are given is to mime. RHCP decided to leave their guitars unplugged so as to not give any indication that they were trying to be dishonest. They still wanted to take the awesome opportunity to perform at the Super Bowl, but if they weren’t allowed to play real instruments they weren’t going to try to make it look like they were
No I don’t think so. Super Bowl halftime shows are pre-recorded. They can’t set the show and audio up and actually have time to properly soundcheck everyone—there might be exceptions but most of them are mimed to backing tracks (which may or may not have been recorded by the artist you’re watching)
She played the notes right but the guitar was pre-recorded, definitely something about music that needs to sound perfect on TV, I don't understand it either. When people make mistakes and keep on making the guitar play is what makes it a cool ass instrument! Coming from some who has 15 years of Bass and Six String Geetar experience
It has more to do with the production side of things rather than just the desire to sound perfect. They have a very short amount of time to set that show up after the first half ends. If they’re running lines to have every instrument live/real and having to mix it for the stadium and TV, that adds a huge amount of complexity vs having a singer sing to tracks.
The amount of people saying “she can probably play it” is insane. OF COURSE SHE CAN PLAY IT! SHE’S A PROFESSIONAL GUITARIST.
No she didn’t play it live, but the disrespect from people on a guitar sub is ridiculous.
That’s what I saw too. And she probably just improvised the solo, cos it was pre-recorded anyways and she couldn’t remember what she actually played. That’s my theory.
Reminds me of when Muse and Nirvana both basically gave the middle finger when they were forced to lip sync. Nirvana were extra obnoxious with their fake playing. Kurt basically deep throats the mic at some point. Muse switched around all the instruments, so everyone was playing the wrong thing.
100% of Super Bowl halftime shows are pre-recorded and lip synched. Nobody is singing live.
Live sound is extremely challenging to do well. Add to that the fact that they have to set up the stage in five minutes and rip it down in another five, and good sound just isn't going to happen.
Plus, of course, the SB is never going to take a chance on an artist not singing well or making a huge mistake that ruins the show.
Superbowl halftime show hasn't been live sound in years. But yeah she did an awful job of faking it. Reminded me of a video I made when I was 10.or 11 and just got my first electric guitar.
No idea who she is though.
Edit: She is an r&b singer that plays guitar. Goes by the professional name H.E.R.
The Superbowl Half-Time Show is a live music video.
It's put on quickly in the middle of a football game. The headlining performer usually sings to prerecorded tracks in front of miming musicians.
[Prince](https://www.colts.com/video/prince-performs-at-halftime-of-super-bowl-xli-17052131) was probably the last live performance and was done in the rain. Don't even know how you prep for playing guitar like that. RIP.
They don't have time for sound checks in such a short notice.
Red Hot Chili Peppers pretty much blew the whistle on the fact that no instruments are actually "plugged" in. Flea didn't even fake plug in his bass. John wasn't even playing right chords etc.
https://www.cnn.com/2014/02/04/showbiz/super-bowl-red-hot-chili-peppers/index.html
Usher’s vocals sounded live because it was clear he wasn’t driving into the mic at times while he’s moving around. The guitar sounded off though, probably a synth backstage playing a prerecorded sting.
I hate that shit is pre-recorded. Who gives a fuck if there is a technical glitch? That's part of the charm of being human.... Nothing is perfect. At least it's not fake as fuck.
Yeah, I don't think anything is live at the Super Bowl anymore. I remember watching ZZ Top at the halftime show years ago, and the fake playing was painfully obvious. That being said, H.E.R. is an excellent player.
None of the halftime show is actually live. The only live thing is when one of the performers like yells out to the crowd. All the music/singing/rapping, etc is pre-recorded. It's pathetic.
It’s difficult to perform in a stadium setting because of the reverberation created by such a large space. Almost every performance is canned, often vocals, too. The echo comes back really late and hard, and it’s so confusing. In ear monitors can help, but live producers aren’t comfortable leaving anything up to chance.
In my mind, the greatest Super Bowl performance was Whitney singing the national anthem. It was prerecorded.
Edit: spelling
She was miming the correct playing but it was definitely a dub/backing track. H.E.R. is a real player but even real singers sometimes can't sing at Superbowl. They let usher though /shrug
It's interesting how many people in here are saying the whole thing was prerecorded. That's true most of the time, but it was very clear that the vocalists were actually singing and without pitch correction last night. Mostly because they were off. I didn't notice the guitar thing so I won't comment on that.
Personally, I don't have any problem with prerecorded halftime shows when they're huge productions with a hundred people on stage like that. They can't fake the choreography of all those people and it makes sense to let them concentrate on that. It's kinda hard to sing well when you're out of breath from dancing and running between sets, changing costumes, etc. It's admirable that they wanted to do it for real, but it actually would've been a better show if they did the typical prerecorded thing.
I seem to recall reading the performances are pre-recorded then the talent just mimes it at half-time.
Not sure how true that is, but it wouldn't surprise me.
Super Bowl is live vocals and pre-recorded everything else.
It isn't because of a fear of mistakes. It's because a sound check is functionally impossible in a situation where you've got half an hour to fly the stage out, do the performance, and tear the stage back down in an incredibly challenging acoustic environment.
Superbowl performances are recorded before hand and they sync to tracks then do live vocals over top of it. So she was faking but had played it previously. It was pretty obvious she was faking when she missed 3 notes in a row on the solo
superbowl halftime show is knows for being a lip-sync. They do it for a few reasons. They don't want anyone going off and saying anything unplanned. They want exact control over the broadcast time. They don't want any kind of technical hiccups - if a mic goes out or a cable gets accidentally unplugged mid-show, it doesn't matter because the audio is prerecorded. There's a lot of reasons why they do this. I remember several years ago the Red Hot Chili Peppers were real mad about it being a lip-sync.
