Worst performance at an award show?

A no-brainer.

Awful or not, Britney’s performance is “iconic” in the actual sense of the word.

Jennifer Lopez did a terrible, off key “performance” at one Grammy show. Taylor Swift’s contribution to the duet with Stevie Nicks at the Grammys one year.

Taylor Swift at the RR HOF induction honoring Carole King. This proves she can't sing without significant electronic enhancement.

Madonna's fall during her performance at the 2015 Brit Awards. It's more so an awkward, embarrassing moment, but people don't really remember the rest of the performance or the name of the song she was singing. For many Madonna fans, this was the beginning of the end.

R5 god the Illuminati symbolism is so tired

Barbra at the 2013 Oscars singing The Way We Were where her voice was shot.

Jennifer Hudson drowns out a lip-synching Cher.

R5 Tracey Thorn of Everything about the Girl wrote a great article about that fall. She was there and couldn’t believe Madonna jumped right up and finished the performance. Hardly a “worst” performance. I do think she went downhill fast after it, though.

The clear winner.

Don't forget about me, boys!

[quote]Don't forget about me, boys!

How could we forget, since we heard your abortion just 10 posts ago.

Debbie Allen does Footloose at the Academy Awards.

R11 and R1, I hope the best for R111.

Our Catherine's face in the middle of a manic moment while Sending In The Clowns. Her facial contortions made Dame Angela dizzy!

future Oscar weiners

I remember seeing Britney's 2007 VMA performance after I'd read all the comments about it. While it was embarrassing, it was nowhere near as bad as some had been saying. She got through it all without falling over or being sick, which was an achievement considering how ill she probably was.

Fuck you, OP! It was my finest moment!

Still more dancing talent and rhythm than Taylor Swift at her best.

Yeah BS's was more lackluster and mediocre but it wasn't a laughable disaster. The dancing was pretty good, it's her face that seemed totally out of it.

Rihanna laughing in the audience while Britney lumbers around the stage was iconic.

R7 The emotion excuses the major fuck up there. At least it's live singing. Still leagues better than Britney, ever. (And I'm not even a Streisand fan - I can't get the hang of musical but do love opera.) Britney's dancing looks like a physiotherapy session with extras.

Whyyyyyyyyy did R1 have to send me down an Ann Reinking rabbit hole to see this?

Honestly, is this not the WORST face-lift EVER?

Will Smith

A sneaky sucker slap. How unmanly .

Britney’s “dancing” looked like Weekend at Bernie’s.

Against All Of the Odds.

Phill Collins was like "I'm right here in the audience! Why is this cunt singing MY song?"

I really wonder who Collins pissed off in the Academy to not be able to sing his song live. I think the excuse was he was not well known enough. Collins won a Grammy for the song right before the Oscars that year and had multiple top 10 songs with AAO being a huge number one and top 40 songs with Genesis. Fewer had heard of Ann.

Most hip hop performances at awards shows are just stupid trash. So....all of those.

Walter Matthau, Liza, Dudley Moore and Richard Pryor at the Academy Awards.

I don't think Britney looked that bad in the video provided. At the time, her second baby was only a few months old and she was living on a junk food diet, so all considering, her body looked alright. Also, she had a c-section; most women look swollen for at least six months after that.

Reminded me of Kate Gosselin on Dancing with the Stars: Paparazzi.

Ariana DeBose rap at BAFTA.

R2 Without that performance we would never have this iconic moment in pop culture history.

Ray Parker Jr. at Academy Awards doing Ghostbusters.

R34, omg, that is comically bad. It's something Prince would do to be funny.

I hate that video at R33.

R30 no but it would have been a lot better if they had given her something to wear. I understand she can't dance after a c section but how about not building expectation with that stripper outfit. A suit would have been perfect.

Let it Snow...

R23 What in the Fred Trump?

R37 Keith Olbermann and Joel McHale snarking on Britney Spears. Keith was so deliciously bitchy back then. Almost DL levels of bitchy.

About that Britney performance, she may not have been at her best, but the song itself IS one of her best.

Peggy Lee sang an even more disastrous version of The Way We Were at the Oscars the year the song was nominated. (Babs was pissed about something and refused to sing it.)

So bad it's been scrubbed from the Internet.

Maybe your search skills are better than mine. If you find it, you know what to do.

[quote]About that Britney performance, she may not have been at her best, but the song itself IS one of her best.

That's kind of like saying Stage 4 cancer is better than full blown AIDS.

[quote]Peggy Lee sang an even more disastrous version of The Way We Were at the Oscars the year the song was nominated. (Babs was pissed about something and refused to sing it.)

God, how many times did Barbra have a hair across her ass about some bullshit and refused to sing/appear at the Oscars?

Donna Summer filled in for her the year Papa Can You Hear Me from Yentyl was nominated.

Of course, Donna was fantastic.

What was Ann Reinking’s REAL cause of death? 🫒💊🍸

She couldn’t have JUST died in her sleep at age 71!

R27

And he was a Genesis lead singer, after that other guy.

I never saw the Ghostbuster number before. That was absolutely awful.

