Mouthing off: the unlikely rehabilitation of lip-syncing

Miming used to be the epitome of pop fakery. But in the age of TikTok, it has become a creative and lucrative artform in its own right

On 19 November 1990, the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences in the US revoked a Grammy award for the first (and so far, only) time. Pop duo Milli Vanilli were disgraced after music producer Frank Farian revealed the pair hadn't sung a single note on their multi-platinum 1989 album, Girl You Know It's True. Frontmen Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus were great dancers, sure, and they looked great in their oversized shoulder pads. But the duo had lip-synced their way to success. In the span of nine months, Milli Vanilli went from the world's official best new artist to the (handsome) faces of music history's biggest hoax.

It's not quite a Grammy, but in October 2020, TikToker Addison Rae Easterling was nominated for a People's Choice award. The 20-year-old American is a great dancer, sure, and looks great in oversized gold hoops. But Easterling has also lip-synced her way to success. In her one year on TikTok, the influencer has mouthed along to songs by Nelly Furtado, SZA and Katy Perry. She now has 65 million followers, a weekly podcast and her own cosmetics line. The big difference, of course, is that Easterling didn't deceive anyone; she's one of 800 million active users who mime along to soundbites on the TikTok app. But you can't help but feel Morvan and Pilatus - who were in their mid-20s at the time - would've fared much better 30 years on, in the TikTok era.