Hollywood’s Worst Lip Sync Moments You’ll Love

We can’t always expect to hear perfect vocals when it comes to Hollywood, but we would like to think that there are actual real singers out there. If you are afraid that everything has completely turned to auto tune, here are the absolute worst live performance blunders brought to you by your favorite artists in Hollywood.

Hilary Duff Comes Clean

Toward the beginning of Hilary Duff’s career, she was convinced that she was supposed to be a performer although not many agreed at the time; especially after this one.

Performing “Come Clean” on the MTV stage live at New Year’s Eve, she comes clean that she’s not really singing when the track skips more than a beat at least four times! Although she pulls it off until the end of the song and doesn’t have seem to have lost too much momentum from her fans, it’s just cringe-worthy to watch, let alone on repeat. It’s definitely safe to say that someone got fired after that horrible malfunction and Duff probably did it herself.

Ashley Tisdale’s Macy’s Day Disaster

Performing what she thought was a Christmas treat, Ashley Tisdale totally botched the Macy’s Day Thanksgiving Parade in 2007 with her version of Wham’s! “Last Christmas.” Not only does the track completely sound recorded, but her bored and lazy expressions throughout the song don’t do much to help her.

Being one of the hundreds of “artists” that have covered this Christmas favorite, the least she could have done would have been to pretend to be enthused in front of the thousands of little kids and parents. Luckily for her, you can only tell that she’s lip syncing when the camera shows her close up so she didn’t ruin too many children’s dreams that day.

Nicki Minaj’s Today Show Spaz

Although Nicki seemed prepared to perform on the Today Show when asked by Matt Lauer, she clearly was not. Attempting to sing her hit “Starships,” Nicki definitely was more distracted by the fans and pretty pink lights than she was by the fact that she was performing live in front of millions.

The song’s awkward rap definitely did not translate well in front of the live audience with Nicki’s ridiculous facial expressions and neither did the fact that she missed several choruses while “shaking her booty.” But, nothing tops the minute she started gracelessly grunting like a man that just woke up and not even to the beat; all in all this performance was easily one of Minaj’s worst.

Justin Beiber’s Spit Up Take

Nothing says “beliebe” in yourself like a nice pile of throw up on stage, right Justin? During his tour in 2012, the pop singer and teen heartthrob let it rip but it wasn’t vocals, unfortunately.

After making his way down the stairs on stage with his backup dancers, Justin suddenly turned around and started throwing up on stage while his music kept playing conveniently with his voice track accompanying it. The funniest part about this humiliating moment was one of the backup dancer’s faces that you see in the shot as he continues to perform while he watched Beiber “reliebe” himself. Sorry, we can’t help it!

Ashlee Simpson’s Infamous SNL Performance

No matter how much time passes, even while Ashlee Simpson isn’t performing on stage, no one will ever forget her major blunder on Saturday Night Live in 2004. Apparently “pieces” of her ideal performance were not put together during her “Pieces of Me” attempt over 10 years ago.

As if it could not get any more awkward, when her band continues to play the “wrong song,” Simpson decides to channel her inner leprechaun by flinging her legs back and forth in a jive motion to relieve some of the tension escaping the audience. Even 13 years later it’s still painful to watch.

Selena Gomez’s “Come And Get It” Mishap

Although it was not the biggest deal in the world, Ms. Selena forgot that she was singing to her already recorded “Come and Get It” track at the 2013 Jingle Ball concert.

Rocking a modern Vampira get up with a sleek, red one piece bodysuit laced with sparkling webs, the singer takes the mic away from her face to have a diva moment with the audience, all the while forgetting that her track will go on without her. During the same performance, Gomez let out an F-bomb at the end of one of her songs, so it wasn’t the greatest of her live performances, needless to say.

Katy Perry’s Flute Fluke

Considering this was one of the most embarrassing moments during her career, besides the time where the girl she let on stage practically physically assaulted her in a sensual way, Katy’s reaction to the flute fluke makes us somehow love her even more.

