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| - False: Video showing a White woman singing in Chinese at Paris Olympics is doctored
A 22-second video posted on Xiaohongshu earlier this month shows a white female singer singing in Mandarin to a large crowd. It has a text overlay that reads, when translated to English:
“At the Olympic venue, a Chinese song was heard. It turned out to be a foreign girl singing a Chinese song, cheering and supporting the Olympic athletes. It sparked a large sing-along at the venue. China is becoming increasingly powerful!”
The obscured clip features a white singer as well as the audience waving Chinese flags. The post has over 17,000 likes as of this writing. Some comments believe the claim is authentic and applaud the singer’s ability to sing in Mandarin.
Annie Lab also found a Douyin video uploaded on July 30 with the same claim featuring the same Chinese song but without showing the singer.
However, we can confirm that the video is doctored and the claim is unsubstantiated.
The woman in the video is American singer Taylor Swift. The original video we found shows her singing in English for a show in Germany during her recent tour. It has nothing to do with the Paris Olympics.
Meanwhile, the scene showing the audience with Chinese flags was taken from footage of last year’s Asian Games held in Hangzhou.
The audio track in Mandarin replacing Swift’s original singing is called “做自己的月亮 (Be Your Own Moon).” It is a very popular song on the Chinese internet with numerous covers. The version sung by “Xiao Lan Bei Xin (小藍背心)” on QQ Music is the closest to the one in the manipulated video that Annie Lab was able to find.
White woman singing on stage
In the Xiaohongshu video, Annie Lab was able to identify the word “König-Pilsener” on a banner and also a logo representing the German football club Hamburger SV.
These clues helped our investigation, and we discovered that the scene was filmed at Taylor Swift’s concert at Volksparkstadion, the home stadium of Hamburger SV.
We found a higher-resolution YouTube video that shows Taylor Swift performing at Volksparkstadion, which revealed that the doctored Xiaohongshu video was flipped horizontally. In the concert video, Swift sings her song “Enchanted” in English.
The YouTube video was uploaded on July 24. According to the official website, her Eras Tour featured seven shows in Germany in the same month, including two at Volksparkstadion in Hamburg on July 23 and 24.
Chinese fans waving national flags
A reverse image search on Baidu led to a thumbnail image that appears almost identical to the scene of flag-waving audiences in the doctored video, particularly concerning the stadium structure.
In this image, which was of a higher quality than the blurry Xiaohongshu clip, we spotted the words projected in mid-air that read “19th Asian Games” in Chinese.
The Asian Games were held in the Chinese city of Hangzhou in 2023. The footage in question appears to be taken in Hangzhou Olympic Sports Center Stadium, the main venue of the Games.
Another scene of a large crowd
Another clip also shows a large crowd in the doctored video at the end. A Google reverse image search led to another YouTube video of Swift’s Eras Tour at Wembley Stadium in London on June 22.
The venue, as shown in the YouTube video uploaded by a showgoer, has many features identical to those seen in the manipulated version.
Variations of the same claim on Chinese social media
During the investigation, Annie Lab found more Taylor Swift videos posted in July and August on Douyin with the same claim. They all say “foreigners” sang Chinese songs during the Paris Olympics.
Search words “巴黎奧運會女孩唱中國歌 (Paris Olympics girl singing Chinese song)” on Douyin results in a large number of similar videos. Many of them have over 10,000 likes (here, here and here).
However, no evidence suggests that a female singer sang in Mandarin at the Olympics in Paris this year.
Taylor Swift has not performed at the Games, while other well-known singers, such as Lady Gaga and Celine Dion, have performed at the opening ceremony.
The closing ceremony featured French indie band Phoenix and American performers H.E.R, Billie Eilish, and Snoop Dogg. The city of Los Angeles will host the next summer Games in 2028.
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