Beyonce: The screeching tape is "ridiculous"

Beyonce: The screeching tape is "ridiculous"

All of you ignore that screeching version of "If I were a boy" making the rounds on the web.

Singer Beyonce says she can sing.

Howard Stern, on Tuesday, played what he claimed was an unedited sound board recording of the singer, 27, performing the song on the Today show last year. She sounds excruciatingly off-key as she wails through the number.

On Wednesday, at a junket for her new thriller Obsessed, Beyonce said that she hasn't heard the recording, but the story "sounds completely ridiculous."

"Everyone's heard me sing and it's perfect timing, actually, because I'll be on the Today show tomorrow singing 'Halo,' or tonight you can watch me sing live on David Letterman !" she told MTV News. "It's perfect promotion, whoever came up with that idea."

Beyonce Knowles' dad (and manager) Mathew Knowles, earlier in the day, claimed the tape was "obviously altered."

"If no one took the time to look at the biggest Inauguration in the history of America then shame on them," he wrote. "If no one took the time to listen to Beyonce sing 'America the Beautiful' and 'At Last' at the Neighborhood Ball for the first dance of President Obama and the First Lady, and they question Beyonce's vocal ability, they've gotta be an idiot," he said in a statement.

Poppa Knowles continued, "At 12 years into her career, the last thing someone should be questioning is her vocal ability. That would be like questioning if Kobe Bryant could shoot a jump shot."

"No one in their right mind would sound like that -- and no one would cheer for someone singing like that", the prankster who made the tape said later.