Top 10 Disastrous Live TV Singing Performances

“34th Annual American Music Awards” (2006)


With over 50 million records sold, The Pussycat Dolls are one of the best-selling pop groups in history. Their fame peaked in the 2000s, when they were invited to the 2006 AMAs. Not winning any of the three awards they were nominated for wasn't the worst part of the night. PCD’s performance of “Buttons” became infamous. Melody Thornton was missing until the last 30 seconds, and decided to battle for the spotlight when finally appearing. A keen eye will also spot one of the prop chairs getting awkwardly toppled over.

“7th Revolver Golden Gods Awards” (2014)


Axl Rose has a reputation for being such a rockstar diva that he once appeared to a concert late so he could finish watching “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II”. One of his band’s most notorious performances happened in 2014, after Rose won the Ronnie James Dio Lifetime Achievement Award. After a few delays, the audience was treated to an hour-long Guns N’ Roses set. Well, it was only a treat for fans of disappointing vocals that suggested Rose’s prime was decades ago. Somehow he was still able to become the frontman for AC/DC two years later, a role he unsurprisingly didn’t hold onto for long.

“Saturday Night Live” (2012)


It’s not often you see Del Rey perform live on television, even though she’s one of the globe’s most famous vocalists. Fans will know it's partly because of her car crash “SNL” performance in 2012. She appeared to sing both “Video Games” and “Blue Jeans”, staples of her early career. It’s easy to see how nervous she was, which was probably the major reason her vocals were so weak. Del Rey was so traumatized she’s since only performed on “The Tonight Show” in 2020. That was during lockdown, so they weren’t allowed an audience. This helped with the stage fright quite a bit. The incident on “SNL” didn’t seem to hamper Del Rey’s extremely successful career.

“24th Annual MTV Video Music Awards” (2007)


The “Princess of Pop” was one of America’s most talented and controversial singers, selling more than 150 million records in her huge career. It’s pretty surprising to see a poor performance from her on the stage. In 2007, Spears opened the MTV VMAs with “Gimme More”, but it was universally panned for her lack of energy and poor lip-synching. So what went wrong? Spears was in a particularly challenging period of her life, so she wasn’t interested in performing, but her team pressured her to. Problems kept appearing before going onstage. Plus her ex Justin Timberlake was having a blast, while she was at an all-time low. On the bright side, “Leave Britney Alone!” was released soon after, making YouTube history.

“Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve” (2016)


Fans of Carey would be delighted to see her perform at Times Square on New Year's Eve. Excitement soon turned to disappointment after she made it on stage. Within a minute of starting the show, you can tell something’s gone wrong. Her dancers were killing it, but Carey was complaining that she couldn’t hear anything. As such, she didn’t sing for almost an entire song. Carey claimed the producers had set her up to fail, which they denied. According to them, they’d never want to compromise a performance on their show, and that it was simply a technical error.

Quebec Coliseum (2005)


This performance was so bad, it became the only thing the artist is known for. Montreal singer Caroline Marcil was invited to sing the national anthems of the U.S. and Canada for an exhibition game in Quebec City. While her voice was strong, her memory wasn’t. Marcil forgot the words twice, cutting her performance short only a couple of lines in. After two attempts, she left the stage, probably to find the lyrics. Unfortunately for her, the third attempt was the biggest disaster. Marcil collapsed on the ice, her monumental failure being broadcast to the whole of two countries.

“Club MTV” (1989)

In 1989, Milli Vanilli rapidly achieved international stardom, then rapidly lost it in the same year. Their downfall was a historically poor MTV performance in Bristol, Connecticut. A hardware error caused half of one line to play on repeat, kind of like a broken record player. It wouldn’t have been that bad, had either member been able to sing their songs. It turned out none in the band did, as later confirmed by their manager. This revelation caused a meteoric backlash, with awards revoked and multiple lawsuits filed. People would have found out at some point, but their Connecticut blunder catalysed their downfall.

“Saturday Night Live” (2004)

Up-and-coming star Ashlee Simpson, the younger sister of Jessica Simpson, decided to perform on “SNL” in 2004. If all went to plan, it could have boosted her sales and status. Sadly, it didn’t, and her career took a massive hit. Simpson had lost her voice on the day and was forced to lip-sync the performance. Her first song went well, but then the drummer pressed the wrong button, cuing the wrong track. The band decided to play the wrong song, confusing Simpson, who walked offstage after unsuccessfully trying to dance it off. She received huge criticism for the incident, which in hindsight was barely justified.

“NBA All-Star Game” (2018)

You probably know her from the Black Eyed Peas, who had her as a member during their peak years. Her departure in 2018 was announced on the same day she performed “The Star-Spangled Banner” for an NBA game. Fergie decided to put her own spin on it, adding a bit of spice to the anthem which few appreciated. At the climax, you can see the players struggling not to laugh. The most impressive thing about this performance is that it somehow isn’t the anthem’s worst rendition. Fergie’s barely been in the spotlight since, with this show likely being a factor.

Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few dishonorable mentions.

Forgot a Whole Verse, Then Blamed It on an Aerialist

James Hetfield’s Microphone Wasn’t Plugged in Until the Song’s Climax

An Unusually Weak Performance From a Strong Vocalist

Jack Murphy Stadium (1990)

Taking our top spot is the most infamous rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” in history. Roseanne Barr began her career as a stand-up comedian, later gaining a sitcom and a talk show. Being a singer was never the priority for her, as was proven in 1990. For some obscure reason, she was chosen to open for a baseball game, which turned into one of the worst decisions in the sport’s history. It seemed to draw more influence from the most avant-garde Yoko Ono tracks than the national anthem itself. It was so bad that even President George H. W. Bush was offended.


Were there any particularly diabolical performances we forgot to include? Leave them in the comments section below!