Beyonce belts out national anthem live before admitting lip synching on US inauguration day

Did Beyonce lip-synch at the President's inauguration

Beyonce has gone on the record about her celebrated performance at President Obama's second inauguration which was subsequently mired in accusations that she was lip synching. But before admitting anything she proved to reporters that she could sing live.

To gathered press in New Orleans the singer belted out a live rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner" proving just 24 hours before she is due to perform live at the Super Bowl that she can do it.

Beyonce went on to admit that she did "lip sync" the national anthem on US Inauguration Day, singing live along with a pre-recorded tape instead of the US Marine band.

"I practise until my feet bleed and I did not have time to rehearse with the orchestra. Due to no proper sound check, I did not feel comfortable taking a risk," she told press.

"It was about the president and the inauguration, and I wanted to make him and my country proud, so I decided to sing along with my pre-recorded track, which is very common in the music industry. And I'm very proud of my performance."

The appearance was her first live performance since giving birth to her daughter Blue Ivy a year ago.

Beyonce described the experience as "emotional" and said she was a "perfectionist" which is why she felt more comfortable performing with a backing track rather than a live band.

It was Beyonce's first public acknowledgement of the controversy in the two weeks since a spokeswoman for the US Marine first told news outlets that the "Single Ladies" star "decided to go with the pre-recorded music at the last minute" and that, to her knowledge, she was not actually singing the anthem.

The US Marine band later backtracked, saying in a statement: "Regarding Ms. Knowles's vocal performance, no one in the Marine Band is in a position to assess whether it was live or pre-recorded."

The statement said the band and Beyonce, whose surname is Knowles-Carter, had no chance to rehearse together before Monday's inauguration "so it was determined that a live performance by the band was ill-advised for such a high-profile event."