No, Italians did not join in unison to sing Katy Perry’s “Roar” on their balconies

Capitol Records

Capitol RecordsOne of the most uplifting series of social media posts in the last few days have been those showing Italians, who are under lockdown as their country battles the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, standing on their balconies singing songs together. But some pop stars have been fooled into thinking that the Italians were singing their songs on those balconies.

As Billboard reports, Katy Perry and Madonna are among the artists who mistakenly posted videos of so-called “deep fakes”: Italian balcony videos with audio overdubbed to make it seem like everyone is singing various pop songs, including Katy’s “Roar” and Madonna’s “I Rise.”

Katy retweeted the altered “Roar” video, captioning it, “You cannot break the human spirit. We are one in this.” Oops. Madonna did the same with the “I Rise” video, captioning it, “Let Us All RISE UP. everywhere around the world!!”

Other songs that appeared in these fake “balcony” videos included Rihanna‘s “B***h Better Have My Money,” Britney Spears‘ “Sometimes,” and Charli XCX‘s “Track 10.”