Post Malone is being called out for lip syncing a performance on Wednesday night’s Billboard Music Awards, where he was the big winner.
The pre-taped performance featured the rap star doing his hit “Circles” before being joined by Tyla Yaweh for their single “Tommy Lee” from a “secret location” (aka the P.W. Gillibrand Co. Silver Sand quarry in Simi Valley, California).
MORE: Post Malone Dominates 2020 Billboard Music Awards
British music website NME noted “both artists lip-synching out of time” and Consequence of Sound said the performance “was clearly lip-synched — and not terribly well.”
In its own coverage, Billboard diplomatically noted “the pair’s audio wasn’t perfectly synched up with the clip.”
It’s certainly no secret that Malone, whose tracks are heavy on auto-tune, often lip syncs in his live performances.
A Toronto Star review of his concert last year in the city noted “his lip-sync game was often loose enough that you wondered why he’d even bothered putting the microphone to his lips in the first place, since its placement clearly made no difference to the heavily processed vocals emanating from the PA.”
The Phoenix New Times was even bolder in its review of a 2019 show. “Here's the thing about seeing Post Malone live: You can perfectly replicate the experience at home by dimming all the lights, putting on a playlist of his songs, cranking the volume to max, and maybe switch on a smoke machine if you feel extra fancy. Like Post, you can sing over the songs or just shut up and let the prerecorded voice do all the work.”
Of course, nowhere was the criticism about Malone’s lip syncing on the Billboard Music Awards louder than on Twitter. Here’s a sample of the reactions:
Based on this billboard Post Malone performance we all owe Milli Vanilli an apology
— Ben Poncelet (@PonceletBen) October 15, 2020
Post malone is on lip sync battle right now. Oh wait, this is the billboard music awards.... #BillboardMusicAwards
— Sean McIntosh (@seaninmcintosh) October 15, 2020
Someone teach Post Malone in order to lip sync you have to keep the mic close to your mouth for the whole word ♀️♀️ #BillboardMusicAwards pic.twitter.com/2BgZaLlCgU
— Ang Domino (@mclamb4ever1) October 15, 2020
Post Malone cannot lip sync very well
— William Brock (@runninwilliam) October 15, 2020
Post Malone on stage trynna figure out how tf to actually lip sync ♀️ #BBMAs EMBRASSINGG!!! pic.twitter.com/wq2a9jE6Pi
— ARI AND BTS IS COMING (@xjunghx) October 15, 2020
Post Malone! Lip sync for your Life! #BillboardMusicAwards #DragQueensDoItBetter #RuPaulsDragRace
— Valev Laube (@ValevLaube) October 15, 2020
Post Malone was awful!! If you are going to lip sync practice how to do it!
— Toni Lynn Van Bramer (@Tlvb13) October 15, 2020
Literally the worst Post Malone performance I have seen. I felt embarrassed for him and his lip sync fail. #bbmas
— Anthony Bear (@anthonysbear) October 15, 2020
Watching the billboard music awards - I’m not sure what’s worse, please help:
— Ben MIller (@Millerbx5) October 15, 2020
post Malone’s lip syncing, brandy’s performance, or 2020.