LIPSYNCH

[Enrico 15,884]

Not sure about it at all. Does it sound the same on every night? To me Living For Love is the only lipsynched number, several others have backing tapes but her microphone is on and can be heard doing some lines.

 

After reading a discussion on the San José topic I though it would be better to start a new topic.

I'd really want to understand more about this.

I think the following songs are not sung live:

Iconic

Bitch (only the first words are live)

Holy water (definitely not Vogue when she is on the pole!!)

Devil Pray (sounds like the album every time)

maybe Body Shop

Deeper and deeper

Living for love

Unapologetic Bitch

 

Does someone know more about the backing vocals and how the whole system works?

I would be grateful to discuss also the previous tours...

Virgin Tour and Who's that girl were totally live.

Then came the BAT where Express yourself, Where's the party, Hanky panky and Vogue at least were sung in playback. When I was in Milan to see S&S almost everything but You must love me sounded recorded, I even felt ashamed...

[Primul5 185]

Virgin Tour and Who's that girl were totally live.

I thought and probably read somewhere, that Virgin Tour has backing vocals pre-recorded on tape.

[kesiak 3,041]

Virgin Tour had backing tracks on some songs too. 

 

Hanky Panky on BAT was live. 

[Fighter 28,802]

Dont forget autotune and other effects help. These days its kinda hard to tell what is and isnt real live, unless you carefully compare different dates

[Enrico 15,884]

Dont forget autotune and other effects help. These days its kinda hard to tell what is and isnt real live, unless you carefully compare different dates

That's exactly what I meant. The tracks are recorded to sound live and they are not.Usually you can tell it is livelli if you hear her breathing like for instance in Living for love at the Grammys.I didn't know about the VT though, thank you.

[Enrico 15,884]

Other times the verse is live and the chorus is recorded:https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1Wk45WX4EcsStill Donna and Niki sound live in the chorus, while sometimes they don't seem to sing live in Hanky Panky...Is it possible that whenever M decides to sing live the mic is on and the background voice disappears or is it just doubled and we dont hear it unless there is a mistake as in Hung up in the HC promo tour?

[Enrico 15,884]

Sorry I am really obsessed to understand how it works precisely...I've been it for years actually...But if you listen to something that is live such as the Confession Dress Rehearsal that I found on this forum (and will never be thankful enough) you understand that it sound REALLY different, as you can notice from I feel love for instance...

[Gargamel 8,775]

Except for a very few songs (True Blue, La Vie en Rose..) she is constantly helped with backing vocals from beginning to end (as any other performer who gives that kind of show)  you can easily hear to them however I assume that her microphone is always open!?

[stefo 6,600]

Then I suppose that also the backing vocal tracks are used at different volumes especially according to coreo necessities.

 

Anyway for me Unapologetic Bitch, Iconic, Bitch I'm Madonna, Holy Water, Living For Love or Deeper And Deeper are not completely live, some support -but not that strong- is also present in Body Shop, Rebel Heart, Devil Pray and Music/ Candy Shop/ Material Girl. 

 

Many tracks sound purely live this time though: Burning Up, La Isla Bonita, that horrible gypsy thing and all the ballads and acoustic numbers (True Blue, Who's That Girl, Ghosttown, La Vie En Rose).

 

This excellent tour is one of her best vocal proof ever for me, isn't it?

Of course Who's That Girl, Girlie Show and ReInvention, when it comes to just HEAR music, still are the best,

for sound (rough as strong, as especially the first two were), live backings (does anybody really feel that "invitation to the dance" freedom feeling here?), orchestrations quality and creativity     

[Angelo 5,755]

Horrible gipsy thing???? OMFG

[stefo 6,600]

Yeah, sorry... that one and Holiday are the only parts I really can't get into.

[Beto 706]

I THINK:

 

Playback (or excess of autotune):

Iconic

Body Shop

 

She sings over the pre-recorded track (She can playback in some verses):

Bitch I'm Madonna

Holy Water (except Vogue)

Living For Love

Candy Shop

Unapologetic Bitch

 

With the help of some backing vocals:

Devil Pray

Deeper And Deeper

HeartBreakCity

Like A Virgin (sing everything live with little backing vocals, especially "hey!")

Rebel Heart

Music

Material Girl

Holiday

 

Totally live:

Burning Up

True Blue

Love Don't Live Here Anymore

La Isla Bonita

80's Medley

Who's That Girl

Ghosttown

La Vie En Rose

[Enrico 15,884]

I THINK:

 

Playback (or excess of autotune):

Iconic

Body Shop

 

With the help of some backing vocals:

Devil Pray

 

I think autotune hides the playback very well, pity.

I'd love Devil Pray to be sung live but for what I heard I fear that it's always the same track, with not even a slight difference...

[Beto 706]

I think autotune hides the playback very well, pity.

I'd love Devil Pray to be sung live but for what I heard I fear that it's always the same track, with not even a slight difference...

It is quite difficult to know from amateur recordings. Maybe she has re-recorded the song to more difficult to identify lipsync, like "Girl Gone Wild" and "Gang Bang" from MDNA Tour.

[Jackie 8,127]

I think devil pray is live with elements of backing track

[Elazul 250]

Nice to see a proper discussion on this!

 

I think all of the Rebel Heart songs have backing tapes to a certain extent. The least are HeartBreakCity (I think only the "IIII'm in the middle..." part only) and Rebel Heart (the chorus), the rest are way more pre-recorded vocals than live, but this is obvious, she bends over backwards in the studio now to sound "young" or "different" so she cannot reproduce these vocals live.

