Does she sing or lip sync?

Welcome to the final instalment of the Sun's Hilary Duff miniseries - soon to be a major motion picture. We had fun, didn't we? We covered the "difficult" early years, the "struggle" for acceptance in Hollywood, whose prejudice against cute blond teenagers is legendary, the contentious abandonment of Lizzie McGuire, the music, the movies, the merchandise, the money, the general branding of all things Hilary Duff, the battles royale (or is that battle royales?) with arch-rivals Avril Lavigne and Lindsay Lohan.

We're above all that now. At the age of 17, Hilary is on top of the world - literally, as she plays her northernmost stop on her tour tonight, a sold-out show at Rexall Place.

Curiously, most of the Duff screed we've produced over the last few days - with material largely culled from the Internet - has already found its way onto Hilary Duff fan sites, posted by die-hard fans eager for any tidbit of information on the queen of tween idols. If any fresh information gets into this loop, please let us know.

Now what can we expect from this performer on the unforgiving live stage?

It's an important question, for many young fans will be experiencing their very first concert tonight.

The memory, good or bad, will stay with them for the rest of their lives and may shape all future opinions of live entertainment.

My first concert was Alice Cooper. He was drunk and couldn't hit the high note in Only Women Bleed. That's all I remember and I am permanently scarred to this day.

So how will the Hilary Duff concert rate in the legacy of memorable first concerts?

Off the top, I'd like to think that she won't dare lip-sync. While this is standard practice among A-list pop stars who weren't alive to witness the shame of Milli Vanilli - if you don't know, don't ask - the public doesn't like to have fakery and artifice shoved in their faces.

We don't want to see the little old man pulling the levers. We want to see the wizard.

Witness the shame of Ashlee Simpson, caught in the act of mouthing empty nothings to taped tracks on Saturday Night Live and subsequently booed at the Orange Bowl. Like it was some big surprise. Poor Ashlee Simpson. Please go away now.

But there's still hope for Hilary.

For Duff's Tuesday concert in Kelowna, the Kelowna Daily Courier sent a teen reporter, Grade 9 student Nina Wetjen.

She reports that a deafening "wall of screams" greeted the performer, who was "upbeat and cheerful onstage" with highlights including Come Clean and So Yesterday. Fans mostly under the age of 12 enthusiastically sang along to all the hits.

The show ended with more screams and a shower of confetti. Wetjen concludes the review with the nagging question, "Was she lip-syncing or not?" The verdict? Unclear.

Let's go to the fans. From what can be gleaned from various postings on Hilary Duff chat forums yesterday, there was no opening act save for some "lame" DJ who spun tunes by Justin Timberlake and that ilk.

Hilary took the stage about 7:30 p.m., focusing mainly on songs from her last album, Metamorphosis, and not her latest self-titled one. There was some disappointment noted there. "Move on," wrote one fan.

Hilary opened with The Girl Can Rock and followed that alleged rocker with tunes that included the new song Haters - said to be a shot at Lindsay Lohan. We've covered that unpleasantness already.

Anyway, there was plenty of glad-handing, high-fiving and declarations of "awesome fans," whose average age was about 10 years old, not counting their moms. The show lasted just over an hour, which at least one fan thought was a tad too short. Hey, it was a school night.

Here now is an excerpt of a recent post from the "hilaryfan.com" forum: "All in all it was so amazing to actually go to one of her concerts and see her in person ... I had fun, but Avril Lavigne came here last month, and I enjoyed that a lot more."

Had to bring up Avril, eh? I believe we've covered that already, too. This fan also thought Hilary lip-synced, but couldn't be sure, though adding that it "doesn't mean anything since most artists do."

How terribly sad. Just knowing that a performer might be faking it can taint the whole experience.

Anyway, if she is, let's at least hope she doesn't get caught like poor Ashlee did.

Hilary's got the rest of Canada ahead of her. We can almost hear the screams from coast to coast.

[Metal Head]

ok the same thing happened to lindsay, if hilary AND lindsay lipsynced they would be banned. they have to sing live there are differint ways to sing live theres the bear voice no back music then theres a back beat to keep up the music beat so they remmaber the words and notes some times they will have the trak in the background and sing with it (and no the mic is not turned off).
and abuot the gma show hilary had to sing live or not at all.

i wish people would just drop it already!!!!!!!!!!

dude...she lip suncs...whether or not there music behind you or if its prerecorded...shes needs help..therefore its form of lip syncing. No pop singer can move and jump around and not mess up due to exhaustion or lack of breath...bands like slipknot and senses fail dont lip sync...but they go for a more ronchy sound and dont care if they lose their voice...for Hil it ALL relys on how she sounds...it needs to be perfect and she cant afford to lose her voice...so yes...she lip syncs...its not any reason to hate her or get annoyed because people keep bringing it up.

ps...im esthatic about Ashlie Simpsons gettign caught hahahaha she got boo'd off a stage! how awsome is that?

[Metal Head]

if she lip syncs at a aword show the show planers would know and she would not be abul to sing at the show and would be band from it, hilary cant afford to lip sync.

I dnt know .. when Hil performs, I can't hear her over the backing track and she sounds terrible with what I do hear ..?

[Still Dirrty]

nah, they won't ban her. Allot of peeps lip sync at award shows.

dirrtys right...even when she was on that one ryan seacrest show...u could hear her singing under the music everyone was hearing.....like she was told in the lizzie movie "sing along with it...it makes it seem more real...they wont hear you because your mic will be off"...and its not a big deal and no reason to get all worked up over.

[i_survived_disturbia]

I think she is singing live at all her concerts. I've read a million times that Hilary, herself has said that her and her band are all live when performing. I wish they would drop this, too because I think she does sing. I was watching the Rockefeller concert thing and at first, it sounded like she wasn't singing live, but then it did because it sounded different from the song on the cd and so I think she does sing live. I haven't been to a concert, but I've seen her on TV (only once, but I think she was singing live then). Anyways, that's what I think.

i honesty think she does lyp sinks cause u can kinda tell as she said before she does not move around that stage dancing that much singers who usally sing live dont really do much movement i mean i heard her voice live and i heard her voice at studio which showed in sessions@aol and there no voice change or nothing now wit loahn it a diffrent story cause i seen a vidoe of her lip sync and she forgot one da lines and she did not say a word then start singing again/so what i am saying is i dont think she lyp sycs but this is aothing 2 get mad about or any thing they r just singers

[Metal Head]

she is live when she sang at ama i think (when fly was new) last year in it part of the lerics was incomplet one word half said and you can hear her take a breath, and my borther tryed to start a meatl band, so i had to learn about alot of things about sing.

[ January 09, 2005, 09:48 PM: Message edited by: Metal Head ]

[i_survived_disturbia]

I think she sings live all the time. So how can you tell if someone sings live? I have never known how you can tell. Especially these days because people in music videos are getting better at lip-syncing and so it almost looks like they sing live, when they aren't.

Originally posted by Metal Head:
she is live when she sang at ama i think (when fly was new) last year in it part of the lerics was incomplet one word half said and you can hear her take a breath, and my borther tryed to start a meatl band, so i had to learn about alot of things about sing.

guys! iv been to a concert she dousnt lip sync believe me!

[i_survived_disturbia]

I'm with you. I saw her on the Rockefeller Tree Lighting (when it was on TV) and at first I didn't think she was singing live, but then when she hit the chours part or some place like that, it sounded different from the cd and so I think she was singing live.

Originally posted by viperrcm:
guys! iv been to a concert she dousnt lip sync believe me!