Do we care about lip-synching?

Ray MartinChief Executive Officer, Americas
January 29, 2013, 2:16 AM GMT+0

Warning to Beyoncé: half of all Americans (52%) feel the Super Bowl halftime show should be sung live, according to the YouGov Omnibus survey taken January 25 - 27, 2013. Only two out of five (18%) feel it is acceptable to both lip-synch and sing live during the Super Bowl performance, and a little more than one in five (22%) said it makes no difference to them.

If Beyoncé lip synchs at this Sunday’s Super Bowl halftime show, however, many Americans won’t care too much. 42% of them said that they were not Beyoncé fans and it would not affect their opinion of her. The non-Beyoncé fans easily outnumbered the one in four people (24%) who said they would think less of Beyoncé as an artist if she lip synched her halftime show, as well as the one in five group (19%) who said they’d continue to support her, no matter if she sings live or not.

Americans are not always sure if they are enjoying a live performance. More than two in five Americans (44%) believe some Super Bowl acts have lip synched during the performances, while only 14% believes all halftime show acts lip synch. Three out of five Americans are evenly split (30% each) on whether they could tell Beyoncé is lip synching or not, while two out five (40%) said they were not sure they could tell.

Nearly one-third of Americans (32%) plan on watching the Super Bowl halftime show, whether they watch the football game or not.

When asked how they would feel if they discovered that the artist at a concert was lip-synching, nearly half (46%) of responders said that they would feel cheated and 35% would want their money back.

For further information about poll results, and for details about methodology and Omnibus services, please email omnibus.us@yougov.com.

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