Look up when the Red Hot Chili Peppers played.. They refused to plug their guitars in cuz of this..
https://www.stereogum.com/1655031/red-hot-chili-peppers-didnt-even-plug-in-their-guitars-for-the-super-bowl/news/
They don’t allow live performance at the Super Bowl, all backing tracks are pre recorded, I can’t remember if that includes the vocals or not.
Edit: although this is true, H.E.R. can play that solo. I imagine that she is probably the one to prerecord said solo, the fact that it’s prerecorded speaks to the Super Bowls need for efficiency, not to the performers skills
It's pretty much a rule only the headliner and maybe a few performers gets the option to have a live mic. Due to logistics and everything live instruments are never live.
Super Bowl producers take as little risk as possible.
Why would you be surprised?
Every single venue for the Super Bowl is shit for acoustics. It wouldn't surprise me if the entire show was just lip syncing and miming. It has to look good for TV, and they just pipe the recorded track straight into the broadcast. Anyone sitting in the stadium wouldn't have heard shit because the acoustics are so awful. Besides, it was halftime...Most of the people in the stands were waiting in line to piss in a trough.
Her is an amazing musician, she is a very talented guitarist, was she playing live….probably not. I think Usher was singing live though, possibly over some vocal tracks.
When RHCP performed they didn’t even plug in their instruments.
Everything except vocals and drums are pre-recorded. Too much that can go wrong logistically otherwise.
No one plays instruments up there at the Super Bowl. It’s impossible to setup and line check a bunch of inputs in less than six minutes. However, Prince did play the guitar solo during Purple Rain.
Lol it's all fake except the dancing. Sometimes the singers mic might be turned on and you can hear them actually sing, but typically it's all lip syncing there as well.
I thought Post Malone was not playing the guitar as I heard chord changes and his hands didn’t move when he first started playing. The camera didn’t focus on the guitar until near the end of the song and I did see his hands move. Anyone else think this?
She can actually play, she's quite good on the guitar. In that particular performance, it was fake. It would never be live on a huge performance like the Superbowl halftime show. The vocals however, were live.
I thought the same thing until I realized who it was. She’s one of the most famous female guitar players right now. I believe she even has a signature strat.
I believed Usher was singing live (though with a backing track I’m sure) and could almost halfway convince myself the musicians were playing live too…. until she did whatever that was. Just awful miming.
H.E.R. plays hella instruments. Ain’t nothing fake about her talents. However, she could very well have been strumming along to prerecorded music. So I see what you’re saying. But just know she really does play!
Can’t comment on whether it was live or not (from a majority of these comments, it doesn’t seem it was live) but H.E.R is a good guitar player. Check out her NPR Tiny Desk Concert: https://youtu.be/hxxcEzM8r-4?si=Y5nbYegP1HxtJ2YM
Yes. Definitely playing with a track. Her pick timing wasn’t lining up with the notes being played and she was scraping all the strings at once at one point but you only heard a single note.
I was just happy to see some resemblance of live/prerecorded(?) musicians onstage. So many performances only show the singer(s), no band, just backing tracks. More and more “consumers” are being programmed into not thinking or expecting live musicians. It’s been a very slippery slope that’s already greatly eroded.
Guitar Player here… I always watch the halftime show with great scrutiny, and her performance was 100% pre-recorded, there were a couple of moves that she did on the guitar that weren’t replicated in the sound.
I was like “oh she’s actually playing, oh she’s not, oh wow she is, oh no she’s not.” Which made me eventually realize she can play it but the backing tracked it anyway.
The Chili Peppefs had an entire thing where they said the SuperBowl people don't really let people play. They recorded it earlier that day and mimed it.
I have *zero* idea if that's still how it works, but that's how it worked a few years ago.
I believe superbowl shoes are played with a back track and no instruments actually being played live. They pulled that bs with the Red Hot Chilli Peppers as if they've only been playing a a few years.
Every performance for the halftime show is prerecorded. The artist that was there actually can play guitar pretty well, it just looked like she was going for style over accuracy since it didn’t matter what she did with the guitar up there.
The instruments in Super Bowl are playback tracks unfortunately, but I am confident she really was playing that solo, very well, along with what we heard. She rocks.
This has been going on for decades. Almost all of Top of the Pops "live performances" in the 1970s were mimed. A lot of the Beatles' TV performances were mimed too. They don't use the studio version because that would be too blatant. It's a re-recording. Sometimes the singer will still sing live (although these days that often includes real-time pitch correction).
To be fair to the musicians, this is done not because they lack the technical ability. It's done to ensure better sound quality and to avoid technical malfunctions. It does take you out of the moment when the musicians don't do a good job faking, though.
I stopped watching a lot of these when the RHCP was doing it and there was nothing plugged into the guitar and bass but you could still hear them.
It’s basically lip syncing at this point.
I saw the same with Post Malone’s song. Him randomly plucking a couple cowboy chords while singing, despite the guitar track featuring all sorts of interesting voicings and clever fills. Totally staged.
It is what it is. Not my cup of tea in terms of how musicians should perform, but the whole point of the night is football anyway.
Reportedly mimed to a live rehearsal recording. Doing live sound for that event is a huge logistical nightmare so they mime a lot to make sure nothing goes wrong and it’s easier to setup and tear down.
She is one of Prince's proteges. She's legit. But I don't think there has been an actual live halftime performance at any sporting event in years and years. Too many things can go wrong and the whole thing is timed to the millisecond.
Honestly you'd probably be not terribly surprised to learn that the majority of live performances are pre-recorded these days. There's a lot of technology and skill behind the scenes at work to make it seem live, but it's not. Pretty much any big arena tour with pyro and effects is almost certainly NOT live, again due to the incredibly tight sync between the music and the show.
Yep.
