Turning Point USA's 'all-American' halftime show mocked for 'embarrassing' lipsync fail
The alternate option didn't exactly go off without a hitch
Not many can pull of a show fit for America's biggest sporting event, and it seems like Turning Point USA's attempt at an 'alternative' half time performance fell flat for a key reason.
The political right in the United States almost immediately expressed their opposition to Puerto Rican artist and recent Grammy winner Bad Bunny when he was chosen to lead the Super Bowl half time show, amid his anti-Trump and pro-immigration stances.
Believing they could run a better show operated by 'All-Americans' instead, Erika Kirk's Turning Point USA revealed the decision to air an alternative half time performance in competition with Apple's official show.
Operated and orchestrated by Kirk, the Turning Point alternative saw performances from 'MAGA artists' such as Gabby Barrett, Lee Brice, Brantley Gilbert, and a headline set from Kid Rock, yet people quickly noticed some flaws.
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Despite pulling in nearly five million concurrent viewers, everyone both in attendance and watching from home quickly noticed that Kid Rock's mic feed wasn't exactly matching up with his on-stage actions, leading many to throw accusations of lipsyncing his way.
Shortly after bursting onto the stage, you can see several occasions where vocals are heard by the microphone is nowhere near Kid Rock's mouth, and it wasn't a case of the backing track filling in either.
"Kid Rock performed on a stage that's about the size of my living room, and he sounded like my dog when he tried to sing," wrote one user on X in a scathing review of the performance, whereas another slammed the "terribly embarrassing lip syncing by Kid Rock... even Milli Vanilli did it better."
What's worse, many have speculated that the performance itself was pre-recorded – as there was no indication during the show that it was live, as per Variety – meaning that the lipsync mishap is an even more glaring flaw.
"Holy f***, he's literally about five words behind the actual music. This has got to be the worst f***ing lip syncing I've ever seen," added another astonished viewer on social media.
If it was pre-recorded, something that could have led to the mishap would have been if the audio and video were misaligned in the edit. This would mean that Kid Rock did indeed perform live, but with uncertainty in almost every area it's anyone's guess at this point.
Turning Point will most likely call this a success regardless of the quality of the event, although only next year will show whether people will be willing to tune in again – or if there will even be another one altogether.