The live Perrengue made the artist in question leave the stage visibly embarrassed and sparked criticism
The playback function 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 that time, the singer was supposed to participate live in the program Saturday night liveone of the most traditional on American television. The timing couldn’t be more propitious: his debut album, Autobiographyit sold so much that it reached the top of the US charts.
However, on the day of the show, he lost his voice due to a severe case of reflux. For this reason – and also due to pressure from his record company not to delete the recording – he had to use reproduction.
The first song, “Pieces of Me”It went without any major problems. However, things got out of hand during the next song, “Autobiography”: An error behind the scenes caused the previous track to play.
Simpson even tried to hide 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. At 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 disturbance, 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 I’d dance. I am sorry!”
The situation, obviously, became a problem for Ashlee Simpson. The singer was criticized and the incident ended up being widely covered negatively by the American media.
Lorne Michaelslong-time manufacturer of Saturday night livepublicly criticized the artist for being the first to abandon a live performance in the attraction’s history. He also said he was not notified of the use of playback, otherwise he would have vetoed the singer’s presence, as the program has always tried to prioritize live performances.
Ashlee Simpson and the lesson of humility
Two decades later, in a podcast interview Big Ideas with Rachel Bilson and Olivia Allentranscribed by Show tonight, Ashlee Simpson reflects on what happened. First, she said she had never performed lip-syncing, which would be an indication that “it wasn’t going to end well,” in her opinion.
He later commented that if he could go back in time, he would have said “no” and canceled the show, even under pressure. Furthermore, he guaranteed that he had 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 going somewhere. And then it was like: “wow.” The humility of not even understanding what adults would say about you; grown men, terrible things. It was very difficult to learn to ignore it, find the strength, get back up and move forward.”
In 2005, Ashlee Simpson was invited to play again at Saturday night live. Luckily for him, the presentation went smoothly and without any problems.
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Collaborator: Augusto Ikeda.
Source: Terra
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.
