Earlier this year, Taylor Swift was hit with some pretty explosive claims from rock legend Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters when he implied that she did not actually perform and sing her songs live. That was obviously a rather horrible allegation against the pop sensation that her fans firmly denied, but it seems that the news has now been confirmed to be true.
In a YouTube video shared this week with his 434,000 subscribers, renowned vocal analyst and musical artist Fil Henley used some audio analysis to demonstrate and conclusively confirm that Taylor Swift lip-syncs – or “mimes” – her vocals during the Eras Tour.
According to Henley, the proof lies in the fact that her vocal performance remains identical at every show throughout the tour.
“You can hear that across all of these shows, [her vocals] are perfectly in sync,” he explained. “Her vocal is starting at the exact same time, finishing at the exact same time.”
Henley points out that this is physically impossible for a human to achieve.
“If we get vocal lines that match each other… It can’t happen,” he said. “Even with a clear vocal of a singer, doing one performance and even just singing a few notes and singing a few notes again, those vocal lines will not overlap, in terms of the detail – your hundredths of a second of your vocal cord vibrations.”
Henley described vocal performances as “very much like a fingerprint” that vary slightly from performance to performance even if the exact same song is being performed.
He also noted that even the “plosives” — the bursts of air hitting the microphone — are identical across performances, which would not be possible if it was not pre-recorded.
Using pitch detection software, Henley compared two of Swift’s performances. The software clearly displayed that both the pitch and timing were identical from show to show, something he argued would be physically impossible for any live human singer.
“This shouldn’t overlap at all,” he said. “It shouldn’t be anywhere close. But then when we line up the pitch, we see that it is a perfect replication.”
“That is something that is simply impossible to do with human vocal cords – to sing to that detail,” he continued. “We’re looking at hundredths of a second here and [there is] a pitch variation of zero cents.”
“So, this is the same audio file,” he concluded.
Henley performed the same analysis on two other shows and reached the same conclusion: she is using a pre-recorded track and lip-syncing overtop of it.
“And just to clarify, when I say that it’s the same audio, I mean the same audio file,” Henley explained. “It’s the same audio that’s been recorded in the studio to sound live – because it’s got the plosives left on there – but it’s that same audio that’s being mimed to. It is one vocal that’s been pre-recorded before all of these performances that Taylor is then miming to.”
Moreover, Henley argues that the pre-recorded track isn’t exactly “live” either. Instead, it has been heavily pitch-corrected to the point that he describes it as “borderline autotuned.”
“Something that I will say about the live performance and this vocal is that it is heavily edited from a pitch perspective,” he said. “I mean, it is borderline autotuned – it might be autotuned – because it is so stuck on these lines.”
“This is a pre-recorded vocal that has been heavily pitch-corrected, borderline autotuned,” he concluded.
Henley stands firm in his findings.
“That is fact,” he said. “This is objective data that we are looking at. It’s undeniable.”
Taylor Swift has seen her popularity surge in recent months, especially following her relationship with Kansas City Chiefs superstar tight end Travis Kelce. However, there’s a chance this could turn some fans against her.
We’ll have to see whether or not she decides to address the news.
