Marine Band Hedges on Beyonce

The U.S. Marine Band now is backtracking on an earlier statement that Beyonce lip synched "The Star Spangled Banner" to prerecorded music.

Now they are saying only that its portion of the National Anthem was pre-recorded, but as for Beyonce's singing, "No one in the Marine Band is in a position to assess whether it was live or pre-recorded," according to a statement from the Marine Corps, per the AP.

The statement indicated that the band did not have a chance to rehearse with Beyonce beforehand so "it was determined that a live performance by the band was ill-advised for such a high profile event."

It is a bit surprising that they couldn't rehearse, given that this wasn't just any old concert or award show. So a guessing game continues, just as people are parsing the performance itself, wondering why she took out her earpiece midway through.

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