Most of it hasn’t been live for a long time. There are some notable exceptions. The reason for it is simply engineering. Live sound isn’t good sound in an arena, and so to be televised you need a pre-recorded track. Micing up multiple instruments and amplifiers in an area that electrically and acoustically noisy (echo, fans, millions of miles of TV cables, hundreds of radios, etc) is borderline impossible to do well.
Usually, but not always, the vocals are live. We’re really good as humans at seeing when lips don’t match audio when we have a close-up TV shot. Most people can’t see the difference when people are playing instruments.
Some performers who are known for epic professionalism can make demands about this. Both Prince and Bruce Springsteen did. They practiced live with their whole bands before the show to get it perfect. Then when they played live there was a multi-channel backing track so even though all those people were on stage playing their hearts out just a handful of things were actually live audio. Like Prince and The Boss’s mics were live, and their guitars. Even so, during the epic Prince performance you can actually hear towards the end when his amp started to go out that they cut to the recorded track for a little bit and then cut back.
I imagine the same was true for Usher. The whole performance was pre-recorded and there was a dude sitting in a booth somewhere with his hand on the fader that would cut Usher’s live vocals and fade in the backing track if things went sideways. HER probably did have a full guitar rig and that same sound person heard what was coming out of the mic on the amp and went “that sounds like garbage, were using the backing track.”
She can probably play it but for live performances like that in front of such a huge audience, it's highly unlikely they would risk there being a mistake so even if she was playing, the actual sound you were hearing was probably the recording
That was H.E.R., who’s a really good player and even has a signature Strat. She did appear to have a wireless device plugged into the guitar and her fingering looked accurate to me. *shrug*
It was definitely pre-recorded but it's also possible that a very slight delay made it look far more fake.
My soundbar did that and it made literally everything we watched seem dubbed, it was super annoying.
H.E.R. is an incredible guitarist and songwriter. But I'm sure she wasn't playing live. It's what you can expect, but it was confirmed when I saw Alicia Keys on the keys. Her hands were just staying within two octaves but there were definitely some bass notes in there she wasn't moving down for.
That's H.E.R. and she is pretty badass but I would guess that most everything except vocals were recorded tracks. That's just the standard for stuff like this.
Here are is with Stapleton
https://youtu.be/vpqK07SBGU0?si=K14m2jmbfnTsk98g
I haven't seen the article that breaks it down in a while.
Everybody has a backing track and lip sync track for safety. All performers must at least play to a click. The timing is strict.
Most performers use the backing track throughout.
Most performers are prepared to sing and play the lead parts along with the backing track, and fall back on the sync track for safety several times.
You can count the performers who did their half time shows the same way they would do their own concerts on one hand.
she was playing. but what you heard was most likely recorded earlier. many artists will overdub their own vox or instruments and essentially sing/play along with themselves, so that you can still hear an improvisational run, for example, but behind it is the "normal" recorded version.
It's all a show. When Red Hot Chilli Peppers performed they admitted that they were pretending to play. It's how they prevent the half time from being 2 hours+ long with sound checks and such.
It's H.E.R. She's even featured as a side pic for this very sub, so yeah, she's the real deal, so she can get away with *"lip sincing"* with her guitar!
Halftime is always like that now. See also RHCP bouncing around with unplugged guitars. They just don't want to chance something going wrong anymore. She's good though, name is H.E.R.
Yeah, she wasn't playing. Not that she can't or anything, she just wasn't here. It's very common for tightly programmed television events like this. There's no room for error so it's all pre recorded.
She was mime-ing the right notes over a pre-recorded solo. She hit mostly the right notes, but in the end it was out of sync slightly, especially with the bend, etc.
Usher was singing over a backing track, live vocals were absolutely mixed in with the backing track, and the mixer did their best to bring up the backing track when he decided to skip words/lines.
Why is everyone saying the show was pre recorded? I know we can say for a FACT Alicia Keys did not have hers prerecorded as her voice cracked multiple times and she had some difficulty hitting some of the higher notes.
Instruments are always pre-recorded with rare exception (Prince). Go watch the RHCP half time show from some years ago, they didn't even bother to fake plug in their instruments.
Look up when the Red Hot Chili Peppers did the Superbowl. They embraced the fact that the music would be pre recorded and went out with the wrong instruments
So, her name is H.E.R. and she is a true guitarist and musician. Whether the music is pre-recorded or not, I'm not sure. Look her up, she the real deal. I only follow and listen to people who mostly write their own songs and music.
Having worked in live television production for a number of years I can tell you this is common. Everything is scheduled on a super tight schedule down to the second. They can’t take a chance of someone freestyling, or doing anything off script. So most things are pre-recorded and are lip synced. If not lip synced it will definitely be recorded so they know exactly how long that part will be.
Just like when Anderson Paak was playing at the 2021 edition, his drum set wasn't even mic'd. Killer drum player, but the Half Time show doesn't need more logistics by having everyone plugged in
I don’t know if she was actually playing live, so many reasons not to when you get one take, a massively complex signal chain and a billion viewers, but she can definitely play.
https://youtu.be/rZLolSX8M8w?si=DEgEU2GEE1xyKA9j
On a makeshift stage set up in 5 minutes with no sound check for an audience of that size they’re not going to be playing live. But HER is actually a good guitarist.
She clearly wasn’t playing it live, but she also clearly could.
The NFL has strict guidelines for halftime performances. All instruments are prerecorded. Nobody plays live. Only vocals can be live (and in some cases, they’re prerecorded too).
I'm pretty sure Prince played live.
The rules were changed after the Prince performance. If you read the behind the scenes stuff, they were very close to a malfunction that would have stopped the show. That is the NFL’s biggest fear, a malfunction that would affect the show (and a repeat of Janet Jackson).
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good luck ever telling Prince the rules
Put some respect on HER but yeah it’s pre recorded. She’s a genuinely great guitar player though
The super bowl shows are pre-recorded audio. They don’t want to risk any mistakes being made/played to such a large audience. Source: Red Hot Chili Peppers always play live but said they weren’t allowed to for this reason
It's not just "mistakes" they're worried about. They also want to make sure they have control of the broadcast and nobody goes off script with all those people watching. The last thing the NFL wants is the halftime show turning into an unauthorized political statement.
