MBC recently drew criticism over a lip-syncing incident during one of the performances at the 2016 Digital Media City (DMC) Festival's "Legend Totoga." The DMC Festival is an annual festival that celebrates the best of the Hallyu wave.
South Korean singer Chae Ri Na took to Instagram on Oct. 4, Tuesday, to blast MBC after she saw someone else mouthing the words to one of her old songs. The post has since been deleted.
"If you're going to sing a Diva song, then please take my voice out and sing it," Soompi quoted the musician as writing in her post. "If you're going to lip sync, then spend some money and re-edit the background vocals."
The 38-year-old added that it was funny to hear her vocals being mimed by someone else. Ri Na was a former member of the popular all-girl group "Diva" before she left the trio in 1999. She was later replaced by Lee Min Kyung.
The 2016 DMC Festival's "Legend Totoga" serves as a platform for retro artists from the 80s and 90s to perform on stage. Diva was one of the groups that performed at the music festival with original members Vicky and Ji Ni performing alongside Kyung.
During their set, the audio that was used from the group's hit number "Why Are You Calling" featured Ri Na's voice instead of Kyung's vocals. This blunder revealed that it was a lip-synced performance and not a live one.
The organizers of the DMC Festival issued a formal apology to Ri Na over the gaffe. "We apologize sincerely to Chae Ri Na," the production staff said in a statement obtained by Nate. "According to our concept, we wanted to showcase songs that came out a long time ago, but we ended up making mistakes."
The organizers further added that they will work harder to ensure these blunders are not repeated in the future. Check out Diva's 2016 DMC Festival performance below: