Did singing in playback help Alizée's career?

[Aragorn97]

Hello, everyone!

So, was lip-syncing a good thing or did it eclipse a little of her "magic"?

Personally, when I find a singer that I particularly like, I always look for their live performances because they are more personal and unique. And if those singers are good, the emotions their songs convey are amplified: more energy, more passion.
Alizée has provided us with a lot of live performances but she lip-syncs in most of them...

As some of you wrote on this forum, singing and dancing at the same time is difficult and some criticized Alizée's voice for not being very looked after. So these may be the bright side of singing in playback. But honestly I prefer an imperfect true live performance over one in playback. All the little imperfections make that performance somehow memorable. Sometimes I even put them in my playlists and, if I want to listen to a song of one of my favorite artists on YouTube, I usually watch the live version. About the difficulty of doing two things simultaneously, many singers do it and... Hey, we are talking about Alizée :P

Anyway I wanted to ask you that question because I think that Alizée is precisely the kind of singer that is most affected by lip-syncing: she interacts a lot with the audience, so if you remove her real voice (which is the soul of a singer), you deprive her of one of her peculiarities. For example I think about the "ENCORE!!!" and "UN, DEUX, TROIS! C'EST PAS MA FAUTE..." in the en concert version of JEAM and ML. But also a simple "OOOOOHH". Not to mention all the tonality differences of the single words.
Singing in playback may be usuful for television, but, if you think about performances like Amsterdam, Lafete de la musique, Taormina, wouldn't they have been even more legendary if she had actually sung live?

[Scruffydog777]

I've said in here before where supposedly Madonna said, "You can have a good performance or you can have good singing, but you can't have both." and I firmly believe that. How could Alizée do the Jeam dance, the ML dance, not to mention JPVA and Gourmandises and not have it affect her singing?

So most of her performances of those songs outside of En Concert where when she was lip-syncing. If it weren't for En Concert, she'd be kind of suspect, but En Concert shows she does have a very good voice. I think the best songs from that concert that prove that are....
L'Alize
Hey Amigo
L'e-mail a des ailes
Amelie
Toc de mac
J'en ai marre
Lou ou toi
My favourite moments are......

Amelie.....beautiful from start to finish. This supposedly was going to be her next single until she made her decision to leave MF. It would have been such a great song for demonstrating her voice to people in my part of the world.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRY3Z_yYP2Q

From Lou ou toi

https://youtu.be/e1JmO9i4ylg?t=84

Hey Amigo

https://youtu.be/eHACGPAkqWg?t=19

L'e-mail a des ailes

https://youtu.be/9NrI6p6pzTc?t=79

Though I'm not a big fan of the song Parler tout bas, I think this song showed very well her beautiful voice.

https://youtu.be/XwrCtRRm0Bw?t=3

The encore part of ML....

https://youtu.be/sz4xDGUr91A?t=413

Youpidou

https://youtu.be/kb_eyNgT8as?t=18

Tempete too is a song that is so pleasant to listen to.

https://youtu.be/r3LPL67YPF8?t=38

ACC

https://youtu.be/Uti0Jp1iGuU?t=128

So most of her early career showed videos where she lipped synced, but it was out of necessity because of her dancing. En Concert showed the capabilities of her voice. It may not be a strong voice. It may not have the beauty of a Judy Collins, but it has a beauty all it's own. I find it's a voice I can listen to all day and never grow tired of it and I'm not one to listen to a song, even if it's from Alizee, unless it's very pleasant to listen to.

[Shepherd]

Originally Posted by Scruffydog777

I've said in here before where supposedly Madonna said, "You can have a good performance or you can have good singing, but you can't have both." and I firmly believe that. How could Alizée do the Jeam dance, the ML dance, not to mention JPVA and Gourmandises and not have it affect her singing?

It's difficult to dance and sing at the same time. Dancing takes an artist's breath, so the voice is compromised. This may not be a problem if the singer is standing at a mic wiggling their hips, but if they are dancing all over the stage, forget about singing. J'en Ai Marre might not consume much of Alizee's breath, but it's a complicated dance, so what is she going to concentrate on getting right, the dance or the song? Also it's not unusual for an artist to have a problem with their voice. The doctor might tell them to stop singing, but they are contracted sometimes for hundreds of thousands of dollars to perform. The contract will stipulate that if an artist is physically unable to perform, they can be excused without a lawsuit, but a lot of people are going to lose a lot of money. Fans who bought tickets, made hotel reservations, and paid plane fare will be angry and possibly take their aggravation out on the artist. Who wants to be responsible for all of that? If the recording is of the artist's voice and their body is on stage, I don't see a problem with lip syncing.

[Aragorn97]

Originally Posted by Scruffydog777

I've said in here before where supposedly Madonna said, "You can have a good performance or you can have good singing, but you can't have both." .

I think it depends on which performance it is. For JPVA and JEAM it may be true because she had to do a lot of unnatural moves. But why ML, L'alizé and also Gourmandises?
It's obvious that focusing on two things at the same time can't give you perfection, but you can still have a great and memorable performance. Obviously it also depends on what the artist and the spectator are looking for, but what I mean is that the performances of some songs are all very similar. It is as though you're watching photocopies lol. Just think about how she moves the pole of the microphone during L'alizé (which hasn't got a complex choreography)
Obviously I adore her performances and they are not exactly all the same, but my point is: if what makes Alizée's live performances special is the presence of all those little things which make shine through her true personality (waves, smiles, scrunches...), wouldn't her voice give a great boost in this sense?
En concert dances weren't perfect, but those are my favourite videos.

