Why did Britney stop singing live?

[Moscow]

Maybe because of the baby voice, IDK. But I fail to realise why songs like Womanizer, MATM etc were never re worked for live performances who can sing and dance with these kinda fast paced songs? But our girl doesn't even sing ballads live 

[Arckangel]

3 hours ago, Adam Wiatrowski97 said:

She simply doesnt care. She started lipping to CD vocals in 2001 (I always hated that, how can a Singer lip sync to autotuned vocals?) . Its not like she stopped to sing live because of the conservatorship. No conspiracy

That's true for some TV performance, but the DWAD DVD was dubbed.

[Adam Wiatrowski97]

2 minutes ago, Arckangel said:

That's true for some TV performance, but the DWAD DVD was dubbed.

Ok Then: since 2003.

[Adam Wiatrowski97]

24 minutes ago, Prachi said:

Maybe because of the baby voice, IDK. But I fail to realise why songs like Womanizer, MATM etc were never re worked for live performances who can sing and dance with these kinda fast paced songs? But our girl doesn't even sing ballads live 

Yes! „Performances” of Lucky, Everytime and Alien during POM were on of many reasons why this cheap show was pathetic 

Why did she lip Lucky? 

 

 

 

 

[Duff Man]

2 hours ago, jennyj said:

For a few reasons:

1. She doesn't have creative control anymore like she used to.  She will once she's free.  In the past, she would mainly lip-sync during heavy choreographed routines, but at least she did live bits or occasional live performances.

2. Her c-ship abusers prevented her from singing live. They don't even let her do live interviews anymore (you'll notice they must be pre-recorded now - because as we saw in the UK she spoke out about it, and then it was cut out of the actual airing).  Even back during the Circus tour, she would blurt our random things during those quick moments while the mic was still on as she was leaving the stage. The only times they let her talk or sing live are very carefully timed moments where they can pay attention and cut her mic when needed.  That's also most likely why her Domination announcement mic was off too.

Yeah and they don't let her sing live at award shows etc..all part of keeping the cship strong..censoring her

[mfanbs]

Lets be honest here and leave all this conservatorship stuff aside
 

Spoiler

She is too lazy to work with proper vocal coach., sure she was amazing as a kid and teenager but... um... yeah

 

[BritneyLVR]

Britney always sings live 

[Goten21]

4 hours ago, Adam Wiatrowski97 said:

Ok Then: since 2003.

Femme Fatale tour was dubbed. ABC special was dubbed. Lots of her stuff got dubbed. Like some user said, it’s her team who simply isn’t in touch with what works. Britney was too overworked to do something about it or simply didn’t have the creative control, and maybe she doesn’t care (though it seems like she would).

[Anti-Hero]

I’m sure it’s been addressed in this thread already, I’m just replying to the title and haven’t read any of the posts. She’s never really sang live. On tour at least. She’s sang a few songs here and there, but she’s been lip-synching ever since the BOMT tour.
 

Now when it comes to promotional performances, she sang live a lot more. I’d say it was half and half live and lip-synching. Some even pre-recorded, that performance of lucky on top of the pops for example. There is one point at  2:42 when she mouths “and they say” during the final chorus, but you don’t hear her.
 

 

She clearly wasn’t supposed to “sing” that line haha

[TheBlackoutRadar]

5 hours ago, danny1994 said:

 

 

She clearly wasn’t supposed to “sing” that line haha

What is going on with her facial expressions??? They are outstanding 😂. 

[OutofKontrol]

5 hours ago, danny1994 said:

I’m sure it’s been addressed in this thread already, I’m just replying to the title and haven’t read any of the posts. She’s never really sang live. On tour at least. She’s sang a few songs here and there, but she’s been lip-synching ever since the BOMT tour.
 

Now when it comes to promotional performances, she sang live a lot more. I’d say it was half and half live and lip-synching. Some even pre-recorded, that performance of lucky on top of the pops for example. There is one point at  2:42 when she mouths “and they say” during the final chorus, but you don’t hear her.
 

