Why wouldn't it be the same run as the album cut? Xtina very rarely has difficulty replicating her runs live. She also sang the intro to the song the exact same way she does in the studio recording. Unless you're arguing that she lipped that too...
Besides, her voice sounds rougher in the live version. Usually when a singer inserts lipped parts during a performance you can tell when the recording comes in because the vocals have a noticeably cleaner, mastered sound to them. Complete with the unnatural reverb that they HAVE to add to studio recordings.
If that run was prerecorded then it's amazing that they got it to sound the same volume and timbre Christina had been singing at right up to that moment.
Did you listen to the tracks side by side?
I don't mean to say it's the
same run. It's the
exact same run, as in they pulled the vocal from the album cut and used it for the live performance.
If you watched the video, you'd notice that she sounds differently on every other section of the song, except for
that one section.
Christina is not averse to lipping, you know:
Not Myself Tonight @ 3:00
Or this one, where she decided she no longer wanted to use the album cut and redid the live vocal but used the same cut for both live performances:
Not Myself Tonight Today Show Vs Regis and Kelly
Well that note is understandable. lol
She wouldn't have a voice left if she tried to do that note live every night for a world tour.
She even does it for songs where she's not saving her voice from the high notes. It's no surprise, she's been actively lipping since her Stripped and B2B tours. Her biggest offender would be Ain't No Other Man (completely) and Hurt (80%), of which hurt is the best example to show that she does:
Hurt @ Sportpaelis
Hurt DVD Cut
It doesn't take too much effort to sync them up and realize she's singing to the same vocal track up until the climax. And lord knows Christina has a tough enough time with that song if you compare an actual
live version that she's not gonna sing it lick for lick, breath for breath, the exact same way.
What's funny is that she used the same redone lipped track with
the wrong lyrics.
But I don't know why she would need to lip that note when she was
hitting notes nearly that high throughout the entire performance.
You have to keep in mind, vocally speaking, it's easier to force the throat throttle up to a climax than to actually have it controlled like that lipped run. Notice for the live notes, she's ending the phrase with the peak note, whereas the lipped track she starts off with the high note but then scales downward, requiring a lot more vocal control.