Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade Fans Can't Ignore the Awful Lip Syncing

By Anna Rumer

Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade viewers couldn't help but notice the obvious lip-syncing during the 2022 performances. Almost all of the performers who appeared live during the holiday parade were not singing live, which is very typical for the annual event due to logistical reasons, but Twitter users watching the parade still didn't hesitate to point it out. 

Performances by the cast of Funny Girl and the Neil Diamond musical A Beautiful Noise were particularly singled out for clockable lip-syncing – and people didn't hold back when poking fun on social media. Keep scrolling to learn more about why lip-syncing is so common at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and to see what people had to say about it. 

Why No Live Singing?

Nearly all of the performers on 34th Street have been lip-syncing instead of performing live for years for a number of logistical reasons – including just how difficult it would be to wire the moving floats for sound in order to have the singers actually be audible as they move along.

In 2018, Grammy winner John Legend confirmed this amid backlash he faced for lip-syncing, writing on Twitter at the time, "Fun fact. We all have to lip sync on this parade because the floats don't have the capacity to handle the sound requirements for a live performance. Hope y'all enjoyed it anyway."

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Cold Weather

Another reason has to do with the cold weather that performers have to face during the parade. While crowds only had to withstand temperatures in the high 40s in New York City this year, some years subject the performers to much colder weather, which has the potential to harm singers' vocal cords. Kelly Clarkson, who appeared to actually sing live in 2018, noted on Twitter after her performance that it was "a very cold Thanksgiving moment."

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Complaints

All that didn't stop viewers from complaining about the lip-syncing being so obvious.

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'A Beautiful Noise'

The performance from the cast of A Beautiful Noise, a Neil Diamond musical, was a major target for people who were not thrilled with the lip-syncing.

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'Just a Reminder'

Others made sure to point out to people that the lip-syncing wasn't exactly voluntary for the performers.

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