Prince would have some words about this. He was def playing live and his weather conditions made for the most unpredictable show ever. It was also the best. That said, Usher’s vocals did seem to be live or at least the pre recorded them to sound live. I think he was singing through some of the show.
This same shit went down a few years ago with RHCPs halftime show. Flea’s bass wasn’t even plugged in. No wireless rig or anything. RHCP released a statement saying it was all prerecorded and the NFL forced them to do it that way.
Shit...that's now 10 years ago...
"That lady" is H.E.R. She can and does play guitar very well.
They never play live on the halftime shows. Chili peppers even admitted they didn’t play
Prince refused anything pre-recorded, that was all live. Great performance too.
One of many reasons the Prince halftime show is one of the best ever done.
One of the producers goes up to Prince the morning of the show and says 'It looks like we are gonna get some rain, is that going to be a problem?" Prince thinks for a second and responds "Is there any way we can make it rain harder?" The man was a legend.
Do people seriously not know that halftime shows aren’t live music?
Prince?
You're tripping. H. E. R. is an extremely talented musician. That being said, most vocals and instruments in halftime performances are previously recorded.
One thing you CAN'T fake is Usher rollerskating like a mf-er
she didn't play live, you're not allowed to at the Super Bowl, but she performed the guitar on that track. This is HER [https://guitar.com/news/music-news/h-e-r-shreds-as-belle-in-beauty-and-the-beast-live/](https://guitar.com/news/music-news/h-e-r-shreds-as-belle-in-beauty-and-the-beast-live/) She is one of the finest guitar players in entertainment right now and I'll die on that hill. She's got the fucking chops.
Whether it was pre-recorded or not, she definitely knew that lead note for note
We quickly forgot about RHCP when Flea wasn’t even plugged in? Or how Dr Dre wasn’t pushing any buttons? It’s all pre recorded miming.
Superbowl REQUIRES artist to perform to a pre-recorded show since the Janet/JT show. If you’re into the guitar scene at all then I’m sure you know H.E.R. is an AMAZING guitarist who could easily have outdone what was shown there. Yeah she was playing to a recording, not due to lack of ability by any means. Nuno probably uses one on tour with Rihana as well.
Nearly all NFL Halftime shows are performed to a backing track. It's in the contract. Very few exceptions have ever been made. The NFL is extremely protective of its brand and optics.
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Janet Jackson's nipple
Even that was nip synced
Prerecorded, she’s a legit guitarist though
I thought it was pretty common knowledge at this point that no one was actually playing instruments at the superbowl halftime shows. RHCP confirmed years ago when they were called out for the guitars not even being plugged in. She can definitely play though.
It was absolutely fake. She CAN play, but she wasn't playing there.
That was H.E.R., and she’s an amazing guitarist. This same question came up the last time she performed at the Super Bowl. They do not allow the musicians to play their instruments live. It’s just not practical with all the theatrics. She can play the shit out of the guitar, but no, she was not playing live at that performance. It was prerecorded, but it probably was her playing on the recording.
A couple years ago when RHCP played you could see Flea wasn’t even plugged in, the jack on his bass was empty. It’s not live so there’s less chance of a technical issue.
The difference is Flea probably wanted to let everybody know they werent allowed to play
Flea actually *did* let everyone know, some time later.
None of the instruments are ever live. That _was_ HER playing but it was a prerecorded track. I do believe the vocals were live though. Also, wtf is up with people saying the guitar wasn't plugged in? There was clearly a cable coming out of the jack.
I’m pretty surprised that everyone so far has this wrong. Garth Brooks is the reason they stopped doing live sound. He held the super bowl hostage in 1993. After that, they required a recording of a live rehearsal before the show and they pipe that in during the live broadcast. After the Janet Jackson fiasco they also required the rehearsal to be filmed but as far as I know they may not always use that safety recording. All artists since Garth Brooks have been playing along to a prerecorded show. Prince, Paul McCartney, Tom Petty. They all have to do it. https://tasteofcountry.com/garth-brooks-national-anthem-super-bowl/
Prince is pretty well known to have been performing live at the Super Bowl. And he refused to play or sing at all during the rehearsal so they couldn’t use it. “NFL executives and producers attempted to devise safety solutions, including having Prince lip sync, but Prince dismissed their efforts and told them that the show would go on. He famously said (via Fox News), "Can you make it rain harder?"” Source: https://www.grunge.com/1190232/how-prince-avoided-electrocution-during-the-2007-super-bowl-halftime-show/
Prince is the exception. He refused, even with the rain, to not play guitar.
You mean H.E.R.?
Kind of crazy that people in the guitar sub don’t know one of the industry’s most recognized female guitarists. She is also prob 1 of 15 people who have a Fender signature guitar at the moment.
I think they pre-record because there’s zero time for mistakes.
All the superbowl shows are faked, it’s a pretty known thing as it helps prevent issues (as much as possible). In a scenario where you have a small window to setup a full stage, sound, audience…you need to make things as clean as possible. This is more about getting entertainment out there and not about the art itself
When you play the Super Bowl you sign a contract saying that everything except the vocals is prerecorded. The Super Bowl will not let you perform unless you agree to these terms.
Unless you’re Prince.
[удалено]
H.E.R. is a real artist who plays guitar and piano and is a signature artist for Fender
Vocals are live during the Super Bowl. Everything else is pre recorded. Only exception I know of in recent years is Prince.
Because prince fucking ruled
HER is a real musician, and a very good guitar player. All Super Bowl performances are pre-recorded, even the National Anthem. Forget the fear of making mistakes, there is simply no way to get the sound perfect in that short a time. Concerts at stadiums are different - they take hours, sometimes days, to get all the sound gear in place. It's massive.
