The Beginning Of "You Are Not Alone" during HIStory World Tour

[MattyJam]

But were any instruments actually live!?

I think most of the tracks featured the band as much as possible.

 

[RockOrBluesInNorway]

Couldn't they just count him in? With the drum sticks '1,2,3? Good point though. Hmm.

Actually the vocals starts between 2 and 3 so counting in isn't the best option in that situation. I think they solved it in a good way, I think the song fits with an off stage beginning, works really well in my opinion.

 

[RockOrBluesInNorway]

Could you explain it to us a little bit more?

Not sure how to explain it better, to make it as easy as possible. The vocal track starts out of sync in a way. If that makes it easier

 

[RockOrBluesInNorway]

Not sure if this is what you mean but the vocal starts almost acapella so he wouldn't know when to begin miming as the crowd would be too loud to hear the intro.

On VMAs he could here the cue but in front of a huge crowd he couldn't.

I don't know excactly what kind of instrument it is, either some synth or a trumpet(which I think is more likely, so I'll go with that ). Anyway, you've got to remember the trumpets before he starts singing, and the twinkles in the background, those are all playback sounds. As I said to the guy above, the simplest way to think about it is that the vocal track starts out of synch. Listen to the performance from Munich, you can hear the drummer count it 1, 2, 3,... and the vocal track starts between 2 and 3, actually closer to 3 than two, which is why I say "out of synch". These are all factors to take in a count. All in all, I think this song works great with an off stage beginning anyway