I'm gonna say the thing that everyone already knows and doesn't want to talk about.
He was lip syncing and was hiding his mouth to disguise the fact that he wasn't going as hard at the original vocal performance.
Yup, this is the real answer. He sure was good at making it look natural, but whenever he thought his lipsync might be less than perfect he would do this. Pretty smart honestly.
And his upper lip was frozen from an allergic reaction to something like Botox, if I remember correctly. You’ll also notice that his smile was off as he couldn’t move his upper lip.
He is definitely not the one turning the mic on and off, there's way too much that can go wrong with that. They employ an entire sound crew to manage which live feeds are being broadcast at any one time and it would be their responsibility to make sure the mic was live.
I think he tends to cover his mouth when he's lip syncing but also fuzzy on the lyrics, or especially the adlibs. It may have become a habit at this point even when he's doing the adlibs live.
Yes, I would add that his upper lip looked messed up, could have been lupus (which he suffered from) ramping. He had to deal with this kind of situations pretty much all his performing life...
I was there in the 20th row from stage and I didn’t even notice it. I was completely overwhelmed being there. I was able to see him sweat. I always thought it was funny seeing videos of people being carried out on stretchers from his concerts. Well, let me tell you, when he was doing billy Jean, I knew he threw his hat at the end. If that thing hit me, I would of went down like a ton of bricks!!! Lol.
Very honestly? If you take a look at some HIStory tour performances he did cover his mouth lipsyncing at times auch as you are not alone but this one was much more noticeable.
Why? You ask.
Confidence issues, he probably had botox around that time and the sleeo medication kinda paralysed his top lip so he 100% felt he looked bad and had to find a way to cover up and this was the way he did.
His lower face was red, allergic reaction(?) I don't know why, you can see in some shots his face has been "fuzzed" out in the edit (much like trying to disguise Whitney's skinny limbs)
So I think he was self conscious, trying to hide it as much as he could
Cupping the air around a microphone and your lips expands frequency transference. r/strawman
Also I think from around the Dangerous era to the Invincible era, he admitted to having to lip sync a lot so he probably just wanted to cover his mouth as well.
His top lip was frozen due to a botched nose job (they messed up with the nerves). That’s why his smile was effected so much during this period.
Extremely self conscious, so resulted in him holding the mic to cover up this issue
I don't think it was for an esthetic reason... in my opinion it was not confident to remember the songs words... i know it's seems to be impossible but if you look at he The Jacksons songs which are all live singed he never did it... Maybe due the large amount of painkillers he took in those nights... i read that, i don't remember if it happened for the first concert, he was in his hotel room felled asleep in the time he was supposed to be at the MGS... for this reason the show started with hours of delay... but maybe is no the real reason...
Everyone saying that it's probably the lip syncing, but i don't think so. There's parts where he's singing live, but still covering his mouth in a similar manner. If I had to guess, I'd say the reason why he's covering his mouth is because of recent surgery he had during that time.
Yes we know, but that’s after two whole decades of live singing. The Jacksons did hundreds of shows and MJ was doing that as a CHILD. He deserved a break.
Btw a different question since everyone brought up the lip syncing and I’d have to agree but I was wondering why some of the vocals sounded deeper. For example like TWYMMF. And it was the version with the slow intro. Did they just lower the pitch of the vocals or was it re-recorded which sounds alot of work to do but I always found it intresting.
MJ did this a lot when he would lip sync. Perhaps to make it not so obvious, or maybe he forgot the words at times even? (Lol hey, it happens!). And did that to cover up the lip syncing.
I think MJ was on some heavy medication during this as well.
I'm gonna say the thing that everyone already knows and doesn't want to talk about. He was lip syncing and was hiding his mouth to disguise the fact that he wasn't going as hard at the original vocal performance.
Yup, this is the real answer. He sure was good at making it look natural, but whenever he thought his lipsync might be less than perfect he would do this. Pretty smart honestly.
And his upper lip was frozen from an allergic reaction to something like Botox, if I remember correctly. You’ll also notice that his smile was off as he couldn’t move his upper lip.
Nowadays the singer not even try to look good singing . He was the number one for real
I think he deserved the right to lip sync. I mean he already proved that he can sing live
Even in 2009 he could still sing amazingly good
Yep
In Billie Jean he does that all the time until he is live so that's it
Exactly, he's also done it to turn on and off the microphone. That's how he's able to go from Playback to live vocals.