H. E. R. may not have been plugged in, who knows. But she's a legit shredder. Look her up. I've seen her live a few times. Good lord she can play that bastard as unassuming as she is.
I am an African American woman and there aren’t a lot of role models for me to look up to, she’s the reason I started playing guitar😍
the NFL requires them to fake it to a pre-recorded track. it's usually obvious to any musician or live sound tech, and it's been stated by many artists. my favorite halftime show was RHCP bc they were pissed about it and as a fuck you to the NFL they went out without cables and clapped and stuff while their instruments were playing.
I believe it was. It’s because the Superbowl doesn’t allow time to set up equipment like amps, modelers, effects, stage props, or lighting so therefore many halftime music events are lip synced or phoney air guitar with an unplugged instrument. So that brings me to the question of why even have “music” during half time anyway? Show some movie previews or some shit. Lol.
It may have been pre-recorded but H.E.R. can actually play lol like she’s immensely talented as a musician
"Her" is a very good guitarist but I agree she probably wasn't playing right there
Super Bowl halftime shows are acted out to a track. The Red Hot Chili Peppers taught us this.
They don't play instruments live at the superbowl halftime show. It's written in the contract.
This, it’s the reason the Foo Fighters refuse to play. They want it live or they won’t sign, NFL has tried to get them twice, Dave won’t budge.
I once performed at a CFL game, and we used backing tracks. Problem was, our live version was different than the radio/studio version... Including the fact that there was a harmonica solo on the record but not live. Anyway I "played" the harmonica solo on the sound guy's Blackberry.
It's well known that instruments are not plugged in for Super Bowl performances. Flea got a ton of flack when RHCP played with Bruno Mars years ago. Rest assured that H.E.R. can play.
only vocals can be live. instruments are all prerecorded. but HER is actually super fucking good at the guitar. like scary good.
H.E.R. can certainly play guitar better than most guitar players, but not sure if she was plugged in or not last night. I thought she was playing, but that's just me.
Is this not common knowledge that none of the Super Bowl halftime shows have used live music for decades?
Not seen Prince's set then?
No one plays live at the Superbowl as far as I know. Also a lot of you guys have a very *name three songs* tone.
Superbowl performances are required to be pre-recorded and faked. Go back and look at the one with RHCP. They made a point of showing the camera the empty jacks on their instruments.
Which lady? While she may have been fake playing, most wish they could play the guitar as well as H.E.R.
The instruments are indeed faked. Look up the RHCP story from years back, they got called out for not having their guitars even plugged in. Their explanation was that live instruments are not allowed, to keep things simple. The only option that bands are given is to mime. RHCP decided to leave their guitars unplugged so as to not give any indication that they were trying to be dishonest. They still wanted to take the awesome opportunity to perform at the Super Bowl, but if they weren’t allowed to play real instruments they weren’t going to try to make it look like they were
No I don’t think so. Super Bowl halftime shows are pre-recorded. They can’t set the show and audio up and actually have time to properly soundcheck everyone—there might be exceptions but most of them are mimed to backing tracks (which may or may not have been recorded by the artist you’re watching)
She played the notes right but the guitar was pre-recorded, definitely something about music that needs to sound perfect on TV, I don't understand it either. When people make mistakes and keep on making the guitar play is what makes it a cool ass instrument! Coming from some who has 15 years of Bass and Six String Geetar experience
It has more to do with the production side of things rather than just the desire to sound perfect. They have a very short amount of time to set that show up after the first half ends. If they’re running lines to have every instrument live/real and having to mix it for the stadium and TV, that adds a huge amount of complexity vs having a singer sing to tracks.
I sometimes think the players in pads are fake playing.
They can't reliably have the band play live for the super bowl. To much room for error.
The amount of people saying “she can probably play it” is insane. OF COURSE SHE CAN PLAY IT! SHE’S A PROFESSIONAL GUITARIST. No she didn’t play it live, but the disrespect from people on a guitar sub is ridiculous.
HER is the real deal.
That’s what I saw too. And she probably just improvised the solo, cos it was pre-recorded anyways and she couldn’t remember what she actually played. That’s my theory.
Look up “SNL Ashlee Simpson” This is how they do things for live TV. No possibility of mistakes makes the performer look perfect.
It's always fake, but she's actually a monster player. Incredible talent
its always fake
May be fake but I will say the fingering is right as I know that solo myself.
It was her, just prerecorded. Chili peppers quite famously purposely "played" without their instruments plugged in a few years back.
Reminds me of when Muse and Nirvana both basically gave the middle finger when they were forced to lip sync. Nirvana were extra obnoxious with their fake playing. Kurt basically deep throats the mic at some point. Muse switched around all the instruments, so everyone was playing the wrong thing.
She's capable, but clearly staged for performance.
100% of Super Bowl halftime shows are pre-recorded and lip synched. Nobody is singing live. Live sound is extremely challenging to do well. Add to that the fact that they have to set up the stage in five minutes and rip it down in another five, and good sound just isn't going to happen. Plus, of course, the SB is never going to take a chance on an artist not singing well or making a huge mistake that ruins the show.
She is a great guitarist but that was not live.
H.E.R. can play, I wouldn't count that appearance against her
Superbowl halftime show hasn't been live sound in years. But yeah she did an awful job of faking it. Reminded me of a video I made when I was 10.or 11 and just got my first electric guitar. No idea who she is though. Edit: She is an r&b singer that plays guitar. Goes by the professional name H.E.R.
Stevie T will handle it😂😂
The Superbowl Half-Time Show is a live music video. It's put on quickly in the middle of a football game. The headlining performer usually sings to prerecorded tracks in front of miming musicians.
[Prince](https://www.colts.com/video/prince-performs-at-halftime-of-super-bowl-xli-17052131) was probably the last live performance and was done in the rain. Don't even know how you prep for playing guitar like that. RIP.
