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What happened to Michael's live voice around HIStory?

MechaJackson

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During the Victory, Bad and Dangerous tour his voice was amazing but during the HIStory tour his voice didn't sound as good imo. During the 30th anniversary special his singing voice was amazing, but he still lip synced in some songs. Some say he had laryngitis but I doubt he could have had it the whole HIStory tour.
 
I don' think his voice was that bad during the HIStory tour. He sounded good when he sang the acapella ending of YANA live. But on the other hand, WBSS from Munich is just painful to hear - he sounds very bad there.
But I too would be interested what was up with his voice. I also don't believe he had laryngitis.
 
I dont know what happened:no: but I do agree there was something wrong:yes:
 
Here's my theory

It has been said that Michael was having problems with his voice has far back as the Bad tour (I remember hearing that one of the Bad tour concerts was cancelled because some problems he was having with his voice. Not sure if this is true or not) and then during the Dangerous tour when his voice problems got a little worse it was said that Mike was taking pain killers to help him through some of the live Dangerous tour songs.

Now it was during the Dangerous era that Mike became addicted to pain killers so when the HIStory tour came around Mike was still having voice problems and by that time he had gotten over his addiction of pain killers and he probably didn't want to damage his voice by singing full out and he was probably afraid to use pain killers incase he became addicted again. So lip syncing was the only option
 
AnnieRUOkay89 said:
He didn't sound 100%, I always thought he still sung well though, considering the circumstances.
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His voice on WBSS was pretty terrible on every show in my opinion. Jackson 5 medley, end of YANA and Billie Jean are better though. He still sounded fairly bad though.
 
analogue said:
Here's my theory

It has been said that Michael was having problems with his voice has far back as the Bad tour (I remember hearing that one of the Bad tour concerts was cancelled because some problems he was having with his voice. Not sure if this is true or not) and then during the Dangerous tour when his voice problems got a little worse it was said that Mike was taking pain killers to help him through some of the live Dangerous tour songs.

Now it was during the Dangerous era that Mike became addicted to pain killers so when the HIStory tour came around Mike was still having voice problems and by that time he had gotten over his addiction of pain killers and he probably didn't want to damage his voice by singing full out and he was probably afraid to use pain killers incase he became addicted again. So lip syncing was the only option
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I totally agree with that, most singers will lip sync to save their voices or even when they loose their voice and is an option givin if that being the case.
 
I personally don't even think he wanted to do the History tour. I think he did it only to remove himself from that whole molestation and media frenzy enviroment.
I read somewhere that he had an undiagnosed reduced lung capacity (i think it was his outopsy).Maybe that was the reason why he sounded so off and he chose to mime? Whatever was the reason though, i think it was a very bad decision of him to lip sync. Maybe people were more tolerant about it then but today it's totally unacceptable.I think this is one of those choises that are really going to stain his legacy.
 
L.T.D said:
His voice on WBSS was pretty terrible on every show in my opinion. Jackson 5 medley, end of YANA and Billie Jean are better though. He still sounded fairly bad though.
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For me he sounded the worst when he sang parts of Beat It live. It just sounded painful and i don't mean that as a figure of speech. It really sounded like Mike was going through alot of pain with his voice when he was singing it
 
One word... LARYNGITIS, Michael DID THE SHOW When he was sick. He chose to do the show instead of canceling on his fans... I dont think complaining about it is cool. And As you get older, you're not as young as you used to be. ON BAD and DANGEROUS Michael was in his early 30's... and on HIStory he was in his late 30's... and dancing around stage is not as easy...

He didnt have Laryngitis the whole time but even if he lip synced, its understandable, cuz he dances a lot and fans want to see him dance.

I applaud him for what he's done... He's amazing!


L.o.v.e.
Romi
 
WBSS is one of the most difficult songs to sing live plus he was dancing plus he had show after show. So no wonder...
 
kasi said:
I personally don't even think he wanted to do the History tour. I think he did it only to remove himself from that whole molestation and media frenzy enviroment.
I read somewhere that he had an undiagnosed reduced lung capacity (i think it was his outopsy).Maybe that was the reason why he sounded so off and he chose to mime? Whatever was the reason though, i think it was a very bad decision of him to lip sync. Maybe people were more tolerant about it then but today it's totally unacceptable.I think this is one of those choises that are really going to stain his legacy.
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Thats why the estate needs to release, The Triumph, Victory, Bad and Dangerous Tours to show that when MJ was 100% well he gave his all and sung to a 100%
 
well you try and sing with all that dancing...I've tried and your voice cuts out...especially with fast and hard songs like WBSS or Smooth Criminal plus there's a fair age difference between the Bad and HIStory tour :)
 
The Lost Child said:
WBSS is one of the most difficult songs to sing live plus he was dancing plus he had show after show. So no wonder...
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I think that Wanna Be Startin Somethin is one of the easiest songs to sing live. It's not a walk in the park or anything but it's alot easier than songs like They Don't Care About Us, Smooth Criminal, Earth Song and Dangerous.
 
do you have a youtube link for me of which you think is bad? i did not notice i believe..

I was then a little angry because i believe a singer must sing live *no a days almost no one can, did you hear some others like katy perry and shakira? pff*

but goiing on while sick is a good think a agree with that..

so hope for a link so i can listen too :)
 
Themidwestcowboy said:
Thats why the estate needs to release, The Triumph, Victory, Bad and Dangerous Tours to show that when MJ was 100% well he gave his all and sung to a 100%
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In all honesty, I dont think they have to release anything just to "show" MJ was 100%, we all know he was 100% and neither Michael or the fans have to prove that.
 
It's wierd because his voice didn't change for good during HIStory, his voice did came back after years. For example he sounds GREAT on This Is It, maybe because he didn't dance that much during reharsals and had more time to focus on the singing but still he was the same golden voiced Michael we all knew.
 
AndreyZidane™;3238915 said:
It's wierd because his voice didn't change for good during HIStory, his voice did came back after years. For example he sounds GREAT on This Is It, maybe because he didn't dance that much during reharsals and had more time to focus on the singing but still he was the same golden voiced Michael we all knew.
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It is not clear what songs were really live on This Is It.

I would say the small part of speechless in TII was really live and IJCSLY maybe but I have doubts on the other songs.
 
Michael had acute laryngitis as well as an inflamed lung during the HIStory Tour, which accounts for his terrible voice as can be seen during the Munich performance (I felt really bad for him watching WBSS during the Munich Show :(), However it did not last the whole tour, but Michael continued to lip sync after healing from the medical conditions...
 
mjfreak4life said:
In all honesty, I dont think they have to release anything just to "show" MJ was 100%, we all know he was 100% and neither Michael or the fans have to prove that.
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:agree:
I remember to have read in Katherine's book that sometimes Michael had some issues with his vocal during the tours of Jacksons era, at that point he sang live all the time, even when he had some nodules on his vocal cords - I think that's why his voice changed along the years -
We can hear (feel) that he had a fragile (and so beautiful) voice and he must take care of it - remember in TII how he was a little upset when JHill push him to sing high on YJCSLY-

Also, it's not that easy to sing and dance at the same time all along a show, it's a real great performance and that can't be the same at almost 40 years old like it was at 30.
 
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ronia said:
It is not clear what songs were really live on This Is It.

I would say the small part of speechless in TII was really live and IJCSLY maybe but I have doubts on the other songs.
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Clearly, WBSS, Human Nature and Beat It were live.
 
I think this is one of those choises that are really going to stain his legacy.
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o_O That's impossible cause lip syncing has been around for yrs! And since the HIStory tour was many yrs ago why even hold it against him, anymore?!

I mean geez... MJ in concert is better then no MJ in Concert! I wish I could have seen him live, so I appreciate any tour his has done!
 
bluetopez said:
o_O That's impossible cause lip syncing has been around for yrs! And since the HIStory tour was many yrs ago why even hold it against him, anymore?!

I mean geez... MJ in concert is better then no MJ in Concert! I wish I could have seen him live, so I appreciate any tour his has done!
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co-sign!
There was once a thread w/pool for those who saw MJ in concert, if we were disappointed w/him using lip sync. I wrote it there and I'll repeat myself. I didn't matter. He was there. You could feel his magic in the air. It didn't matter at all most of the show was lip synced. He gave his best anyway, he was dancing, talking to us. Plus: he's "I love you"s were not synced and just for them it was worth to go to the concert.

We all know Michael Jackson can sing, he's been proving it since the age of five. For sure I'd like to hear him singing everything on each show live, but I can think of reasonable excuses for him using playback.
 
I could watch this again again over a hundred times and still think its a awesome performance, plus I think Mike looked good and strong and quite stocky looking at his legs. I believe he wasn't fit enough in terms of cardio, to pull off the singing and dancing all the time, hence singing WBSS live during the beginning of the show. Its just a theory? Yet can anyone explain why do a heavy dance performance with live singing and yet lip sync to HTW or SIM, maybe he thought he could get away with it if he sang a during a heavy dance performance if his voice was suffering? But to me that goes against anything that Michael strived for?

 
kasi said:
I personally don't even think he wanted to do the History tour. I think he did it only to remove himself from that whole molestation and media frenzy enviroment.
I read somewhere that he had an undiagnosed reduced lung capacity (i think it was his outopsy).Maybe that was the reason why he sounded so off and he chose to mime? Whatever was the reason though, i think it was a very bad decision of him to lip sync. Maybe people were more tolerant about it then but today it's totally unacceptable.I think this is one of those choises that are really going to stain his legacy.
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It would only stain his legacy if he had never sung live. From earlier tours everybody knows damn well that Michael Jackson could sing live. So it's not like he was Milli Vanili or something. I'm not happy about him lip synching through History, but he sure had his reasons (health, fitness or whatever). He has given us more than enough in 40 years to not to hold it against him.
 
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LLCz said:
Clearly, WBSS, Human Nature and Beat It were live.
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During the HIStory tour, Beat It was not live, only the adlibs at the beginning and the final chorus while dancing, He did sing Beat It live once on the HIStory Tour in Australia, Brisbane I think, Only because the power went out beforehand...
 
The Lost Child said:
co-sign!
There was once a thread w/pool for those who saw MJ in concert, if we were disappointed w/him using lip sync. I wrote it there and I'll repeat myself. I didn't matter. He was there. You could feel his magic in the air. It didn't matter at all most of the show was lip synced. He gave his best anyway, he was dancing, talking to us. Plus: he's "I love you"s were not synced and just for them it was worth to go to the concert.

We all know Michael Jackson can sing, he's been proving it since the age of five. For sure I'd like to hear him singing everything on each show live, but I can think of reasonable excuses for him using playback.
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That's right, and something I notice is that when he lip sync he is actually singing out (if that makes sense). You can see the muscles of his throat, his facial expressions, the way he forms his words--all different than the usual lip syncers. I also notice that in videos, many artists seem to be merely moving their lips, or their lip movements, at times, do not match up with the vocals from the song that we hear. With Michael, his singing matches with the audio we hear, so he sings out. That is why I always say that even though we say Michael "lip sync", to me he is still singing. I simply do not hear it, and if it is off key, we know the reason why.
 
Really,I would agree with You,Petrarose,because sometimes I hear his live voice in lip syncing,different from we hear in albums
 
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