Attempting to fool the audience into thinking that she is delivering a flawless rendition of Jay Z’s “Big Pimpin'” on the recorder, Katy forgot to put the instruments against her lips at the very end of the song and completely put herself on blast. Screaming “oh no” to the audience while she busted out laughing, she owned up to it by saying “So I lied, I can’t play the flute.” Whether this made fans love her or hate her, this was a hysterical moment that Perry will never forget.

Britney’s VMA Remix Ruin

Anyone that has been a Britney fan since “Oops, I Did It Again” knows that the singer lip syncs often during her live performances. But following her fitness comeback, people were much more expecting of the singer during her 2016 VMA performance with G- Eazy.

Performing her most recent hit “Make Me,” with a surprising remix to “Me, Myself and I,” fans were quite vocal about judging her sensual exhibition with the up and coming rapper. At one point during the performance, she is neither dancing nor singing and most agree that she could have committed to the act beyond grabbing at the handsome rapper’s “area.”

Mariah Carey’s Jamaican Festival Flounder

It is no secret that something has gone wrong with Carey in recent years, but it really does something to when you see it live. It’s like magic itself never existed and it really makes us question whether the ultimate diva could even hit those notes back in the day.

And this time, performing late ’80s hit “Fantasy” at the Jamaican Jazz Festival, not only did Mariah look like she did not even want to be there, but she forgot the words to her own song multiple times. Even on a track that she was clearly lip syncing too! Times have changed and they are leaving the diva in the dust.

Lindsay Lohan’s “Rumors” Wreckage

Just like Duff and Simpson, train wreck Lohan was convinced that she was meant to be a performer back in the day. Singing her hit “Rumors” on Good Morning American in 2004, Lindsay pulls a Selena and forgets that she is singing in front of a live audience.

Looking back on the performance now it’s funny to see people even supporting the struggling actress, let alone loving her singing live, but we guess we didn’t know better at the time? Just like the rest of them, Lohan is caught in a moment where she is “feelin’ herself” and loses track of time and the track itself. Are we really that surprised, though? No.

Cheryl Cole’s “Call My Name” Embarrassment

Can anyone hear Cheryl during this performance, because we sure as heck are not able to hear her. In the most hushed live performance, that, in her defense, does actually display a serious on-stage work out with her backup dancers, Cheryl Cole is virtually sonically undetectable. You don’t believe us, though, we can tell.

Is whisper too strong of a word? In this case, no. Seriously, you would not even know what song she was performing at all if it wasn’t labeled “Call My Name” on the video. Speak up beautiful Cheryl! Especially when you are on stage your own music show!

50 Cent’s Infamous Jacket Removal

We knew that 50 Cent’s skills were magical, but we didn’t know that he could actually sing without moving his lips. Did you? Well, 50 ruined every young aspiring rapper’s dreams during the 2007 BET Awards when he was caught neglecting to lip sync to his recorded track while taking off his jacket.

Parading around the vicinity of the arena after the embarrassing and revealing moment, it just made the rest of his performance that much more awkward and disappointing. Lip syncing rap? Where will the line be drawn? It shouldn’t be that hard considering it’s your sole talent in this world, 50.

Mariah Drops the New Year Ball

Again making the list, who could pass up the opportunity to call out Mariah’s humiliating New Years Eve performance? If we could even call it that considering she didn’t even pretend to lip sync, barely even attempted to sing the entire time, treated it like a joke.

Beyond embarrassing is how we would describe this because we thought we saw the worst of her in the past with the infamous Christmas disaster last year and “Fantasy” train wreck we wrote about before. But, clearly, the singer has no intention to ever deliver the quality we would hope and expect from her after all these years.