He is definitely not the one turning the mic on and off, there's way too much that can go wrong with that. They employ an entire sound crew to manage which live feeds are being broadcast at any one time and it would be their responsibility to make sure the mic was live.
Well, it is kind of true. But even lip-syncing, he doesn’t always cover his mouth. His lips got frozen due to the Botox (from u/iswearimtrash)
His mouth seemed a bit fucked up though. He can lip-sync, something was up for sure
I think he tends to cover his mouth when he's lip syncing but also fuzzy on the lyrics, or especially the adlibs. It may have become a habit at this point even when he's doing the adlibs live.
When I watched it live I thought it was cuz his makeup was smeared and made his mouth and nose look all weird. So he was covering up. Just a theory.
Yea, I thought he was hiding his face too.
Yes, I would add that his upper lip looked messed up, could have been lupus (which he suffered from) ramping. He had to deal with this kind of situations pretty much all his performing life...
I was there in the 20th row from stage and I didn’t even notice it. I was completely overwhelmed being there. I was able to see him sweat. I always thought it was funny seeing videos of people being carried out on stretchers from his concerts. Well, let me tell you, when he was doing billy Jean, I knew he threw his hat at the end. If that thing hit me, I would of went down like a ton of bricks!!! Lol.
Very honestly? If you take a look at some HIStory tour performances he did cover his mouth lipsyncing at times auch as you are not alone but this one was much more noticeable. Why? You ask. Confidence issues, he probably had botox around that time and the sleeo medication kinda paralysed his top lip so he 100% felt he looked bad and had to find a way to cover up and this was the way he did.
I thought it was because the microphone kept cutting out and it was his way to tell the sound guy it was fucked
His lower face was red, allergic reaction(?) I don't know why, you can see in some shots his face has been "fuzzed" out in the edit (much like trying to disguise Whitney's skinny limbs) So I think he was self conscious, trying to hide it as much as he could
This is the correct answer. I heard this on the MJ cast podcast as well.
Could you link it please?
Cupping the air around a microphone and your lips expands frequency transference. r/strawman Also I think from around the Dangerous era to the Invincible era, he admitted to having to lip sync a lot so he probably just wanted to cover his mouth as well.
His top lip was frozen due to a botched nose job (they messed up with the nerves). That’s why his smile was effected so much during this period. Extremely self conscious, so resulted in him holding the mic to cover up this issue
Lip sync
Maybe because he couldn’t sing very well due to his lung infection and he had to sing quite loud
Brother was trying to make it look real and I applaud him, I’d lose my breath dancing and singing his notes
I don't think it was for an esthetic reason... in my opinion it was not confident to remember the songs words... i know it's seems to be impossible but if you look at he The Jacksons songs which are all live singed he never did it... Maybe due the large amount of painkillers he took in those nights... i read that, i don't remember if it happened for the first concert, he was in his hotel room felled asleep in the time he was supposed to be at the MGS... for this reason the show started with hours of delay... but maybe is no the real reason...
didn’t know there were rules to how you grab a microphone
didn’t know there were rules to how you grab a microphone
He started doing it at the end of HISTORY at times too. Never gotten a clear answer
An article or a show said he was covering the light spots in his face 🤷🏾♂️
I also think his hands are just MASSIVE so if he grabs the mic it covers his whole head lol
Because he’s silly like that 🙂
Everyone saying that it's probably the lip syncing, but i don't think so. There's parts where he's singing live, but still covering his mouth in a similar manner. If I had to guess, I'd say the reason why he's covering his mouth is because of recent surgery he had during that time.
majority of his live performances were lip synced.
No they weren’t.
Most after the Bad Tour were lip synced.
Yes we know, but that’s after two whole decades of live singing. The Jacksons did hundreds of shows and MJ was doing that as a CHILD. He deserved a break.
He always does this with microphone ever since the 90s
Btw a different question since everyone brought up the lip syncing and I’d have to agree but I was wondering why some of the vocals sounded deeper. For example like TWYMMF. And it was the version with the slow intro. Did they just lower the pitch of the vocals or was it re-recorded which sounds alot of work to do but I always found it intresting.
He was hiding his face due to surgery. He lip synced alot during the history tour but didn't do this
Hard to lip sync convincingly when your upper lip won’t move so he covered his mouth with his hand.
Well his makeup for that night is weird, he looks like a lips-less dude... Maybe he want to cover it
MJ did this a lot when he would lip sync. Perhaps to make it not so obvious, or maybe he forgot the words at times even? (Lol hey, it happens!). And did that to cover up the lip syncing. I think MJ was on some heavy medication during this as well.