R47 What the fuck was that queen Dom Deluise doing there?

Re The Ghostbusters. There is a moment when the number comes alive when all the dancers move in sync but then it goes messy again. Me thinks this is another Debbie Allen disaster. I remember Phil Collins saying, as bad as the Ann Reinking was, at least they didn't do to him what they did to Ray Jr.

R44 Flawless.

Donna Summer was really good r44!

They did a duet before, were they friends?

Another stinker. Poor Denise has bad hair, a bad dress, and the camera keeps cutting to extreme long shots of her.

Talk to a certain "George K.", r42.

I don't remember it being bad.

R16, so many nepo babies wanna be an Oscar winner!

r52 that dress is an 80s nightmare. Let's Hear If For the Boy was her biggest hit, but Deniece Williams had other, much better songs than that.

R2, huh?

R55, agreed. I love Free and Black Butterfly.

Streisand has never been pissed at the Oscars and “refused” to sing. Rather she suffered big time stage fright. Ditto the Grammys. That is why her performances have been so rare.

Adam Lambert closing the AMAs in 2009.

Streisand is a just a studio singer. She can’t sing live.

r57 Free still sounds great, I've always loved that one.

R53 Ms. Lee was off-key for part of it and entered a hospital the next day as a cover for the bad performance. But perhaps she was really ill and that affected her singing. I just remember wincing as she sang. Of course, I was also hearing Streisand's version in my head and comparing the two.

I love Peggy Lee no matter.

And thanks for the George K lead.

Madonna sang Take a Bow at some award show (forget which one) and sounded awful

Okay, here is the clip I'm talking about r63

[quote]Streisand is a just a studio singer. She can’t sing live.

Yeah, r60...right...

[quote] Barbra at the 2013 Oscars singing The Way We Were where her voice was shot.

Was this the same year when Dame Shirley Bassey sang "Goldfinger" and blew Babs out of the water?

R65 -> triggered white elder gay

R66 - Yes I think it was. Of course Bassey never had the voice of Streisand but hers seemed to last longer.

Shirley

R64 She just didn’t sound fluid. She nailed the belting bridge, though. It was well received, sending the song straight to #1 so hardly terrible.

Micheal Jackson pretending to be a big ole pussy hound with his “wife” who could barely walk because of the nightly beating her love box was taking from the King of Cock……..

Okay, r71 wins

I think Peggy Lee's TWWW also was sung at a slower tempo.

Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga pretending to be in love while performing together at the Oscars

The Cooper/Gaga performance was absolutely sickening. I hope they feel a little embarrassed about that now.

Lady Gaga’s Bowie tribute. JFC it was terrible.

R60 That's funny. She became famous starring in a Broadway show...

[quote]Madonna's fall during her performance at the 2015 Brit Awards. For many Madonna fans, this was the beginning of the end.

For me it was the beginning of the biggest love story of my life: opioids.

That Lady Gaga and Cooper performance was so contrived. Bradley, nobody believed you were "dating" Lady Gaga.

R76 it was but it had less to do with Gaga and more to do with whoever thought that cocaine infused manic meddle was a good idea. It's not like she sounded bad.

R52 Her performance was fine. She sounded great. The only thing bad about it is the dress and the fact that the whole number seemed to go on about two minutes longer than it should have.

I won’t say worst, but Adele halting her George Michael tribute rendition of Fastlove at the Grammys for being shit, then restarting and giving an identical performance certainly was memorable.

What the fuck did I just watch at R33. I’ve never seen that before, was it serious or a parody sketch from a comedy show?

Surely this abomination deserves a mention? It whacko Jacko at his most Loony Tunes performing Earth Song at the Brit Awards in London. Be sure to watch the whole 10 minutes as it’s worth it.

During the performance Jarvis Cocker, singer from indie band Pulp, was so outraged by what he was watching that he single-handedly stormed the stage. He sprinted all over the stage, getting chased by the dancers etc, absolutely fucking classic. This is the edited version shown on TV, if I can find the original I will post it, but this one is still fantastically OTT crap.

These were the news reports including clips.

R85 why storm the stage though. As messy as OTT that performance was Jarvis came off as even worse.

This is the full unedited version of the video.

Forgive me, but . . .

R84, I remember someone posting that song as evidence that MJ wasn't a pervert and he LOVED kids.

Rob Lowe and Snow White at the 1989 Oscars. At the time it was dubbed "Worst Oscars Ever!" It just looks awkward.

R90 already posted

R33, rather than 'iconic', I would call Chris Crocker's hysterical (and pre-rehearsed) rambling, colonic. It serves as a much better description of Britney's talent and personality, as well as Chris' pathetic attention-whoring.

Mariah Carey's disastrous 2017 New Year's Eve performance. The pre-recorded vocals, the bored IDGAF attitude, the slurred commentary, her dancers desperately trying to save the performance while she lazily walked across the stage and the cherry on top, before abruptly leaving the stage, she has the nerve to say 'it just doesn't get any better'.

I LOVE drunk, self-indulgent Mariah.

Liza doing Ladies Day at the 1993 Oscars. Choreographed by Debbie Allen.

