Did Cher lip-sync during Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade? Fans come to iconic singer’s defense

The American singer and actress Cher has come under fire over accusations of lipsyncing during her performance at Macy's 97th Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York on November 23, 2023.

The 77-year-old appeared at the show's end to perform her new single, DJ Play A Christmas Song. Many NBC viewers were upset about her rendition of the track and claimed that the iconic singer was lipsyncing.

However, her fans quickly supported the actress by praising her and the other 18 artists who performed at the event, including Batiste, Jessie James Decker, Brandy, Chicago, and En Vogue.

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Fans defended Cher for alleged lipsyncing at the Thanksgiving parade

Cher was in Manhattan for her performance at the end of the annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. The 3.5-hour celebration featured 16 character balloons, including Kung Fu Panda and the Pillsbury Doughboy. Eighteen artists, from Jon Batiste to the 77-year-old iconic singer, performed at the event.

Cher wore a long, sparkly white trench coat with a white button-down shirt underneath. There was a black tie and matching black leather pants decorated with gold embellishments, as per Unilad. She added gold earrings to the ensemble and wore black fingerless gloves.

Sometime during her performance, viewers claimed that she was lipsyncing her new single, DJ Play A Christmas Song, which was released on October 6, 2023. They noticed her song was still playing even when the microphone was not near her face. A backup dancer was trying to remove her sparkly trench coat, which led to the alleged exposé.

Many netizens bombarded social media platforms and started to quip about the mishap. On the other hand, Cher's fans supported the actress and reminded people that she was still in her prime, as per The Sun. Some of the reactions are given below:

The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade started in 1924. It has run annually ever since, with the only exception being a three-year break during World War II. At that time, the helium and rubber were diverted to defense uses, as per Britannica. The annual national holiday is celebrated in the United States and Canada to remember the harvest and other blessings of the past year.

Last month, the Believe singer made headlines, in the same month, for calling out the existence of artificial intelligence (AI) in the music industry and urged the people in charge to make it illegal.

Cher had allegedly heard an AI-generated version of herself covering a Madonna track. As per Sky News, she responded to the cover saying,

"Someone did me singing a Madonna song and it was kind of shocking. They didn't have it down perfectly. But also, I've spent my entire life trying to be myself, and now these a*sholes are going to go take it? And they'll do my acting and they'll do my singing?"

The singer added that she felt that Artificial Intelligence shouldn’t be able to "take away" art after one has worked hard on it.

"I'm telling you, if you work forever to become somebody - and I'm not talking about somebody in the famous, money part - but an artist and then someone just takes it from you, it seems like it should be illegal."

Cher's memorable performance in the Thanksgiving tradition comes about a month after the release of her first-ever Christmas album, entitled Christmas, which was released on October 20, 2023.