Popular Band Under Investigation For Allegedly Lip Syncing At Chinese Concert

In 2021, China imposed a ban on lip-syncing for all its musical artists and idols in order to prevent too much focus on visuals in the saturated industry and the future development of its cultural musical scene. So, if any artist is found guilty of lip-syncing, they are punished by Chinese law.

In the light of this ban, an uber-popular rock band, Mayday, has gotten embroiled in a controversy after their concert in Shanghai, China, last month. The Taiwanese quintet made its debut in 1999 and is known as the “Beatles of the Chinese-speaking world.”

The band’s long-standing popularity resulted in their Shanghai concert being sold out in five seconds. But a month after that performance, a music critic accused them of lip-syncing through five of the twelve songs on the setlist. The suspicions are based on analyzing the main vocalist’s mouth shape, which allegedly didn’t match the words he was singing.

The allegations are so severe that Shanghai city authorities have created a team of experts to determine its authenticity. As of now, Mayday is under investigation.

Ashin, the band’s main vocalist, vehemently denied the allegations and said it was malicious slander at best. But he assured that he would cooperate with the city authorities in the investigation process.

According to Chinese laws, if Mayday is found guilty, the punishment could range from compensating all the concert-goers for ticket prices and paying fines to expulsion from the industry and facing a ban on promoting in China.

The news has made its way to South Korea as well, and a significant number of netizens seem to favor China’s strict crackdown on lip-syncing. Many demanded that South Korea also implement similar standards for K-Pop.

• “If lip-sync got banned in our country, probably half of the K-Pop artists would lose their job.”
• “Can our country implement this as well? Those who lip-sync can’t be called singers.”
• “Executions and lip-sync bans are the two things we need to learn from China.”
• “That’s right. If you’re a singer, you should actually sing the songs. Feels like it’s been so long since I heard live singing.”
• “South Korea should also ban lip-syncing, please. If you can’t sing live, you are not a singer. You’re just a dancer.”