What a nightmare this has to be for Rita Ora. Her name was trending on Thanksgiving morning, but for all the wrong reasons. The singer was featured in the 2018 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, and clearly missed her cue to start lip syncing. Fans cringed as she "sang" something very different from what was heard playing at home. Well, both Ora and fellow parade performer John Legend explained why it's normal for stars to lip sync during the parade:
As John Legend explained, it comes down to technical issues for the moving floats. Parade stars are asked to lip sync in those cases, as opposed to it being some kind of gotcha that they were "caught" lip syncing. It's standard.
The fact that Rita Ora was lip syncing wasn't the issue. The issue was a technical mishap, leading her to start lip syncing away from the pre-recorded track. Macy's apologized for the issues, without specifically naming Ora:
The day before the parade, Macy's had tweeted a photo of Rita Ora, in honor of Night 2 of rehearsals:
All in all, as much as fans were quick to roast Rita Ora over Thanksgiving, 1) most performers lip sync at this parade, and 2) it wasn't really her fault there were technical issues. Also, cold weather is rough for singers, especially the bitter cold of this Thanksgiving in New York City.
That said, Kelly Clarkson got props from viewers for appearing to sing live during the frigid parade. She did appear to be on a different kind of float, though:
In addition to Rita Ora's mishap, the parade featured many other performances and parade floats -- including Dragon Ball series hero Goku's first float. Also, the Macy's parade showcased its first-ever same-sex kiss when the cast of the Broadway musical The Prom ended their performance with a kiss between leads Caitlin Kinnunen and Isabelle McCalla.
The 2018 parade was up a bit in the ratings for NBC, although only rising 2 percent from 2017. Rita Ora probably wishes fewer people watched, but at least it was an opportunity to educate fans on how parade performances usually work.
'Tis the season for more holiday programming, so check out the Hallmark Christmas movies coming later this year, along with more fall TV and the 2019 midseason TV schedule.