I never saw that Michael Jackson BRIT Awards performance. Good grief, what a mess. That was after he'd gone 100% batshit insane and was completely off the rails.

And of course, all the little boys on stage with him. He couldn't do anything without little boys by that time.

I don't understand the narrative of the MJ clip. He solves world hunger by changing into a white outfit??

Whatever the hell this is

Greer Garson. I942 awards

Also this

You could see the “acting.”

EXCUSE me!?????

And I mean "for once," at R100.

Joan Crawford grabbing Anne Bancroft's Oscar like she was shoving it up Bette Davis' ass.

Joan did all the press photos holding Anne Bancroft's Oscar as if it were her own, with the other Best Oscar acting winners - Gregory Peck, Patty Duke and Ed Beglely.

Bitch was shameless in a really fantastic way.

Not an awards show but Fergie is funny

Not award show but the last part always makes me laugh.

This was epic. I grew up watching the VMAs, only awards show I cared about when younger, there were many bad performances but this was a horse of a different color. One of the last yrs I cared enough to watch them, and this gift falls in my lap.

Have we done Paula Abdul's Vibeology at the VMA's yet? This basically ended her career.

Yes, R108, was ten whole posts into the thread. I thought every one of her VMA performances were a letdown, she danced well but was a hot mess in attempting to lip-synch, before it was considered OK to do so.

Paula was fat and looked like she was dressed by Helen Keller.

What! I thought this was from the 90s

There was an awards show in the ‘80s (maybe it was the Emmy Awards), where Shelley Long did a long song and dance number (with backup dancers). She started off OK, but there was some sort of transition where the dancers lift her, or maybe it was remove her skirt to reveal a skimpier outfit. Anyway, she lost her balance and screamed during this transition, and she couldn’t recover after that. I have a soft spot for Shelley Long, but this was really bad.

Ashlee Simpson’s lip sync fail.

Do you believe Loren Michaels was really that shocked?? I call BS.

R111 Nooo, uh-oh...

Jessica Simpson Talks "Unbelievable" Attention From High-Waisted Blue Jeans

Cringeworthy outfit!

This guy on YouTube makes videos about disastrous award shows. He mainly focuses on the VMAs but he’s done the Oscar’s and other shows too.

R112 - or was it Teri Garr?

R115 the outfit was tacky but really not the worst. It was unflattering and there was zero need for two belts. I didn’t think she deserved to be dragged as hard as she was for it.

These are all reasons why award shows need to go the way of the beauty pageants. Celebs swanning around and giving each other awards is just too cringe for this day and age. No one cares. It used to be that the only time we got to see celebs was in a magazine, on a talk show, in a movie, show or play. It was a treat. Now we can see them on demand and their social media machines keep them in our faces 24/7. Can these showbiz halfwits just go away?

R117, it wasn’t Teri Garr, but I thank you for trying to ignite my memory . I remember that one, too! At one point, Garr is singing and dancing on the wings of an airplane, LOL, while Meryl Streep, and all these big stars are watching from the audience.

No, this was definitely Shelley Long. I watched it again on YouTube years ago, but I can’t find it now.

R120, It was the 1986 Emmy Awards which Shelley cohosted with David Letterman, who mocked the dance number in his monologue just after it.

Teri Garr performed Flying Down to Rio in the opening of the1986 Academy Awards. I can't find this online. I seem to recall her slipping at one point and she said she looked out into the audience and saw Jessica Lange and Sam Shepard smirking at her. Also there was some comment about her ability to dance. Teri was a dancer in those Elvis movies but here it was revealed that she was just a mediocre dancer.

Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr. performing "Call Me" at the Golden Globes.

I have to think the SNL Sweeney Sisters sketches got at least some of their inspiration from this abortion.

R112, Here’s the musical number @ 9:40.

Wow r124 that was shittastic! Shelley Long's church lady alto and "acting" the lyrics!

R123 - I like the camera moving down the aisle and coming onto the stage like it's Debbie Harry about to do some thumping.

And what's with Marilyn's Korean wig?

R124 yeah that was pretty embarrassing for Shelley. She's not much of a singer and certainly no dancer. Why on earth did she agree to do this? You have to blame the choreographer for just leaving her stranded.

Those awards shows in the 80s always had the cringiest musical numbers. They always looked so out of date and embarrassing.

Some of those made the opening to Blossom look good.

Ann Reinking's "Against All Of the Odds" number is mesmerizingly awful. It's so bad I can't look away.

R86 did you even watch the video? How the fuck could anyone in that venue come off worse than Michael Jackson, he became a complete laughing stock after that performance.

MJ had gone certifiably insane by the time of that performance.

Maniac at the Academy Awards. If the vocalists are weak throw in 20 dancers.

There's no trumpet in my song, bitch.

R133 I had never heard of that horrible singer, so I looked her up and found out she's been married to Herb Alpert since 1974. That explains how she got this gig.

Nell Carter at the 1993 Academy Awards.

Rosie has a juicy Nell Carter story @ 5:30.

Haven't heard CU Next Tuesday before.

Whitney and Mariah at the Academy Award.