Originally Posted by Shepherd

If the recording is of the artist's voice and their body is on stage, I don't see a problem with lip syncing.

Yes, there is no problem with it. I just meant that her live voice would have made those performances even more beautiful and unique, in my opinion.

Edit:

Originally Posted by Scruffydog777

My favourite moments are......

....................

ACC

https://youtu.be/Uti0Jp1iGuU?t=128

As far as En concert, it was amazing. And we also share some of our favourite moments: I particularly like ML, ACC and Youpidou.
But here some others peculiar moments that I like (I can't share the links with the exact minute because I'm using the phone):

Toc de mac: the yell at 0:22.


Gourmandises, 2:47


C'est trop tard, the way she says "Calamity" at 2:49


And probably one of my top 3
JPVA at 1:47

(and look at that girl's face a few moments before)

[Mr Coucou]

The playback was probably better for her career; she has trouble singing live.

(She did great in En Concert, but that was under controlled conditions.)

[Aragorn97]

Originally Posted by Mr Coucou

The playback was probably better for her career; she has trouble singing live.

Do you think she could have improved over time? En concert was the last project she worked on with Mylene, right? Maybe Mylene would have let her sing live more often for the promotion of an hypocritical third album...

[Scruffydog777]

Originally Posted by Aragorn97

Do you think she could have improved over time? En concert was the last project she worked on with Mylene, right? Maybe Mylene would have let her sing live more often for the promotion of an hypocritical third album...

I think she definitely could've improved over time. Linda Ronstadt, who has a beautiful voice, said she had to work on her voice all the time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0qm8nq8RcA

After her separation from Jeremy and when she returned to Ajaccio, we saw many pictures of her in a dance studio, but never in a sound studio.

When she was working on her albums after leaving MF, I believe the record companies let her work on the albums in Ajaccio instead of coming to Paris and she only came to Paris, late in the making of the album. That should have never happened. if she was serious about making an album, go to Paris for however long it takes.

I often beat a dead horse about the fact she should have had some type of career manager after leaving MF, but she didn't and I think too often, she appeared on different shows, singing songs she should not have been singing. I think in that regard, she's been her own worst enemy.

One of my favourite songs by Linda Ronstadt...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9qsDgA1q8Y

[Mr Coucou]

I just found this on youtube.

Is she singing live here?? It sounds live to me; its not bad.



Are there other live performances like this one??

[Aragorn97]

Originally Posted by Scruffydog777

After her separation from Jeremy and when she returned to Ajaccio, we saw many pictures of her in a dance studio, but never in a sound studio.

When she was working on her albums after leaving MF, I believe the record companies let her work on the albums in Ajaccio instead of coming to Paris and she only came to Paris, late in the making of the album. That should have never happened. if she was serious about making an album, go to Paris for however long it takes.

Do you think she felt "compelled" to do another album back then?
I think 5 was a kind of outlet for her. But I don't know much about Ueds and what happened those years.
A lot happened but she wasn't exactly in the spotlight in that time.

Originally Posted by Mr Coucou

I just found this on youtube.

Is she singing live here?? It sounds live to me; its not bad.

This is my third-favourite ML performance! I sounds live to me, too.

Are there other live performances like this one??

From what I remember, this should be the only one.

There are also these two...




... but I don't know whether she is singing live or lip syncing to a pre-recorded track. The 99% of it seem live, but my doubt is for the remaining 1%.
Anyway, if you don't already know them, they are very unusual performances, where she is amazing

[Silencio]

Originally Posted by Mr Coucou

I just found this on youtube.

Is she singing live here?? It sounds live to me; its not bad.



Are there other live performances like this one??

Originally Posted by Scruffydog777

I think she definitely could've improved over time. Linda Ronstadt, who has a beautiful voice, said she had to work on her voice all the time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0qm8nq8RcA

After her separation from Jeremy and when she returned to Ajaccio, we saw many pictures of her in a dance studio, but never in a sound studio.

When she was working on her albums after leaving MF, I believe the record companies let her work on the albums in Ajaccio instead of coming to Paris and she only came to Paris, late in the making of the album. That should have never happened. if she was serious about making an album, go to Paris for however long it takes.

I often beat a dead horse about the fact she should have had some type of career manager after leaving MF, but she didn't and I think too often, she appeared on different shows, singing songs she should not have been singing. I think in that regard, she's been her own worst enemy.

One of my favourite songs by Linda Ronstadt...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9qsDgA1q8Y

I don't know Linda Ronstadt but I can say that ANY singer must work on his/her voice because it is a part of their job. Of course, there are singers like Jérémy Chatelain that have built all their popularity around their image but I'm not taking them seriously.

After leaving Mylène, Alizée has spent a lot of time trying to keep or improve her image instead of trying to keep or improve her voice. And that was the biggest mistake of her, except for marrying Jérémy and leaving Mylène. Now that the image has gone, we have a bunch of covers, comedic Les Enfoirés and clumsy TV appearances like this one



instead of true masterpieces like those from the MF/LB era. While not abrogating the responsibility of producers and composers of the last four albums (I still consider Pascal Obispo a swindler, for example), I have to admit that they had to work under difficult conditions meaning the narrowed range of Alizée's voice and lack of its expressiveness. It has been difficult to write a decent song appropriate for such a voice. The things got even worse when she switched to dances wasting her time on dance training and performing.