Selena Gomez accused of lip syncing during AMAs comeback performance

Selena Gomez has been accused of lip syncing during her highly anticipated comeback performance at the American Music Awards on Sunday night (19Nov17).

The 25-year-old singer has been out of the spotlight for the past year, and recently revealed she had undergone a kidney transplant as part of her ongoing battle against the debilitating disease lupus.

She made her return to the stage during the star-studded awards ceremony at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, performing her haunting new tune Wolves. Wearing a slip dress, sneakers and a Tiffany necklace, while also debuting her newly-dyed blonde hair, Selena's performance was an understated one, but many viewers watching the show from home were quick to take to social media to criticize the star for apparently lip syncing instead of performing live.

"I love Selena Gomez but she made it so obvious that she lip sync through that whole performance hence why she had her head down & hair covering her face for 99 per cent of the performance," one wrote. "The girl can't sing live so I don't know why she just can't admit it instead of lip syncing."

"Oh look another performance of selena gomez lipsyncing #AMAs," another viewer tweeted, while a third wrote: "I was just about to say how nice it was to see all the performers singing live and not lip synching (sic)....until Selena Gomez came on... #AMAs."

Another AMAs viewer joked: "Lip sync battle? Oh wait… it’s just a selena gomez performance."

However, others were quick to jump to Selena's defense, with one writing: "Can people not trash Selena Gomez about her performance because she was apparently lip synching (sic)? I'd like to see you go through what she has in the past year and perform in front of millions."

Another insisted she wasn't lip syncing, but had been using vocal production techniques to add another level to the performance.

Selena has yet to comment on the performance. When the audience applauded her after the rendition, Selena shrugged and mouthed "Thank you".

The lip syncing claims also come after Selena shared a video of herself preparing for the AMAs, showing off her impressive vocal talent as she sang live in the footage.