Is BeyoncéGate, as I am choosing to call it, officially over?!  I generally am not a huge fan of Beyoncé: I can pretty much take her or leave her, but lately she’s been hard to ignore.

It wasn’t so shocking that she was asked to sing the National Anthem at the Presidential Inauguration, considering she and her hubby Jay-Z are vocal (oh, I love a good pun) Obama supporters, but it was shocking that she chose to lip-synch a song that is emblematic of our country’s spirit, on a day that is innately American and, I believe, should be based on authenticity.

Always being one for dramatics, Beyoncé had to rip her ear piece out half way through the song (was that really necessary?) so of course she is receiving flak for not singing live after her dramatic ear piece move.  She also followed a tough act:  Kelly Clarkson singing “My Country ’tis of Thee” moments before her.  Kelly absolutely killed it: not to mention sounded completely authentic.

So after a week or so of speculation and one annoyingly conspicuous ‘twit pic’ later we have a Super Bowl Press Conference starring who else but:  Beyoncé!

Instead of starting the press conference with the traditional Q and A she shrewdly asks “will you all please stand” and continues by belting out a live version of the National Anthem.

OMFG, really Beyoncé?!

We get it, you can sing and the irony is she sounded better doing it live and authentic to boot.  Maybe the jokes on us, was it all a publicity stunt to garner attention for her upcoming Super Bowl halftime show?  Beyoncé followed up her singing with an admission that she did indeed lip-synch while singing in front of the President, so why not have just admitted this from the get-go instead of letting the controversy ensue?  Kelly belted it out that day so Beyoncé should have too; and what if she had made a mistake while singing?  It would only have endeared her to her fans and Americans alike.  Enough said.