It appears that at least one American Idol 7 contestant, Michael Johns, lip synced his performance on the Top 12 boys performance Tuesday night. But why? The answer could be very simple: iTunes downloads.

But first, the video of Michael Johns’ lip-sync:

youtube.com: Michael Johns - ‘Light My Fire’

Start watching at 1:40.

Around 1:50, Johns’ mouth is turned away from the mic, yet the vocals remain at a steady level.

And around 2:04 his mouth again isn’t anywhere near the mic.

Then look again at the editing during these segments.

At 1:50 the camera pulls back, making it hard, but not impossible to see the lip-sync.

And at 2:04, the lip-sync is cleverly edited out of frame.

Remember: Tuesday’s show was pre-taped, giving producers the ability to edit or mask obvious lip-sync moments such as these.

But why have the Idol contestants lip-sync?

How about iTunes agreement to sell songs and videos of the Idol contestants the day after the show airs?

The pressure to have a product online and available only hours being recorded is immense.

If the vocal tracks are pre-taped, the performance can be tweaked to correct mistakes, pitchyness and rough spots.

If you don’t think stuido editing has been done with every song in the top 100 right now, think again.

Pre-recorded performances help streamline the process of iTunes making the audio available for download only hours after the performance.

While the end result is artistically and aesthetically lame, American Idol’s and iTunes’ digital download business model is a sensible one.

It replaces the existing broken one, in which Idol winners and runners-up release CDs months after the competition, only to be met with slumping sales and indifference.

And this is a business, after all.

I've watched and re-watched his performance on Tuesday, it's still in my Tivo, and I can't see what they say is there. And trust me I watch Michael pretty closely
Anyway, I think it's a bunch of crap. I saw this posted on a different site but didn't read it, but it's always the same old flamer sites that try to bring in the whole "American Idol conspiracy" Ya know where the show is rigged and all that other crap. Whatever, Michael doesn't need to lip sync his voice is amazing.

Chalk it up to haters and brush it off

One request--please add the link to where you got the post...and I would also suggest to those who are posting news articles to also post the link to the articles. Thanks!

It's fine guys. We already know he didn't or else it would be a bigger deal than what it was. It was just from that ONE site.

CLICK

I don't believe this! It's like anything to make a GOOD guy look BAD! It pisses me off too.
Lets say for instance if it was true he probably wouldn't be the first. People need to grow up and quit posting s*it about people. Just 'cause there jealous cause MJ is the best on the show! **** them!

**Sorry just a LITTLE mad**I'm sure others feel the same**

You have to consider the source. It was written by a snarky blog site. It does not carry a lot of weight.

It wasn't true and this blog was weeks ago. I hope this thread dies out, lol.

I know! I'm trying to say it's no big deal and everyone seems to want to go on and on about it. It's weeks ago and obviously if ANY of it was true MICHAEL WOULD NOT BE ON THE SHOW!

So everyone - PLEASE Forget about it! It's just bringing more attention to the lip synching factor and I don't think that anyone wants to think about him LIP SYNCHING. We know the TRUE Michael and the TRUE Michael DOES NOT lip synch. This thread needs to die out like Dusty said because it's not important any longer. I just thought I'd share about what haters say but didn't expect it to last THIS long. It's pathetic. If you post here just ignore the whole lip synching post and respond to either Dusty's above post or this because Dusty has a good point! The point I've been trying to make the whole time since it has gotten 'out of control'.

The end.