Not as briefed: “Violette Wautier” reveals the behind-the-scenes reasons her singing at the 2025 SEA Games opening ceremony was off-key rather than as planned.
On 9 Dec 2025 GMT+7, following the opening ceremony of the 2025 SEA Games, scheduled for 9–20 December in Thailand as host, featuring 50 sports with 574 gold medals contested plus 3 demonstration sports, the event involves cooperation among 11 Southeast Asian countries: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Timor-Leste, Vietnam, and Thailand (host).
Recently,“Violette” Violette Wautierposted a statement explaining the poor singing quality in the performance of the song “1%” during the opening ceremony of the 33rd SEA Games.
Violette stated that in today’s 2025 SEA Games opening show, many viewers likely noticed her singing was very off-key in the live broadcast. She honestly feels very sorry and admits this was a genuine mistake in the production.
According to the briefing she received, the organizers instructed Violette, P’Tong, and P’Golf to lip-sync 100% for technical reasons, making lip-syncing the best option. She understood and agreed. During the actual show, Violette’s ear monitor did not play her live vocals at all, so she could not hear herself singing. Because she thought it was synced, she did her best to make the performance look good.
However, something went wrong with coordination, as her live microphone was turned on during the live broadcast. Violette frankly feels this damaged her reputation, image, dignity, profession, and dreams. Although she cannot change what happened since the show ended, she asks for the chance to use her platform to explain and defend herself as best as she can.
Throughout her career, Violette has rarely lip-synced, so she feels sad that if she had been allowed to sing live—even if imperfect—it would have felt better because it reflects her real ability. Instead, she was told to lip-sync but then her microphone was opened live while she couldn’t hear herself, making it nearly impossible to sing perfectly. If she had known the microphone was live but she couldn’t hear herself, she might have tried removing her earphones or tried something else to improve her singing. She does not intend to blame anyone but asks for the chance to defend herself.
Meanwhile, Golf F.HERO, or Natthawut Srimok, the famous Thai rapper, also posted a statement clarifying the poor singing in the “1%” performance at the 33rd SEA Games opening ceremony.
Golf F.HERO said he just saw the live broadcast showing that the microphone was open during the “1%” performance, even though during rehearsals they were briefed that due to various limitations the show would be 100% lip-synced.
Therefore, during the performance the artists could not hear their own voices in the ear monitors because the microphone was muted. This caused Violette Wautier’s vocals heard in the broadcast to be out of sync, since she could not hear herself. Similarly, Tong Twopee’s voice was delayed at times because he also could not hear himself.
However, audience members attending the stadium heard all vocals normally because the microphones were not open there and the lip-syncing arrangement was not applied as in the briefing.
Golf F.HERO said he does not know exactly where the mistake happened, but it seems the live performance in the stadium was not properly communicated to the outside broadcast (OB) team, resulting in the microphones being open during the live broadcast when the entire show was supposed to be lip-synced. He sympathizes deeply with Violette and Tong, who gave their best for the nation but ended up with a mistake affecting their professional image.
He added that both artists were very dedicated and asked the public not to blame them for this error. As their senior who brought them to perform, he sincerely apologizes to them and to all viewers if this incident caused disappointment.