Perrengue live made the artist in question leave the stage visibly embarrassed and generated criticism
The playback feature is relatively common when an artist performs on TV shows. Using it requires a lot of attention, as one mistake can ruin everything. This is what happened in October 2004 with Ashlee Simpson.
At the time, the singer was scheduled to participate live on the program Saturday Night Liveone of the most traditional on American television. The timing couldn’t be more propitious: her debut album, Autobiographysold so much that it reached the top of the US charts.
However, on the day of the performance, she lost her voice after a severe case of reflux. Because of this — and also due to pressure from his record company not to cancel the recording — he had to use playback.
The first song, “Pieces of Me”went without any major problems. However, things got out of hand during the next song, “Autobiography”: A behind-the-scenes error caused the previous track to be played again.
Simpson even tried to cover up the gaffe and started dancing, while his band improvised and started playing again. “Pieces of Me”. Visibly embarrassed by the situation, the singer left the stage in tears. The program had to go to commercial break.
That night, the actor Jude Law commanded the attraction. When closing, he called Ashlee Simpson and handled the situation with good humor.
“Ladies and gentlemen, what can I say? Live television!”
Then, the artist, still embarrassed by the trouble, justified the problem. He also took advantage of the speech to apologize. The use of pre-recorded material was not mentioned.
My band started playing the wrong song. I didn’t know what to do, so I thought about dancing. I’m sorry!”
The situation, of course, became a problem for Ashlee Simpson. The singer was criticized and the incident ended up being heavily negatively explored by the American media.
Lorne Michaelslongtime producer of Saturday Night Livepublicly criticized the artist for being the first to abandon a live performance in the attraction’s history. He also said that he was not warned about the use of playback — otherwise, he would have vetoed the singer’s presence, given that the program has always sought to prioritize live performances.
Ashlee Simpson and the lesson in humility
Two decades later, in an interview with the podcast Broad Ideas With Rachel Bilson & Olivia Allentranscribed by Entertainment Tonight, Ashlee Simpson reflected on the incident. First, she stated that she had never performed with lip-sync — which would be an indication that it “wouldn’t end well”, according to her.
Afterwards, he commented that if he could go back in time, he would have said “no” and canceled the performance, even under pressure. Furthermore, he guaranteed that he learned a lesson from what happened.
It was a humbling moment for me. I had the number one song on the charts and everything was about to go somewhere. And then it was like: ‘wow’. The humility of not even understanding what adult people would say about you; grown men, terrible things. It was very difficult to learn to ignore that, find my strength, pick myself up and move on.”
In 2005, Ashlee Simpson was invited to play again at Saturday Night Live. Luckily for him, the presentation went smoothly and without any problems.
Collaborated: Augusto Ikeda.
Source: Rollingstone
Earl Johnson is a music writer at Gossipify, known for his in-depth analysis and unique perspective on the industry. A graduate of USC with a degree in Music, he brings years of experience and passion to his writing. He covers the latest releases and trends, always on the lookout for the next big thing in music.