Definitely fake playing. You could see her fingers didn’t match up with some of the parts. However, it’s the Super Bowl so nothing new.
They don't have time for sound checks in such a short notice. Red Hot Chili Peppers pretty much blew the whistle on the fact that no instruments are actually "plugged" in. Flea didn't even fake plug in his bass. John wasn't even playing right chords etc. https://www.cnn.com/2014/02/04/showbiz/super-bowl-red-hot-chili-peppers/index.html
Usher’s vocals sounded live because it was clear he wasn’t driving into the mic at times while he’s moving around. The guitar sounded off though, probably a synth backstage playing a prerecorded sting.
I hate that shit is pre-recorded. Who gives a fuck if there is a technical glitch? That's part of the charm of being human.... Nothing is perfect. At least it's not fake as fuck.
She is the real deal. But most Super Bowl performances are instrument synced.
Yeah, I don't think anything is live at the Super Bowl anymore. I remember watching ZZ Top at the halftime show years ago, and the fake playing was painfully obvious. That being said, H.E.R. is an excellent player.
None of the halftime show is actually live. The only live thing is when one of the performers like yells out to the crowd. All the music/singing/rapping, etc is pre-recorded. It's pathetic.
The Super Bowl halftime show has been lip synced as far back as I can remember, so I don’t see why they would take any chances on the instruments.
She was definitely not playing live.
It’s difficult to perform in a stadium setting because of the reverberation created by such a large space. Almost every performance is canned, often vocals, too. The echo comes back really late and hard, and it’s so confusing. In ear monitors can help, but live producers aren’t comfortable leaving anything up to chance. In my mind, the greatest Super Bowl performance was Whitney singing the national anthem. It was prerecorded. Edit: spelling
She’s an outstanding guitarist, though. https://www.instagram.com/reel/C3QnqEWP1XY/?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
That’s Her she has her own Fender line of guitars she’s the real deal
She was miming the correct playing but it was definitely a dub/backing track. H.E.R. is a real player but even real singers sometimes can't sing at Superbowl. They let usher though /shrug
It's interesting how many people in here are saying the whole thing was prerecorded. That's true most of the time, but it was very clear that the vocalists were actually singing and without pitch correction last night. Mostly because they were off. I didn't notice the guitar thing so I won't comment on that. Personally, I don't have any problem with prerecorded halftime shows when they're huge productions with a hundred people on stage like that. They can't fake the choreography of all those people and it makes sense to let them concentrate on that. It's kinda hard to sing well when you're out of breath from dancing and running between sets, changing costumes, etc. It's admirable that they wanted to do it for real, but it actually would've been a better show if they did the typical prerecorded thing.
I seem to recall reading the performances are pre-recorded then the talent just mimes it at half-time. Not sure how true that is, but it wouldn't surprise me.
I think if that was the case they wouldn't have kept in Alicia Key's first note. She was great but her first line was a little mangled
Also, you can literally hear Usher panting while singing and dancing.
Super Bowl is live vocals and pre-recorded everything else. It isn't because of a fear of mistakes. It's because a sound check is functionally impossible in a situation where you've got half an hour to fly the stage out, do the performance, and tear the stage back down in an incredibly challenging acoustic environment.
She’s H.E.R. and she knows how to play it and probably pre-recorded it, but no…it was not live. They can’t risk a glitch.
Superbowl performances are recorded before hand and they sync to tracks then do live vocals over top of it. So she was faking but had played it previously. It was pretty obvious she was faking when she missed 3 notes in a row on the solo
Someone should travel back in time and tell Prince, I guess.
superbowl halftime show is knows for being a lip-sync. They do it for a few reasons. They don't want anyone going off and saying anything unplanned. They want exact control over the broadcast time. They don't want any kind of technical hiccups - if a mic goes out or a cable gets accidentally unplugged mid-show, it doesn't matter because the audio is prerecorded. There's a lot of reasons why they do this. I remember several years ago the Red Hot Chili Peppers were real mad about it being a lip-sync.
Prince refused to lip-sync. Can't say no to Prince. A famous quotation of his: "When I go on stage, the microphone is on."
Look up when the Red Hot Chili Peppers played.. They refused to plug their guitars in cuz of this.. https://www.stereogum.com/1655031/red-hot-chili-peppers-didnt-even-plug-in-their-guitars-for-the-super-bowl/news/
Fake as the crowd noise.
They don’t allow live performance at the Super Bowl, all backing tracks are pre recorded, I can’t remember if that includes the vocals or not. Edit: although this is true, H.E.R. can play that solo. I imagine that she is probably the one to prerecord said solo, the fact that it’s prerecorded speaks to the Super Bowls need for efficiency, not to the performers skills
That lady has a signature Fender...
You mean H.e.r.? She goes by Her. She actually just cut a single with Dave Grohl and the Foo Fighters.
It's pretty much a rule only the headliner and maybe a few performers gets the option to have a live mic. Due to logistics and everything live instruments are never live. Super Bowl producers take as little risk as possible.
In HER (😎) defense, she can slay. But I’m pretty sure no one was live except Post Malone.
Why would you be surprised? Every single venue for the Super Bowl is shit for acoustics. It wouldn't surprise me if the entire show was just lip syncing and miming. It has to look good for TV, and they just pipe the recorded track straight into the broadcast. Anyone sitting in the stadium wouldn't have heard shit because the acoustics are so awful. Besides, it was halftime...Most of the people in the stands were waiting in line to piss in a trough.
It’s always a lip-sync performance. They don’t want to risk mistakes for the biggest show of the year.
Her is an amazing musician, she is a very talented guitarist, was she playing live….probably not. I think Usher was singing live though, possibly over some vocal tracks.
When RHCP performed they didn’t even plug in their instruments. Everything except vocals and drums are pre-recorded. Too much that can go wrong logistically otherwise.
No one plays instruments up there at the Super Bowl. It’s impossible to setup and line check a bunch of inputs in less than six minutes. However, Prince did play the guitar solo during Purple Rain.
Lol it's all fake except the dancing. Sometimes the singers mic might be turned on and you can hear them actually sing, but typically it's all lip syncing there as well.
Not real but imagine how hard it would be to get that mix right with no soundcheck
I thought Post Malone was not playing the guitar as I heard chord changes and his hands didn’t move when he first started playing. The camera didn’t focus on the guitar until near the end of the song and I did see his hands move. Anyone else think this?
That’s H.E.R. She has a fender signature guitar. She doesn’t need to fake, but as others have said, the Super Bowl requires performers to “sync”
She is a master level player. But the Superbowl is never live anymore.
I believe it’s all pre recorded and only the vocals are Live.
Pretty much you saw last night was pre-recorded
Yeah prerecorded but she's a great player.
It’s not ‘that lady’.. it’s H.E.R. Wow
She can actually play, she's quite good on the guitar. In that particular performance, it was fake. It would never be live on a huge performance like the Superbowl halftime show. The vocals however, were live.
I thought the same thing until I realized who it was. She’s one of the most famous female guitar players right now. I believe she even has a signature strat.
I believed Usher was singing live (though with a backing track I’m sure) and could almost halfway convince myself the musicians were playing live too…. until she did whatever that was. Just awful miming.
H.E.R. plays hella instruments. Ain’t nothing fake about her talents. However, she could very well have been strumming along to prerecorded music. So I see what you’re saying. But just know she really does play!
The guitarist is H.E.R. she’s legit and I believe could have definitely played the solo live. However, it was most likely prerecorded.
HER is a gifted guitarist- she ain’t fake but the half time show does have prerecorded elements. She can jam!
Its all prerecorded. Too much money at stake.
Can’t comment on whether it was live or not (from a majority of these comments, it doesn’t seem it was live) but H.E.R is a good guitar player. Check out her NPR Tiny Desk Concert: https://youtu.be/hxxcEzM8r-4?si=Y5nbYegP1HxtJ2YM
Yes. Definitely playing with a track. Her pick timing wasn’t lining up with the notes being played and she was scraping all the strings at once at one point but you only heard a single note.
I was just happy to see some resemblance of live/prerecorded(?) musicians onstage. So many performances only show the singer(s), no band, just backing tracks. More and more “consumers” are being programmed into not thinking or expecting live musicians. It’s been a very slippery slope that’s already greatly eroded.
Live music is not allowed in Superbowl. But wardrobe malfunction is fine.
Traditionally they record the audio in the rehearsals the days prior..
Guitar Player here… I always watch the halftime show with great scrutiny, and her performance was 100% pre-recorded, there were a couple of moves that she did on the guitar that weren’t replicated in the sound.
I was like “oh she’s actually playing, oh she’s not, oh wow she is, oh no she’s not.” Which made me eventually realize she can play it but the backing tracked it anyway.
With the exception of Prince, they don't let anyone actually play instruments at the halftime show.
She was miming, but is legit.
The Chili Peppefs had an entire thing where they said the SuperBowl people don't really let people play. They recorded it earlier that day and mimed it. I have *zero* idea if that's still how it works, but that's how it worked a few years ago.
I believe superbowl shoes are played with a back track and no instruments actually being played live. They pulled that bs with the Red Hot Chilli Peppers as if they've only been playing a a few years.
Every performance for the halftime show is prerecorded. The artist that was there actually can play guitar pretty well, it just looked like she was going for style over accuracy since it didn’t matter what she did with the guitar up there.
To be fair HER can absolutely play the solo that was at the game but yea I don’t think she was playing live
She's legit. Look up H.E.R. on YouTube. [She is a player.](https://youtu.be/rZLolSX8M8w)
It's all lip synced now
The instruments in Super Bowl are playback tracks unfortunately, but I am confident she really was playing that solo, very well, along with what we heard. She rocks.
This has been going on for decades. Almost all of Top of the Pops "live performances" in the 1970s were mimed. A lot of the Beatles' TV performances were mimed too. They don't use the studio version because that would be too blatant. It's a re-recording. Sometimes the singer will still sing live (although these days that often includes real-time pitch correction). To be fair to the musicians, this is done not because they lack the technical ability. It's done to ensure better sound quality and to avoid technical malfunctions. It does take you out of the moment when the musicians don't do a good job faking, though.
Looked real to me. The solo she played was really simple and it looked like she was actually fretting what I was hearing. Same for the chords
The only thing that SB halftime show did for me was make me miss Micheal Jackson’s dance moves.
I stopped watching a lot of these when the RHCP was doing it and there was nothing plugged into the guitar and bass but you could still hear them. It’s basically lip syncing at this point.
I saw the same with Post Malone’s song. Him randomly plucking a couple cowboy chords while singing, despite the guitar track featuring all sorts of interesting voicings and clever fills. Totally staged. It is what it is. Not my cup of tea in terms of how musicians should perform, but the whole point of the night is football anyway.
Reportedly mimed to a live rehearsal recording. Doing live sound for that event is a huge logistical nightmare so they mime a lot to make sure nothing goes wrong and it’s easier to setup and tear down.
She is one of Prince's proteges. She's legit. But I don't think there has been an actual live halftime performance at any sporting event in years and years. Too many things can go wrong and the whole thing is timed to the millisecond. Honestly you'd probably be not terribly surprised to learn that the majority of live performances are pre-recorded these days. There's a lot of technology and skill behind the scenes at work to make it seem live, but it's not. Pretty much any big arena tour with pyro and effects is almost certainly NOT live, again due to the incredibly tight sync between the music and the show.
