Two former American Idol judges (Steven Tyler and Jennifer Lopez), a legend who sang at Obama's first Inauguration (Aretha Franklin), and the surviving half of Milli Vanilli (Fab Morvan) as well as a handful of other pro singers (Alicia Keys, LeAnn Rimes & Michelle Williams) have stepped up to defend Beyonce's choice to lip-sync the National Anthem.

 

 

Says Steven Tyler:

"Whatever gets you through the night... It doesn't Matter... Beyoncé's so hot she can do anything.  Let's just get real, alright?"

Says Fab Morvan (Milli Vanilli):

"It's hard to believe, in this day of auto-tune, that people are still acting surprised. Everyone knows Beyoncé can sing.  Everyone should just step back and relax.  There are far more important things to worry about.  But I can certainly relate to what she's going through."

Says Aretha:

"When I heard the news I really laughed.  I thought it was funny because the weather down there was about 46 or 44 degrees and for most singers that is just not good singing weather... but she did a beautiful job with the pre-record . . . next time I'll probably do the same." And when asked about her rendition of My Country 'Tis of Thee at Obama's first Inauguration, she did it live because, quote, "I wanted to give people the real thing and pre-recording never crossed my mind. Having come face to face with 28, 22 degrees I am not surprised she pre-recorded."

Says LeAnn Rimes:

"I'm actually taking up for her on this one. There are times when people will ask you to do it, and they will not let you do it unless you do it because they want control over what happens."

Says J-Lo:

"In certain venues and stuff, they do prerecord things, because you're going to have that terrible slapback, "All performers do have to do it at some point, Just, ideally, not on such a massive stage."

Says Alicia Keys:

"What I do know is that Beyoncé is a great performer and she's an incredible artist with a really, really powerful voice. The one thing that you cannot doubt is that she can sing. She absolutely can sing. All the rest of the 'whys' or 'whatever,' we know that she can deliver and she did deliver that song really beautifully."

Says Michelle Williams (Destiny's Child) who will be singing with Beyonce at the Super Bowl incidentally:

"I will say this, it's not the first or the last time that someone has had to lip-sync. My greatest singer of all time, Whitney Houston, it came to light that her anthem was in fact lip-synced... With big crowds and echoes, you know when it's a big historical moment, you don't want any room for any mistakes so I can understand why it was done."

There you have it folks... the stars who are right in the thick of the industry have weighed in... What do you think?

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