Pavarotti's manager, Terri Robson, said that the tenor had turned the Winter Olympic Committee's invitation down several times because it would have been impossible to sing late at night in the sub-zero conditions of Turin in February.
"[4] When the Beatles performed on the TV show Thank Your Lucky Stars in 1963, the guitar and bass were not plugged in and there were no microphones on the stage, so the band was miming their instrument playing and lip-syncing the vocals.
Highlights have included Jimi Hendrix who, on hearing someone else's track being played by mistake (in the days of live broadcast), mumbled "I don't know the words to that one, man," a drunken performance of "Fairytale of New York" by Shane MacGowan of the Pogues, a performance of "Roll with It" by Oasis in which Noel and Liam Gallagher exchanged roles and BBC DJ John Peel's appearance as the mandolin soloist for Rod Stewart on "Maggie May."
As the opening verse began, unwitting lead singer Julianne Regan remained silent on a stool on stage while Tim Bricheno (the only other band member present) did not play his guitar.
[citation needed] During Whitney Houston's performance of "The Star-Spangled Banner" with a full orchestra before Super Bowl XXV, a prerecorded version was used.
"[10] British backing singer Margo Buchanan angrily left a 2011 Dolly Parton concert because of the extensive use of vocal and instrumental miming.
[11] The Red Hot Chili Peppers drew the ire of many on social media after they performed at Super Bowl XLVIII with their instruments unplugged, which made it obvious that they were miming.
[13] Violinist Natalie Holt threw eggs at Simon Cowell, the creator of Britain's Got Talent, in what she called a "... protest because she was angry that backing musicians don’t play live."
A spokesperson for the show told reporters that miming is "standard practice for backing musicians during TV performances as it isn’t possible to easily capture the quality of the sound in a live broadcast environment.
"[14] In 2011, singer Katy Perry was caught miming the recorder during a performance of "Big Pimpin'" but claimed afterward that the episode was a joke.
Zappa went to the TV studio's props department, "gathered an assortment of random objects and built a set" and instructed each band member to perform repeated physical movements during the mimed song (though not in time with the music).
"[19] For more than 40 years, major bands and artists appeared on the UK show Top of the Pops, with the producers insisting that the performers would either "lip-sync or sing along with a prerecorded backing track" for the TV broadcast.
[21] When Muse performed on the Italian TV show Quelli che... il Calcio, the producers insisted that the band mime along while the recording played on air.
[23] When UK artists Disclosure appeared at the Capital FM Summertime Ball, the producers "allowed the vocalists to sing [live], but required the backing tracks to be pre-recorded in order to sync with their visual display."
In the fallout of this miming controversy, MTV’s Unplugged series was launched, "a showcase for artists wanting to prove they were more than just studio creations".
[25] During a DJ tour for the release of the French group Justice, A Cross the Universe in November 2008, controversy arose when a photograph of Augé DJing with an unplugged Akai MPD24 surfaced.