Britney’s “Gimme More” Snore

Calling this a snore is generous, sorry Brit. Performing a song as energetic as “Gimme More,” requires much more than a disinterested look, sexy outfit, and lazy lip sync vocals. There is nothing worse than paying money to see a performer who does not want to be there or that doesn’t give you any reason to stay, and thank goodness Britney wasn’t the only artist to sing at the award show.

Surrounded by a human pool of backup dancers that seemed to hang on her every move, her disinterest in the performance could not have been more obvious or awkward for that matter. Maybe our expectations of Spears are too high after seeing her in sexy music videos like “Toxic” and “Radar,” but there is no question that this disappointed Brit fans everywhere.

Katy Perry’s “Roar”

Sticking to the “uproaring” theme of the song, Perry decided to come out riding a ginormous moving lion at the 2015 Super Bowl Halftime Show singing her pop hit “Roar.” Seemingly aflame thanks to her talented, or confused, wardrobe department, we will never forget the feeling of our jaws drop when the lion entered our screens.

As Katy gets into character dominating the mobile titan, she gets carried away with her “furocious” facial expressions and forgets to sing to the pre-recorded track. As if riding the MGM-mimic feline wasn’t embarrassing enough to book on one of the most televised nights of the year, her attempt to roar at the very end of the song just put the performance over the top in the worst way.

Beyoncé on the Run

Even Queen Bey has fallen victim to the exposure of lip syncing, at least twice now that we know of. Her first moment was caught during her On The Run tour with hubby Jay Z when she decided to spare a moment of her performance to touch a fan’s hand.

As the track continued on without Bey’s lips moving to it, seeing that they were busy tangled up in her flowing hair, Queen Bee was officially made to seem human. The second almost does not count since she came clean immediately about recording the “Star Spangled Banner” for Obama’s second inauguration day. Flawlessly sung nonetheless, people don’t care as much when Bey does it because we know that she can really sing.

We See Right Through You, Nicki

In one of her most hideous live stage performances, Nicki, or Marie Antoinette since she was going for that “caked” hairdo look, allowed us to see right through her terrible lip syncing.

Seeming a bit off-beat on Saturday Night Live performing “See Right Through Me,” she seemed to be laughing through the entire chorus which made it especially weird since this song is supposed to be so soulful and “deep.” Not to mention, a decent position of the performance is spent with her back to the audience so maybe there was a premeditated issue with her mic? Either way, we are cringing looking at what she considers fashion.

Madonna Just Wanted To Have Some Fun

The queen of just wanting to have fun made a serious error when she revealed that she forgot to sing a part of her lyrical Super Bowl masterpiece. But, in her defense, her entire performance required more choreography than we have seen live in years.

It’s actually quite remarkable that she is so resilient and clearly still in shape, but it does suck to find out that she wasn’t singing live. Everyone loves the queen of pop and always will, but we want to hear her for her. She really did rock those leather black boots, though, dang. Love you, Madonna.

Bon Jovi’s Momentary Lapse

Hey, it’s just Spanish TV, right? There is no doubt in the world that Jon Bon Jovi can sing, but he could make it a little less obvious that he’s lip syncing in this. As he made his way around the stage up to the mic, his pre-recorded track started to play without him to which he immediately grabbed it and started pretending to sing.

Knowing he had been caught without the mic in hand, he threw up his hand and made a “what are you going to do” gesture and laughed off the blunder with ease. It’s not to say that the audience wasn’t disappointed when seeing this, but Bon Jovi is a true artist and pretended to sing until the end.

Scotty McCreery’s Trouble

At this point, it must be tradition to botch the Macy’s Day Parade like Tisdale and so many before her, but young country music sensation and American Idol winner Scott McCreery’s awkward start to the parade “The Trouble With Girls” serenade is painful to watch.

Completely unaware that his song was about to start, he waved to the crowd with joy until he started to hear his own pre-recorded track and jumped on the mic. As if it’s hard enough to believe that such a deep and powerful voice can come from such a small young man, he’s not making it any easier on himself with stunts like this.