 

She clearly wasn’t supposed to “sing” that line haha

Those pre-recorded vocals are the same vocals from the Oops tour. I loved how "Real" it sounded lol---Being a longtime Janet Jackson Fan, I have gotten very good at catching pre-recorded vocals, cause Janet is the QUEEN of doing that LOL.

[s&m]

When did she start singing live? 

[FullyDattAndDatt3full]

this period of her life was simply over...

[toysoldier88]

19 hours ago, Dreams said:

I think that the studio versions of her songs are quite complicated to do live for a few reasons :

1.  Her original voice is deep , she has a deep vocal range but her producers/music label made her to do this iconic nasal, throaty, "baby" voice, it's not a natural way to sing, it's a dangerous vocal technique and it would be destructive/stressful for the vocal cords to sing this way during a whole concert let alone a whole tour.

2. her songs are very overproduced , there's a lot going on , lot of FXs, lot of autotune, pitch correction, comping etc, it's pure entertaining pop candy and it's quite complicated to do it live.

3. she dances a lot and you need a great cardio/breath control in order to sing live + it's not a healthy vocal technique.

This excuse is tragic sorry Nobody is asking her to sound like the album... nobody does, most of the pop artists can't keep up with their studio version songs, it's normal... a few adlibs and the ballads live, that's what a dancing  singer should do. 

[Hooked-On-Knee]

24 minutes ago, toysoldier88 said:

This excuse is tragic sorry Nobody is asking her to sound like the album... nobody does, most of the pop artists can't keep up with their studio version songs, it's normal... a few adlibs and the ballads live, that's what a dancing  singer should do. 

Other singers aren't singing in a, "baby voice", on their albums, it's not that she'd sound slightly different, she'd sound majorly different to the general public. Back then, her voice was essential to how she was marketed so it would have disillusioned the image they were pushing, so you can see why what happened happened. In addition, it's only the Soubrette vocal type's tone that is emulated, it's not that songs are out of her range. Britney sings songs that a Mezzo can sing with ease for the most part, but it'd give a darker and more richer tone, particularly lower notes. Can you imagine Britney singing the C3 (a female low note) in Oops!...I Did It Again like Beyonce or Gaga back in 2000? 

Britney is a Lyric Mezzo-Soprano based on her tessitura, her tone on her most notorious records emulate the Soubrette (a classification for very high Sopranos who are usually only this vocal type for a temporary period of time when they are young, this is another reason why the, "baby voice", had to go, even for those who are naturally having that tone, they don't keep it forever and are encouraged to, "let it go", when their voices deepen with age). She'd sound vastly different compared to say Beyonce live or Gaga live who don't sing in a, "baby voice". The thing that stops other artists from sounding the same live is that they don't use autotune like in the studio recording, so it sounds more, "raw", but it doesn't sound totally different/it doesn't neccesarily blow you away that they sound that different live. 

[Dean09]

Hi all… long post alert!!

I don’t post here often, but I’m a vocal coach from the UK (in Musical Theatre), and thought I’d offer a few pointers on the subject:

1: Britney’s sound that we all know and (hopefully) love, is not a traditional/natural sound. Vocal coaches are here to help people with a variety of things, but I will highlight the main 4:

a. Extend their range.
b. Improve their resonance and power.
c. Help with pitch and rhythmical ability
d. Overall confidence (I’ll talk about confidence in point 3!.)

I was a Britney fan from the start and remember watching her “The Making of Britney Spears” on UK MTV about 20 years ago. Something seemed off with me at the time with the documentary as they played lots of clips of Britney singing as a child and a record executive said, “Although Britney sang well, she didn’t sing correctly…”. I was not a trained vocal coach at the time (and not everything she did as a child was perfect – especially her forced low larynx etc.), but 20 years later, as a trained coach, I can certainly say that she sang with a better and more ‘correct’ technique than anything they trained her to do since!! She wasn’t trained to sing “correctly” – she was trained to sing in a way that they thought would sell and sound **** (and did – we will never know what would have happened if Britney kept her natural voice and signed with another label – she could be one of MANY artists with a huge voice that never makes it).

