Audiences have often criticised singers for lip-syncing at concerts instead of performing live. Now, Shreya Ghoshal, known for her melodious voice and ability to sing flawlessly even without musical backing, has also called out the practice, describing lip-syncing on stage as “lazy work”.
Shreya Ghoshal on singers lip syncing at concerts
In a podcast with Raj Shamani, Shreya shared her views on singers lip-syncing at concerts and said, “That’s just a lazy act. Apne mehanat nahi kari (You haven’t put in the hard work). In my personal opinion, it’s not a good approach.” She then spoke about what she described as a second approach, where singers perform however they like without maintaining consistent standards.
She said, “I can’t discredit what the audience likes, but I have certain principles as an artist. I have a problem with any performance of mine being played publicly that I myself wouldn’t even be able to listen to. For me, that is extremely humiliating and insulting. An artist should feel uncomfortable if a song or live performance of theirs is being played around that has already failed. You’ll always think, ‘Why did I do that?’ Either you work hard on your craft because you’ve earned that crown or throne — don’t take it lightly thinking you’ve already achieved it. You have to work hard every single day.”
Recently, in February, when AP Dhillon appeared on The Great Indian Kapil Show, he was seen lip-syncing to his popular track With You, which invited criticism. Many viewers called him out for not singing live on the show.
About Shreya Ghoshal
Shreya was just 16 when she began her playback singing career with Devdas, directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali. She won her first National Award for Best Female Playback Singer for Bairi Piya. Since then, she has sung in multiple languages, including Hindi, Bengali, Kannada, Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam. Some of her popular songs include Jaadu Hai Nasha Hai, Dheere Jalna, Yeh Ishq Hai and Pherari Mon from the Bengali film Antaheen. Most recently, she lent her voice to Maatrubhumi from Battle of Galwan starring Salman Khan.
Apart from this, Shreya is currently hosting Indian Idol Season 16 alongside Badshah and Vishal Dadlani. She has also announced her world tour, The Unstoppable, with performances scheduled in the UK, USA, Abu Dhabi and India.
