China Replaces Singer Yang Peiyi with a Cute Lip-Syncher at the Olympics
The cute little girl, Lin Miaoke, charmed an international audience by her sweet-voiced rendition of one of China’s national anthems at the Olympic opening ceremony performances. But it turns out that pig-tailed 7-yr-old Miaoke who "sang" "Ode to the Motherland" was actually lip-syncing to the voice of another girl - Yang Peiyi.
Apparently, Yang Peiyi, who may have had the voice of an angel, was deemed "unsuitable" to appear during the ceremony.
A 7-year-old Chinese girl was not good-looking enough for the Olympics opening ceremony, so another little girl with a pixie smile lip-synched “Ode to the Motherland,” a ceremony official said- the latest example of the lengths Beijing took for a perfect start to the Summer Games.
A member of China’s Politburo asked for the last-minute change to match one girl’s face with another’s voice, the ceremony’s chief music director, Chen Qigang, said in an interview with Beijing Radio.
“The audience will understand that it’s in the national interest,” Chen said in a video of the interview posted online Sunday night.
Lin Miaoke’s performance Friday night, like the ceremony itself, was an immediate hit. “Nine-year-old Lin Miaoke becomes instant star with patriotic song,” the China Daily newspaper headline said Tuesday.
But the real voice behind the tiny, pigtailed girl in the red dress who wowed 91,000 spectators at the National Stadium on opening night really belonged to 7-year-old Yang Peiyi. Her looks apparently failed the cuteness test with officials organizing the ceremony, but Chen said her voice was judged the most beautiful.
“The national interest requires that the girl should have good looks and a good grasp of the song and look good on screen,” Chen said. “Lin Miaoke was the best in this. And Yang Peiyi’s voice was the most outstanding.”
A photo of Peiyi posted Tuesday on popular Web site Sina.com shows a smiling girl with bangs and crooked teeth.(source)
Here's a photo of the adorable little girl, Yang Peiyi, who was considered "not suitable" for the ceremonies.