2. Britney’s studio recordings are VERY complex. The studio sound Britney creates is based on layering and creating tones which are hard to replicate live. Most people say Britney doesn’t use her “deep” voice now – and she doesn’t for the lead vocal… But a lot of her songs have her doing a breathy whispery head voice in a “soprano” tone, with her “deep” voice layering the octave below (and harmonies in-between!). This is impossible to replicate live as the sound is a studio sound, and just wouldn’t sound right with one live vocal track.

3. Confidence. Her confidence in her voice lasted for about a year when she first started. She realised that the everything the record label were asking her to do was unachievable live and lost confidence in her voice. I would hope that she would one day have the confidence to say “I’m not gonna sing in falsetto, I’m gonna stand here and sing the song with my natural voice and prove that I can sing”!! As a coach, I really think she can do this – but she has to build that confidence first. Visit a vocal coach with her best interest at heart (I do Zoom lessons hahah.

4. “Traditional” singers can’t sing Britney. I have trained some singers on the UK West End stage and have over 30 clients a week. I did a showcase 3 years ago and one of my singers sang Toxic. BIG MISTAKE. She sounded lovely at the piano and in the studio rehearsing with the dancers. She went on stage and sounded terrible because she couldn’t breathe properly or get the correct vocal styling needed. I firmly believe that song was not written to be sang live – it was written for a studio vocal to be perfected and then never sang again. And I’m talking about one of my clients that can nail "Defying Gravity” without batting an eyelid – which brings me back to my first point:

Britney doesn’t sing in a traditional way and therefore her songs are not for traditional singers – they require a certain technique. One which Britney has perfected in the studio for years. I hope Britney may chose to rebel against her current vocal technique and belt out a song again, but whatever happens, I’ve always been a huge fan and will always love her dearly.

There may also be more reasons, due to her CSHIP etc, I am just trying to highlight some of the potential vocal reasons.

[Louis-j]

Did she ever started to sing live ? 

 

[NotBuyingIt]

2 hours ago, toysoldier88 said:

This excuse is tragic sorry Nobody is asking her to sound like the album... nobody does, most of the pop artists can't keep up with their studio version songs, it's normal... a few adlibs and the ballads live, that's what a dancing  singer should do. 

I don't think it's an excuse - I do think that style of singing is very damaging. That said, I 100000% agree with you that it is frustrating as all hell!

One other thing: I noticed years ago in a few Insta videos that Britney has a bit of a smoker's laugh and voice. Actually, her June 23rd testimony totally sounds like a smoker's voice, especially when compared to her old speaking voice. And we've all seen pictures of her with cigarettes at the studio. I can't imagine her vocal chords are in fantastic shape. I sang karaoke for less than a half hour this past weekend and my vocal chords were in PAIN! I can't imagine singing via an unhealthy technique and in an unnatural pitch, smoking cigarettes, and dancing. No way.

https://www.idolator.com/7533856/britney-spears-studio-new-music-cigarettes-marlboros-photo?safari=1

[Jamie Lynn Forever]

2 hours ago, toysoldier88 said:

This excuse is tragic sorry Nobody is asking her to sound like the album... nobody does, most of the pop artists can't keep up with their studio version songs, it's normal... a few adlibs and the ballads live, that's what a dancing  singer should do. 

but that's never going to happen. she's not coming back on stage anytime soon.

and the lipsyncing and the baby voice is part of her legacy

if you don't like it then go stan adele or something

 

 

[Arianna]

If you watch BOMT era performances she sang live and could barely do any dancing. She become known for her performances so I think they chose the dancing over the singing because you can’t dance how she danced and sing half decent….