Music stars forgetting the lyrics to one of the most popular songs? A rapper who can't
throw a baseball? Hitting an audience member in the head? Trust us, this is just the start
of how awkward things can get when celebs are preforming live.
During the 2007 Miss Teen USA Pageant, Lauren Caitlin Upton was representing South Carolina,
when she was asked this seemingly straightforward question by actress Aimee Teegarden:
"Recent polls have shown a fifth of Americans can't locate the U.S. on a world map. Why
do you think this is?"
Upton's answer can best be described as the exact opposite of what happened to Will Ferrell's
character in Old School when he blacked out during a debate and accidentally delivered
a perfectly coherent response. But even that description pales in comparison to Upton's
actual words. Her composure went off the rails immediately, as she began,
"I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because some people out
there in our nation don't have maps."
She then started naming countries, but her brain struggled to put anything together coherently.
"I believe that our education, like such as in South Africa and, uh, the Iraq, everywhere
like such as and."
At this point, it was clear that redemption was nowhere in sight, but Upton kept going
until her time ran out.
"And the U.S. should help the U.S., or should help South Africa, and should help the Iraq
and the Asian countries so we will be able to build up our future."
Special mention must also be made of host Mario Lopez, who somehow managed to not be
doubled over with laughter, as he managed to say,
"Thank you very much, South Carolina."
Since her pageant days, Upton has competed on The Amazing Race in 2010 and has also gotten
into selling real estate.
National anthem fails are a fairly common occurrence. "The Star-Spangled Banner" is
performed at the beginning of a lot of major events, after all. In the case of Michael
Bolton, aka everyone's mom's absolute favorite singer, he took it to another whole level
while performing during the 2003 ALCS at Boston's Fenway Park. It can be easy to forget some
of the words to this particular song. For example, what even are "ramparts" anyway?
Lots of singers have slipped up, but Bolton actually stopped singing mid-verse to look
at the lyrics he apparently wrote on the palm of his hand. The New York Times sports section
even reported on his "long pause" when recapping the game.
The crowd instantly turned on him, but Bolton, like the golden-throated professional he is,
managed to win them back with a powerful finish. We must also give a shout-out to the stone-faced
honor guardsman behind Bolton who cracked a smile after the singer resorted to his high
school exam cheating tactics. We would've also accepted an eye roll, strong side eye,
jaw drop, or any combination thereof.
Even after Michael Bolton caught flack for putting a lyrical crib sheet on his hand,
country star Luke Bryan decided to do the very same thing during his own performance
of the national anthem. We're not really sure if these guys thought the dozens of cameras
or tens of thousands of fans would somehow miss them pausing and squinting down at their
hands. But exactly the opposite happened, as the cameras very much caught Bryan sneaking
a peek, as he was singing during a nationally televised sporting event, after all.
This all went down at the 2012 MLB All-Star Game, and Bryan quickly found himself on the
wrong side of Twitter, with one user calling his performance an "epic fail" and declaring,
"He needs to learn respect & remember the lyrics!"
Bryan replied by apologizing and copping to the ruse. However, he also claimed that he
was looking down to check his watch because he knew that the stealth bomber was going
to fly over about two minutes in and he had started a little late. We didn't realize just
how much multitasking Bryan was pulling off, but no matter how he tried to justify it,
it wasn't a good look.
Director Michael Bay is responsible for unleashing the Transformers movies onto the world, so
it was only a matter of time before a piece of technology would rise up against him. Okay,
that's obviously a bit of an exaggeration, but the fact remains that a teleprompter derailed
the explosion king's live presentation for Samsung during the 2014 Consumer Electronics
Show in Las Vegas.
Almost as soon as Bay walked out on stage, he was immediately distressed. He stammered
a bit, wrung his hands, and even admitted that there were technical problems with the
prompter before announcing that he was just going to wing it. But then seconds later,
he apologized and fled the presentation.
"I try to take people on an emotional ride, and umm…"
"The curve?"
Bay later addressed the snafu on his blog, writing,
"Wow! I just embarrassed myself at CES [...] I got so excited to talk, that I skipped over
the Exec VP’s intro line and then the teleprompter got lost. Then the prompter went up and down
– then I walked off. I guess live shows aren’t my thing."
It seems that Michael Bay discovered that when it comes to public speaking, there is
more than meets the eye.
"Let's thank Michael Bay for joining us."
There have been lots of awful first pitches thrown out at baseball games. We're not necessarily
going to say that rapper 50 Cent's was the worst, but it has to be pretty close to the
bottom. He's one of the most successful hip-hop artists of all time, and based on this moment,
he probably shouldn't quit his day job anytime soon.