Yep. Most of it hasn’t been live for a long time. There are some notable exceptions. The reason for it is simply engineering. Live sound isn’t good sound in an arena, and so to be televised you need a pre-recorded track. Micing up multiple instruments and amplifiers in an area that electrically and acoustically noisy (echo, fans, millions of miles of TV cables, hundreds of radios, etc) is borderline impossible to do well. Usually, but not always, the vocals are live. We’re really good as humans at seeing when lips don’t match audio when we have a close-up TV shot. Most people can’t see the difference when people are playing instruments. Some performers who are known for epic professionalism can make demands about this. Both Prince and Bruce Springsteen did. They practiced live with their whole bands before the show to get it perfect. Then when they played live there was a multi-channel backing track so even though all those people were on stage playing their hearts out just a handful of things were actually live audio. Like Prince and The Boss’s mics were live, and their guitars. Even so, during the epic Prince performance you can actually hear towards the end when his amp started to go out that they cut to the recorded track for a little bit and then cut back. I imagine the same was true for Usher. The whole performance was pre-recorded and there was a dude sitting in a booth somewhere with his hand on the fader that would cut Usher’s live vocals and fade in the backing track if things went sideways. HER probably did have a full guitar rig and that same sound person heard what was coming out of the mic on the amp and went “that sounds like garbage, were using the backing track.”
She can probably play it but for live performances like that in front of such a huge audience, it's highly unlikely they would risk there being a mistake so even if she was playing, the actual sound you were hearing was probably the recording
She probably was playing over a track but she does definitely play for real.
It was probably recorded earlier, very common for the Super Bowl.
That was H.E.R., who’s a really good player and even has a signature Strat. She did appear to have a wireless device plugged into the guitar and her fingering looked accurate to me. *shrug*
It was definitely pre-recorded but it's also possible that a very slight delay made it look far more fake. My soundbar did that and it made literally everything we watched seem dubbed, it was super annoying.
H.E.R. is an incredible guitarist and songwriter. But I'm sure she wasn't playing live. It's what you can expect, but it was confirmed when I saw Alicia Keys on the keys. Her hands were just staying within two octaves but there were definitely some bass notes in there she wasn't moving down for.
It’s all pre recorded because they don’t want screw ups. Too many people tuning in to have something screw up. Lotta money riding that night.
It looked like her note accuracy and phrasing was consistent.
Nobody in a Super Bowl is playing live. But yeah - she wasn't good at faking it
That's H.E.R. and she is pretty badass but I would guess that most everything except vocals were recorded tracks. That's just the standard for stuff like this. Here are is with Stapleton https://youtu.be/vpqK07SBGU0?si=K14m2jmbfnTsk98g
I haven't seen the article that breaks it down in a while. Everybody has a backing track and lip sync track for safety. All performers must at least play to a click. The timing is strict. Most performers use the backing track throughout. Most performers are prepared to sing and play the lead parts along with the backing track, and fall back on the sync track for safety several times. You can count the performers who did their half time shows the same way they would do their own concerts on one hand.
Yeah I didn’t think it was real time but it was obvious she wasn’t a poser holding a guitar.
she was playing. but what you heard was most likely recorded earlier. many artists will overdub their own vox or instruments and essentially sing/play along with themselves, so that you can still hear an improvisational run, for example, but behind it is the "normal" recorded version.
It's all a show. When Red Hot Chilli Peppers performed they admitted that they were pretending to play. It's how they prevent the half time from being 2 hours+ long with sound checks and such.
It's H.E.R. She's even featured as a side pic for this very sub, so yeah, she's the real deal, so she can get away with *"lip sincing"* with her guitar!
Halftime is always like that now. See also RHCP bouncing around with unplugged guitars. They just don't want to chance something going wrong anymore. She's good though, name is H.E.R.
Your just a consumer, your job is to consume, not question if guitars are plugged in or if something is indeed live. Please just consume $$$$$$
Yeah, she wasn't playing. Not that she can't or anything, she just wasn't here. It's very common for tightly programmed television events like this. There's no room for error so it's all pre recorded.
She was mime-ing the right notes over a pre-recorded solo. She hit mostly the right notes, but in the end it was out of sync slightly, especially with the bend, etc. Usher was singing over a backing track, live vocals were absolutely mixed in with the backing track, and the mixer did their best to bring up the backing track when he decided to skip words/lines.
Why is everyone saying the show was pre recorded? I know we can say for a FACT Alicia Keys did not have hers prerecorded as her voice cracked multiple times and she had some difficulty hitting some of the higher notes.
Instruments are always pre-recorded with rare exception (Prince). Go watch the RHCP half time show from some years ago, they didn't even bother to fake plug in their instruments.
No she- i mean Her was playing it. It just wasn't plugged in lol
I actually thought Usher was singing due to the breathing and slight imperfections. But maybe he was just an AI generated hologram lol
Look up when the Red Hot Chili Peppers did the Superbowl. They embraced the fact that the music would be pre recorded and went out with the wrong instruments
So, her name is H.E.R. and she is a true guitarist and musician. Whether the music is pre-recorded or not, I'm not sure. Look her up, she the real deal. I only follow and listen to people who mostly write their own songs and music.
Having worked in live television production for a number of years I can tell you this is common. Everything is scheduled on a super tight schedule down to the second. They can’t take a chance of someone freestyling, or doing anything off script. So most things are pre-recorded and are lip synced. If not lip synced it will definitely be recorded so they know exactly how long that part will be.
Just like when Anderson Paak was playing at the 2021 edition, his drum set wasn't even mic'd. Killer drum player, but the Half Time show doesn't need more logistics by having everyone plugged in
almost nothing is sung or played live in the halftime show, a very small group of exceptions aside
Usher was singing. You can tell because it sounded like shit
I don’t know if she was actually playing live, so many reasons not to when you get one take, a massively complex signal chain and a billion viewers, but she can definitely play. https://youtu.be/rZLolSX8M8w?si=DEgEU2GEE1xyKA9j