Hands-up everyone who thought that 7-year old Lin Miaoke, who performed the "Ode to the Motherland" at the Beijing Opening Ceremony was simply too cute and talented too be true? Well, guess what, turned out she was. Today's newspapers have been full of the news that Lin pulled a Milli-Vanilli and lip-synched along to the recording of another less-cute but presumably better endowed vocally child.

The real singer was 7 year old Yang Peiyi, who was reputedly swapped out at the last minute thanks to a Politburo member who deemed her unsuited to the lead role because of her buck teeth. The thing that gets Pretensions is that Lin Miaoke was giving interviews to newspapers about her experience "singing" at the Olympics. Didn't she feel embarassed about stealing all the credit? It was only because the show's musical designer Chen Qigang felt he had to set the record straight on radio that the truth came out.

According to Chen, a shortlist of 10 kids had been put forward to sing the anthem and one, a 10-year old, had been chosen for the role, based on voice quality. Alas, she failed the dreaded "cuteness" test. Yang Peiyi was the next contender. "The main consideration was the national interest," said Chen. "The child on the screen should be flawless in image, in her internal feelings, and in her expression. In the matter of her voice, Yang Peiyi was flawless, in the unanimous opinion of all the members of the team." And she was, until someone took a dislike to her teeth.

Well, P knows there is a long tradition of this kind of lip-syncing in musical films, usually actors record the "best" version of their song and lip-sync along to it in the final cut. West End and Broadway musicals too, make use of extra singers backstage in a soundbooth, to boost the vocals of their choruses. Both Starlight Express and Cats did this when P was in London. Pop music has the infamous Milli Vanilli (who did NOT use their own voices) as well as bands like Oasis and The Who (who did).

However, P feels that the Olympics episode left a rather bad taste in her mouth. It reminds her a little of the Korean film "200 pound Beauty" where the protagonist, Ha-na, was sidelined despite a beautiful voice because of her weight. It wasn't until she went for drastic plastic surgery that things started to go her way. Is today's society truly that superficial? How sad!