It was May 27, 2014 at a New York Mets game at Citi Field. 50 actually had a decent wind-up,
but then something went horribly wrong and he threw the ball so wildly askew that the
catcher didn't even attempt to catch it. "Just a bit outside," the announcer declared, tongue
firmly in cheek. 50 was at least a go-od sport about it, later jokingly explaining during
a Reddit AMA,
"I have a skeletal muscle injury on my left shoulder from excessive masturbation so take
it easy lol."
We're going to assume he's joking about that. We've heard that self-pleasure can cause problems
in other parts of your life, but we always assumed that those were myths. Either way,
50 is better off remaining in da club and out of da bullpen.
Ever since the success of her 2014 debut single "All About That Bass," Meghan Trainor has
won over legions of fans who love her throwback doo-wop and soul style. But like everyone
else on this list, she's had to endure some bumps along the way. In 2014, she delivered
a pretty epic performance of her song "Me Too" on The Tonight Show, which included a
decent amount of choreography in a pair of sky-high platform heels. But then she somehow
got tripped up on her own feet and took a spill in front of the live studio audience.
It happened just as host Jimmy Fallon was walking out to meet her and as she was putting
the mic back on the stand, so her surprised yelp and his uncontrollable laughter only
amplified the moment.
Trainor returned to the show on a later occasion and explained that they even reshot the entire
song, but she chose to let them air the one where she fell anyway, because it was a better
performance.
"I'm gonna fall eventually one day, so let this be it."
That's spoken like a true entertainer right there, and we're glad to see her pick herself
back up so quickly.
Any regular listener of Howard Stern's radio show knows the story well: Producer-slash-punching
bag Gary "Baba Booey" Dell'Abate threw out the first pitch at a 2009 New York Mets game.
It was a truly terrible hurl that landed nowhere near the catcher, and it went down in baseball
history as one of the all-time worst first pitches.
The following year, Dell'Abate visited Jimmy Kimmel Live! and was offered an unexpected
shot at redemption. Host Jimmy Kimmel handed him a baseball and glove, while Kimmel himself
put on a catcher's mitt and offered him a second chance to demonstrate his pitching
prowess. Taking his place onstage, Dell'Abate threw the ball, which veered wildly off course
and was caught by an audience member. Retrieving the ball, Kimmel offered him yet another chance,
resulting in Dell'Abate throwing a grounder that bounced on the stage, prompting Kimmel
to give him yet again one more chance.
Alas, his third and final attempt was not the charm, as it once again swerved into the
audience. And this time it struck a woman in the head. Walking back to the interview
chairs, Dell'Abate forcefully threw the glove back at Kimmel, his chagrined expression serving
as an open book replete with the knowledge of the brutal mockery awaiting his return
to the Stern Show studio.
During a 2004 Canada versus USA exhibition hockey game, Canadian singer Caroline Marcil
delivered what was probably the worst performance of her life on what was likely one of the
worst days of her life. She got exactly two lines into her rendition of the American national
anthem before going blank, saying "sorry," and then doing it again. After stalling on
the "What so proudly" line a second time, she apologized again and exited the ice. But
there's still more, as she quickly returned with a piece of paper in hand that presumably
contained the lyrics. Alas, she managed to then step onto the ice and fall flat on her
back.
The only way this could've been a more comprehensive blooper would've been if a piece of her clothing
had also fallen off, which mercifully did not happen. Good Morning America was nice
enough to invite Marcil on the show for a shot at redemption, which she reportedly nailed.
That clip didn't go anywhere near as viral as her original performance, though. Go figure.
Apparently taking a page from Caroline Marcil's playbook, Canadian singer Alexis Normand delivered
her own embarrassing live rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner" before a 2013 Memorial
Cup hockey game in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Normand actually has a fantastic voice, and
she started out strong, but then she quickly forgot pretty much everything between "through
the perilous fight" and "home of the brave," which is literally half the song. In place
of the lyrics, she did a sort of hybrid mumble-humming until the crowd took over and finished the
song for her. The best part is probably how she then transitioned directly from that trainwreck
into "O Canada," effortlessly slipping back and forth between English and French and absolutely
nailing it.
In an interview afterwards, Normand claimed that she was called to do the gig the morning
of, and that originally she was only tapped to perform the bilingual version of Canada's
national anthem, which makes perfect sense in hindsight. The silver lining is that despite
offending a lot of Americans, the disastrous performance actually led to lots of people
discovering her music online. So we guess that makes her the Celine Dion of bungled
national anthem performances.
Check out one of our newest videos right here! Plus, even more List videos about your favorite
stars are coming soon. Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss
a single one.