Beyonce pretends to belt out the national anthem. (Getty Images)

As we kind of suspected yesterday, Beyoncé’s performance of the national anthem to cap off President Obama’s second inauguration was recorded ahead of the ceremony. The singer’s vocals were provided by a studio version accompanying a taped instrumental track. The news of Beyoncé’s lip-synching was first reported by The Times of London.

Though belted out as powerfully as anything else the 31-year-old Beyoncé has sung in her career, her version of the anthem joined the ranks of inaugural and other big-event renditions that have been performed in a studio then replayed to the entire world. In 2009, the cellist Yo-Yo Ma recorded the song before “playing” it at Obama’s first inauguration.

The practice is also routine for the artists who sing the national anthem at the Super Bowl, including Whitney Houston, whose 1991 performance is widely considered one of the best. It was recorded at a California studio a few days before Super Bowl XXV.

A spokeswoman for the United States Marine Band, which provided the instrumentals at yesterday’s ceremony, told The New York Post that all music is pre-recorded because there are so many “eventualities and conditions” that could disrupt a live performance. The spokeswoman said, though, that the band played live.

That is incorrect, however. Though the Marine Band played live alongside Kelly Clarkson, who sang “America (My Country ‘Tis of Thee),” when it came time for Beyoncé’s turn, the the band members depressed the keys on their brasses and woodwinds but did not blow into the mouthpieces. Sitting in the front row of the section closest to the band pit, it was visibly obvious the Marine Band—”The President’s Own,” as it nicknames itself—was putting on a pantomimed show.