Here Are The 5 Worst Fake Music Performances

For ages, the air guitar has been a staple technique for rock and roll fans, but who knew that it was actually a staple for rock stars as well?

During the Super Bowl halftime show, Bruno Mars invited The Red Hot Chili Peppers to perform on stage with him. The band played “Give It Away” and rocked out to their instruments like no one else. Flea and Josh strummed until their strings almost popped and Chad banged the drums until his arms nearly fell off.

What Happened On The Super Bowl With The Red Hot Chilli Peppers?

Everyone went crazy and jumped around to the classic tune in their living rooms (you know you did), but then pictures of the event hit the web. After sans and the media took a closer look at the photos, they noticed that there were no sound wires connected to either the bass or the guitar of the band. WHAT?!

After rumors and claims circulating on social media and on publications, Flea, bassist for the band broke it down in a letter posted on the band’s site.

“When we were asked by the NFL and Bruno to play our song Give It Away at the Super Bowl, it was made clear to us that the vocals would be live, but the bass, drums, and guitar would be pre-recorded,” he said. “I understand the NFL’s stance on this, given they only have a few minutes to set up the stage … There was not any room for argument on this, the NFL does not want to risk their show being botched by bad sound, period.”

The Red Hot Chili Peppers Speak

The Red Hot Chili Peppers stance on any sort of miming has been that we will absolutely not do it,” he added. “So, when this Super Bowl gig concept came up, there was a lot of confusion amongst us … but we eventually decided, it was a surreal-like, once-in-a-lifetime crazy thing to do and we would just have fun and do it.”

So basically everyone should get over it because the band members, who are now in their early 50s (except for Josh Klinghoffer who is 34), at least looked fantastic and are rocking out with the same energy that they did 30 years ago. Not to mention, that there are other live performances in musical history that we should actually be complaining about, as a matter of fact here are five of the worst. Enjoy!

Here Are The 5 Worst Fake Music Performances

5. Mariah Carey

Mariah Carey is no stranger to lip-syncing controversies, but her 2008 Good Morning America set reached a whole different level of bad.  During the performance of her single “Touch My Body,” the singer might have been distracted by the hunks in the front of the stage. She completely missed the beginning of the song and had to turn her face back in order to catch up.

4. Ashlee Simpson

Let’s take it back to 2004 to one of the funniest incidents in lip-syncing history, ironically enough, it happened right on SNL.  When Ashlee Simpson was set to perform her new song “Pieces of Me” on the show, her microphone cut off before she even had a chance to sing. The band and her band were left appearing lost on stage as the track abruptly stopped. Luckily, the young singer pulled it together and gave the crowd an unexpected performance … with her feet.

3. Patti LaBelle

Do you want to complain about Super Bowl performances? Take a look at this 1995 Disney disaster only made worst by Patti LaBelle. It was already bad enough that Disney tried to make the show into a remake of Indi Jones, but then LaBelle gets on stage and forgets to start with the music after every break. Thankfully Tony Bennett was a bit better at pretending to sing than LaBelle.

2. Selena Gomez

At the 2013 Jingle Ball fans got to see another side of sweet Selena. Before starting her hit single “Come and Get It” the singer’s inner earpiece was not working so she tried to angrily hand signal the people taking care of sound, but all to no avail. Before starting the song she pulls out the piece and attempts to do the show without it, which didn’t work too well. Selena performed lip-syncing, and got so frustrated when the lights went off after one of her songs that she said loudly: “What the fuck!” Her microphone was still on and everyone in the back heard what she said. This quickly went to social media.

1. Milli Vanilli

And finally, the fathers of lip-syncing. Whenever we think of fake performances this 80s duo comes to mind because not only did they fool everyone into thinking they were real singers, they had the worst downfall of them all. During a 1989 live MTV performance, they were performing “Girl You Know It’s True,” when the track began to skip over and over. They freaked out and ran off stage and that was pretty much it for their fake singing career.