 

That said, to me Iconic sounds more live than not, out of tune a lot of places and she moves less than during most uptempo numbers, possibly not to open with a playback track like Future Lovers or Girl Gone Wild.

 

Bitch I'm Madonna & Holy Water have a few lines as her mic is always on but those two are the least live tracks alongside Living For Love, someone said Vogue is live, no it's not, there was a video where she misses her cue while coming down the pole. Devil Pray is live during the verses but then the fast and high-pitched parts are tapes.

 

Body Shop is like Hung Up on MDNA Tour, pretending live auto-tune but it's just re-recorded, though she is doing some lines live. Don't really get why anyone believes she can sing live in that tempo while doing a choreography...

 

Deeper And Deeper & Music are the hardest to tell for me, I guess some backing is there during the chorus but mostly live, same for Material Girl & Holiday.

 

Dress You Up seems to be completely live as she sounds quite bad in it, thankfully she sounds great in the slower songs like Who's That Girl.

 

Candy Shop is barely live on this show compared to the previous tour to my ears, possibly because it's a demanding choreography for her compared to the rest of the show...

[Fighter 28,802]

Autotune doesn't equal playback or lip-sync. It means she's singing live and there's a system in place correcting the pitch of her voice constantly live. 

[Elazul 250]

Autotune doesn't equal playback or lip-sync. It means she's singing live and there's a system in place correcting the pitch of her voice constantly live. 

 

She might use that on songs like Iconic or Body Shop but that does not make her sound like album version vocals.

[Elazul 250]

Devil Pray seems to be complete playblack on the most recent show:

 

[Beto 706]

Devil Pray seems to be complete playblack on the most recent show:

 

She sings over a pre-recorded track (like Living For Love), but probabily make lipsync in some verses.

In "Lucifer is near..." she sounds live.

PS: Good video.

[Elazul 250]

I never hear her in Living For Love, in that one it always seemed she's not even trying.

 

Of course her mic is on during Devil Pray, but it was the same on Blond Ambition Tour, her mic was on during Express Yourself, Where's The Party & Vogue as well just that the tape overpowered her...

[Enrico 15,884]

Autotune doesn't equal playback or lip-sync. It means she's singing live and there's a system in place correcting the pitch of her voice constantly live. 

 

The real autotune corrects the pitch, that is true, but here she's not using it while singing live, she just covers the playback (a different pretends-to-be-live recording as in GGW in MDNA tour) with special effects.

Other special effects were used, for instance, to keep the long note during You must love me in S&S (what I'm feeliiiiiiiiing), and also the pitch sometimes was adjusted during the note.

[Enrico 15,884]

What still amazes me is that she can sing over the background track for even just an instant and then you don't hear the "double" voice...

 

Like the famous Unapologetic Bitch Toronto incident:

 

http://mega:///#!XJZhxY5I!fLt8v1nVz4YWUroGDztBG64r8Mko2zPWGBx_Jyumi-s

[janekmrwk 9]

So here is a random list of Madonna's playback performances (I might be wrong with some performances, sorry for that ) [sorry for my english, I'm german]:

 

Rebel Heart Tour:

no performance was 100& playback but Iconic was autotuned, and BIM, Holy Water/Vogue, Devil Pray, LFL, Rebel Heart, Music/Candy Shop and Unapologetic Bitch have backround vocals.

 

MDNA Tour:

Girl Gone Wild 

Revolver (Autotuned)

Hung Up

GMAYL

Vogue

 

S&S:

everything was live in my opinion since her singing was awful on this tour (I only judge by the videos i've seen and the audios i've heard). they edited her voice for the DVD.

 

Confessions:

live as well (In my opinion) but also edited for the DVD (I only can judge by videos i've seen)

 

Re-Invention:

Vogue

Nobody Knows Me (not sure)

Die Another Day (Autotuned)

 

Drowned World:

Haven't seen a lot of videos from that tour, I only saw the DVD and to me it seems like it was all live with some performances having backing vocals.

 

Girlie Show:

Erotica

Bye Bye Baby (?)

Justify My Love

 

BAT:

Express Yourself (Backing vocals)

Open Your Heart (Backing vocals)

Where's the Party

Vogue

 

 

[Elazul 250]

^Some additions to your post:

 

MDNA Tour: Revolver, Gang Bang (except the shouting bits at the end) & I'm Addicted are not live either. I Don't Give A has backing tapes. Express Yourself from the Born This Way bit does not seem to be live either. Erotica bit in Candy Shop not live either. Celebration is mostly playback as well.

 

Confessions Tour: Sorry was never live except the last line, Future Lovers was live on the first night but then mostly lipsynch. Backing tapes during Get Together, Jump, Music Inferno and possibly I Love New York & Hung Up. Erotica was never sung live in my opinion and interestingly enough La Isla Bonita was playback in Fresno.

 

Re-Invention Tour: Die Another Day is not live, she re-recorded the vocal. Papa Don't Preach was live on the first night but then lipsynch. Not sure about Into The Groove, some nights it sounds like, some nights it doesn't. Naturally rap during American Life is not live. On some nights Hanky Panky & Lament sound "too perfect" but could never be sure if they were playback.

 

Drowned World Tour: Sky Fits Heaven was never live, nor the last line of Human Nature, otherwise scarce backing tapes maybe in Ray Of Light & Music.

 

The Girlie Show: Vogue is not live although her mic is on just like on BAT, Fever was not live in London. Express Yourself might have had backing tapes, Holiday as well. Bye Bye Baby always seemed live to me (unlike VMA), last bit of Justify My Love is live.

 

Blond Ambition Tour: In addition to those you listed, she had heavy backing tapes during Papa Don't Preach & Into The Groove, possibly Causing A Commotion as well.