A video of two duelling Irish violinists putting on a spectacular show has notched up 10 million views on YouTube, but has also created some heated debate as to whether it’s real or not.
Máiréad Nesbitt of Celtic Woman and Cora Smith are the talented musicians in question. The video is actually from a 2007 performance at Hyde Park in London.
Nesbitt and Smith put on an energetic display as they danced, jumped and ran around the stage as they played, to create the impression of a battle.
The spectacular show sent the thousands of fans into raptures, and the two ladies left the stage as heroes.However, there have been some YouTube viewers who have questioned whether or not the musicians are actually playing live.
In the same way that some musicians are accused of lip-syncing on stage, there are suspicions that Nesbitt and Smith were not actually playing live, but just pretending to.
Dennis Shoemaker commented: “I am a violin student and I know how hard it is to play and jump around like these girls do and get good clean sound from your instrument so I doubt that they are actually playing live.”
Zack Davis added: “Do the 15,852 people who liked this know that they’re not actually playing? It’s like lip singing, but for violins. If you don’t believe me look at 3:38, as the most obvious example.”
James Dominic took a more reflective approach to the debate with his post: “Some very negative comments….A lot of people talking waffle…they have a good sound they look well… sit back and enjoy….enough from the critics.”
Given that Nesbitt and Smith put on such energetic performances, can they really be playing with such skill at the same time as running around?
Watch the video and make up your own mind.
