• Yang Peiyi was chosen to perform the anthem "Hymn to the Motherland" at the opening 2008 Olympic ceremony in Beijing. However, because of Peiyi's buck teeth, another girl, Lin Miaoke, appeared at the ceremony and lip-synced to Peiyi's voice. A member of the Chinese politburo influenced the decision after watching a rehearsal.

• Fast Facts

  1. Yang Peiyi was chosen to perform the anthem after she won a competition
  2. Peiyi was not allowed to perform the song in person at the ceremony because of her looks
  3. Lin Miaoke was chosen to stand in Peiyi's place and lip-sync the song to Peiyi's voice
  4. Lin Miaoke is nine years old
  5. Yang Peiyi is seven years old

• Quotes

  "We have a responsibility to face the audience of the whole country, and to be open with this explanation. We should all understand it is like this: it is a question of the national interest. It is a question of the image of our national music, our national culture. Especially at the entrance of our national flag, this is an extremely important, an extremely serious matter."—Chen Qigang, musical designer

  "So we made the choice. I think it is fair to both Lin Miaoke and Yang Peiyi—after all, we have a perfect voice, a perfect image and a perfect show, in our team's view, all together."—Chen Qigang

• Infamous Lip-Syncing Scandals

  • Milli Vanilli:
  • After receiving the 1990 Grammy for best new artist for the recording of Girl You Know It's True, Milli Vanilli was revoked their award when it was revealed that they did not perform the vocals on the album.

  • Ashlee Simpson on Saturday Night Live:
  • In an October 2004 appearance on SNL, Ashlee Simpson was exposed live on television as having used a backing track to sing along with. Simpson was supposed to close the show with the song "Autobiography," but as she started the performance another song was played over the speakers. At the end of the show, she blamed her band for playing the wrong song.

  
  

• Related Pages on Mahalo

  2010 Winter Olympics | Beijing | Beijing Air Quality | China | China Censorship | China Human Rights | Hong Kong | Michael Phelps | Olympic Torch | Spielberg Boycotts Olympics | Summer Olympics | Winter Olympics | Olympic Triathlon | Summer Olympics 1996 | Summer Olympics 2000

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