“Such a dehumanizing feeling”- Ashlee Simpson opens up about controversial SNL lip-syncing incident and ensuing backlash 

DSW Back-to-School Kick-Off - Source: Getty
Ashlee Simpson at the DSW Back-to-School Kick-Off in August 2025 (Image via Getty)

Ashlee Simpson talked about the infamous 2004 Saturday Night Live lip-syncing controversy, describing the backlash as “dehumanizing” and unlike anything she could have anticipated.

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Speaking with Mikael Wood from the Los Angeles Times on August 26, 2025, the Pieces of Me singer talked about how the scrutiny and backlash took a toll on her at just 20 years old, adding,

“For me, it was such a lesson: You hate me so much because I lost my voice? It was such a dehumanizing feeling that I had to remember who I was and why I was doing this."
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Ashlee Simpson, now 40, added that the fallout felt overwhelming at the time.

"I had a super-high and then I had a super-low at SNL. Learning that at a young age was -whew! It was intense."
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Ashlee Simpson had also spoken about the controversy on the Pod Meets World podcast on August 21, 2025, saying the “bullying was insane” and admitting that for years she felt the scandal would be on her “shoulders forever”, as reported by Deadline on August 22, 2025.


More about Ashlee Simpson's 2004 SNL appearance

Ashlee Simpson was scheduled to perform two songs as the SNL musical guest on October 23, 2004, as reported by People on August 27, 2025.

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Her first performance, Pieces of Me, reportedly went smoothly. However, during the second slot, when she was set to sing Autobiography, the vocal track for Pieces of Me played instead before she lifted her microphone.

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Unsure of what to do, Simpson awkwardly danced before leaving the stage as the show cut to a commercial. At the end of the broadcast, she briefly attempted to explain herself, saying that the mishap happened due to vocal cord issues caused by acid reflux.

In spite of her clarification, Ashlee Simpson faced widespread criticism and mockery, according to People.

Simpson has since described the SNL experience as both painful and formative. Talking to the Los Angeles Times, she said that the backlash shaped her sophomore album, I Am Me, which came out in 2005, and carried a darker and more vulnerable tone, saying:

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"I’m happy it was because it got deeper. It got darker too- thicker skin yet very vulnerable."

While she initially felt pressured to justify herself, Ashlee Simpson said she eventually found strength in focusing on her craft. Speaking on the Pod Meets World podcast on August 21, 2025, she said,

"My whole life, I had to tell people, ‘Oh, but I perform every night.’ My fans know. I had to know that in my heart."
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Deadline reported on August 22, 2025, that despite the backlash, SNL invited the singer back the following season, where she performed Catch Me When I Fall, a song allegedly inspired directly by the controversy.


Two decades after the SNL controversy, Simpson believes the celebrity scrutiny culture has somewhat changed. Comparing then and now, she told the Pod Meets World hosts Rider Strong, Danielle Fishel, and Will Friedle that reactions were more lasting in the 2000s, largely driven by magazines and forms of traditional media.

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"That was more like, ‘Here it is to be on your shoulders forever. And I think now everything is, like, a little bit more fleeting and fast."

Simpson also acknowledges that the present-day online culture can also be just as unforgiving, and that other people's perceptions of a person do not define them. For Ashlee Simpson, the painful chapter gave her a lesson in either giving up or keeping "going."

Edited by Divya Singh
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